Ready For Retirement

Is a Roth IRA really better than a traditional IRA? The truth is... it depends on your tax situation. In this video, you’ll learn why your current tax bracket versus your retirement tax bracket should drive your decision, not blanket advice.

Most retirees pay less in taxes later in life, which creates opportunities for smart strategies like tax arbitrage and Roth conversions. By contributing to traditional accounts during ...

Financial planning’s most famous guideline just got an upgrade. In this exclusive interview, James speaks with Bill Bengen—the MIT-trained engineer turned financial advisor who created the 4% rule—about his updated research and what it means for retirees today.

Bengen reveals that diversification alone can raise the safe withdrawal rate to 4.7%, and under certain market conditions, retirees may be able to withdraw 6%, 7%, or even 8%...

What makes you trust someone with your financial future? In this episode of Root Talks, James and Ari unpack the powerful role of intuition in building lasting relationships with financial advisors, business partners, and even loved ones.

They explain how what we call a gut feeling is actually condensed pattern recognition, your brain quietly scanning countless experiences to guide your decisions before you can put words to it. This...

Navigating market volatility in retirement requires more than the traditional 60/40 portfolio. This episode explores three critical risks every retiree must address to maintain financial security through changing market conditions.

The first is sequence of return risk, which can devastate a portfolio if early withdrawals align with a downturn. Listen to James share his concept of "Root Reserves", setting aside five years o...

Retirement planning is often framed as a numbers game where you can get lost in focusing on maximizing your 401(k), minimizing taxes, and chasing investment returns. But financial security alone doesn’t guarantee fulfillment. The bigger challenge many retirees face is psychological, not financial.

The transition from decades of work into retirement often sparks an identity crisis. A career provides structure, purpose, and community—...

A retirement story that challenges everything you thought you knew about what’s possible in your golden years.

Meet Michael and Lisa: a couple in their early sixties with $2 million saved who are worried about running out of money too soon. Their initial plan looked bleak, but three simple adjustments reshaped their retirement outlook without working longer or cutting back on their lifestyle dreams.

The shift came from questioning as...

The hidden complexities of Social Security could cost retirees tens of thousands over a lifetime. While it may seem like a simple income source, the right strategy can dramatically improve your financial security.

Claiming isn’t one-size-fits-all. Protecting a spouse, guarding against longevity risk, or maximizing investments each call for a different approach. Traditional breakeven analyses often miss key factors like the opportuni...

Most retirement plans focus on money alone, but the equation is incomplete without factoring in healthspan. Lifespan is how long someone lives, but healthspan is the number of years spent in good physical and cognitive health. The gap is significant. The average American lives to 77, but healthspan often ends around 66.

This creates a retirement paradox. Many professionals work into their mid-60s to maximize Social Security and reti...

What happens when growth changes a company?

We’ve all seen it—your favorite restaurant expands and suddenly the quality slips. The connection feels lost. But does growing always mean losing what made you special?

At Root, we think about growth differently. We use “anti-goals” to define what we never want to become, with checks in place so expansion never overshadows client experience or team wellbeing. That’s why we recently lowered ...

When one spouse passes away, the survivor often faces what is known as the “widow’s tax.” It is not an official IRS tax, but the impact of moving from married to single tax brackets. A couple earning $120,000 in the 12 percent bracket can see the surviving spouse pushed into the 24 percent bracket with the same income. This tax bracket compression happens at the most vulnerable time.

Watch as James outlines three strategies that hel...

Redefining retirement with purpose and adventure

John and Bev retired at 55, sold almost everything, and traded their dream home for two backpacks, golf clubs, and a life of full-time travel. Since then, they have visited 107 countries and all 50 states as “The Retirement Travelers.”

Their journey began during COVID, when cancelled plans led to an Airstream trip across America’s national parks. Living in 220 square feet showed them h...

What if the “financially optimal” choice doesn’t actually lead to your best life?

This conversation explores the balance between optimizing money and optimizing happiness. We break down the Five Types of Wealth—financial, time, social, mental, and physical—and show why sometimes the decision that looks inefficient on paper may actually be the smartest for your overall wellbeing.

From real-life examples like paying...

When the numbers say you can retire, but you can’t step away. 

Many people with the financial means to retire keep working, telling themselves one more year will make the plan even stronger. But at what cost to your time, health, and relationships?

This episode explores “the good pickle,” where chasing more financial security comes at the expense of other forms of wealth like time freedom, social connection, and well-being. You will ...

Thinking about retiring early and worried it might hurt your Social Security benefits? Good news: it probably won’t.

A common myth is that you have to work into your 60s to get the most out of Social Security. In reality, benefits are based on your 35 highest-earning years—not the age you stop working.

This episode breaks down how benefits are calculated, what “bend points” are, and why even part-time income in semi-retirement can ma...

Money conversations fall short when only one spouse is at the table. It’s easy to treat financial planning like another household task to divide and conquer, but unlike errands, your financial plan is the blueprint for your shared future.

What we’ve seen time and again is that the person sleeping next to you often holds the key to your blind spots. They know what stresses you out, what brings you joy, and what dreams you’ve stopped ...

Forget the myth that you need a million dollars to retire. What really matters is creating sustainable cash flow—not hitting a magic number.

Retirement success comes down to three things: your expenses, guaranteed income (like Social Security or pensions), and the gap your savings need to fill. For some, that gap is smaller than expected.

Real examples—like a couple living comfortably on $300K in investments—show it’s possible. Small...

Can a children’s poem change how you think about retirement? In this episode, we unpack the hidden wisdom in Shel Silverstein’s “Smart” and how it reflects a common retirement planning mistake: trading time and well-being for wealth you may no longer need.

We explore why it’s hard to step away from accumulation mode—even after reaching financial independence—and how this mindset can cost you more than it earns. The real risk isn’t r...

The hardest part of retirement isn’t always financial, it’s psychological. For many, stepping away from work isn’t a light switch, but a dimmer that adjusts over time. This episode of Root Talks unpacks what makes the retirement decision so complex, especially for high-achieving professionals whose identity is tied to their careers.

Through a real-life case study, the conversation explores how severance offers can become powerful “t...

Even with a strong financial plan in place, many professionals find themselves hesitating at the retirement decision—stuck in the cycle of “just one more year.” The numbers say it’s possible, yet the fear of leaving behind a paycheck, a title, or a sense of purpose keeps them working long past the point of “enough.”

This episode reframes retirement readiness through the lens of the five dimensions of wealth: financial, time, physica...