If you have a pension, the decision of how and when to take the payments is an important one – and, probably irrevocable. Maybe you have the choice to take the entire amount as a lump sum; if so, is that option potentially better than a stream of monthly payments?

And then there are your other choices. For married people who want to get as much as they can now, are they sacrificing the financial stability of their surviving spouse down the road? Possibly. But there may also be a solution to that dilemma.

On this week’s episode of Managing Your Financial Future, podcast host Johnny Dean and “Professor” Rick Plum, CFP® talk about what you need to consider before you make this “one-and-done" pension decision.