Retirement Planning Education, with Andy Panko

Andy chats with a real person (not an advisor) doing their own retirement planning. In this episode, Andy talks with Jill. They talk about a wide array of retirement planning topics such as leaving the workforce relatively early, keeping expenses moderate yet still doing and enjoying a lot in life, what she wishes she would have known and done sooner for her retirement planning, and more!
 
 Links in this episode:

• T...

Andy and Kevin Thompson from 9i Capital Group share their thoughts on a handful of current events and "hot topics" relating to retirement planning. Specifically, they talk about: 

• Thoughts on how the One Big Beautiful Bill Act complicates 2025 tax planning. And in particular whether people 65 or older should try to keep their income low to get some or all of the extra $6k bonus deduction ( 7:41 )
• What's up with the...

Listener Q&A where Andy talks about: 

• A correction on something incorrect I said last week regarding deciding which spouse's pre-tax account to distribute or convert from ( 3:28 )
• Pros and cons of using a single total global stock market fund vs multiple other funds such as just US and just international  ( 8:17 )
• What's in the calculation for Modified Adjusted Gross Income ("MAGI") for purposes of determin...

Listener Q&A where Andy talks about: 

• Starting Social Security benefits early so your minor children can claim dependent benefits, and how the earnings test can come into play if you're still working ( 5:53 )
• Social Security spousal benefits, and what happens when the lower earning spouse starts their own benefit early at a reduced amount, then later switches to spousal benefits ( 10:35)
• Social Security survivor benefits ...

Andy chats with a real person (not an advisor), Beth Pinsker, a columnist for MarketWatch, about her new book, My Mother's Money, A Guide to Financial Caregiving.

In the book, Beth details her personal experience in becoming her mother's financial caregiver, both during her mother's end of life and health decline, and beyond her mother's death and through the estate administration process.

The book provides tons o...

Andy and Ben Brandt from Retirement Starts Today share their thoughts on a handful of current events and "hot topics" relating to retirement planning. Specifically, they talk about: 

• Thoughts on Monte Carlo analysis; the good, the bad, the ugly ( 9:10 )
• Why all retirement plans are ultimately wrong as soon as they're made, and need to be agile and adaptable ( 13:30 )
• How to try to help people get comfortable spendin...

Andy shares some year-end tax planning tips, deadlines and things to consider around the following topics:

• contributions to qualified accounts
• Roth conversions
• distributions from qualified accounts
• Required Minimum Distributions ("RMDs")
• charitable donations
• Qualified Charitable Distributions ("QCDs") from IRAs
• gifting
• tax loss and tax gain harvesting
• doing a projected/pro forma 2025 tax return

Links in this...

In this special guest host episode, Brian Tegtmeyer from Truly Prosper Financial  Planning talks about how to address and plan for the non-financial aspects of retirement such as intellectual engagement, purposeful activities, health and fitness, relationships and more. And he also shares a quick exercise to do to see how you can measure your satisfaction in these various areas, and how to help intentionally address the ones you fe...

Listener Q&A where Andy talks about: 

• The CAPE (Cyclically Adjusted Price to Earnings) Ratio as a measure of whether the US stock market is overvalued or undervalued, and drawbacks with the CAPE Ratio ( 4:32 )
• The meaning of Benjamin Graham's quote "In the short run, the stock market is a voting machine, but in the long run it's a weighing machine" ( 17:07 )
• Helping clients overcome their frugality habits t...

Andy chats with a real person (not an advisor) doing their own retirement planning. In this episode, Andy talks with Jackie Cummings Koski.

But Jackie isn't just the typical "real" person doing her own retirement planning. She went the F.I.R.E. (Financial Independence Retire Early) route and left her corporate job in her late-40s. She's since expanded on the financial knowledge she gained during her F.I...

Andy chats with fellow retirement planner Allen Mueller, CFA, CFP® from 7 Saturdays Financial. In this episode they talk about a wide array of retirement planning topics such as tax planning, distribution strategies, investing, annuities, long-term care insurance, how to know when people have enough to retire, what consumers often overlook in retirement planning and much more!

Links in this episode:

• Allen's advisor...

Andy shares his views on the few different ways in which people in the financial services/financial advisory industry can receive revenue:

• Commission-only
• Fee-only
• Hybrid or fee-based

Links in this episode:

• My article in Rethinking65 - How Much Are Your Services Worth?

• Tenon Financial monthly e-newsletter - Retirement Planning Insights
• Facebook group - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Taxes in Retire...

Listener Q&A where Andy talks about: 

• How to calculate how much money you can gift or donate in retirement without running out ( 8:47 )
• Does the five-year rule met by a previous Roth IRA carry over to a new Roth IRA ( 17:03 )
• Is it better to draw down an inherited IRA and delay starting Social Security, or vice versa ( 19:39 )
• Can distributions from an annuity in a 403(b) be used to meet Required Minimum Distributions in IRAs (...

Andy chats with a real person (not an advisor) doing their own retirement planning. In this episode, Andy talks with Scott. They talk about a wide array of retirement planning topics such as leaving the workforce early than planned during COVID and later reengaging in part-time work to have social interaction, managing income for purposes of Affordable Care Act premium tax credits, how life and financial plans always change even in...

Andy and Justin Pritchard from Approach Financial share their thoughts on a handful of current events and "hot topics" relating to retirement planning. Specifically, they talk about: 

• The pros and cons of target date funds ( 11:05 )
• Their thoughts on the recent presidential executive order allowing private and illiquid investments to be offered inside 401(k) plans ( 23:26 )
• Can you make up for insufficient retirement sav...

Andy summarizes some helpful IRS tools and interesting IRS and tax return-related information after his recent attendance at the annual IRS Tax Forum/conference

Links in this episode:

• IRS Taxpayer Online Account - here
• ID.me - here
• IRS IP PINs - here
• IRS Document Upload Tool - here
• IRS Interactive Tax Assistant - here

• Tenon Financial monthly e-newsletter - Retirement Planning Insights
• Facebook group - Retirement Plan...

Listener Q&A where Andy talks about: 

• How to account on your tax return for the basis in inherited IRAs ( 7:00 )
• Is having large Required Minimum Distributions ("RMDs") really a bad thing ( 12:04 )
• Is there any merit to using a break-even analysis to help decide when to start Social Security ( 15:59 )
• When does it make sense for someone to consider working with a financial advisor ( 18:14 )
• Are Roth contribution and co...

In this slight twist to the "real" person episode format, Andy doesn't interview a real person but instead addresses the most common retirement planning questions he gets from "real" people. The questions addressed are:

• Do I have enough to retire?
• When can I retire?
• How much cash should I have?
• When should I start my Social Security?
• How do I get money out of my portfolio?
• How do I pay taxes?
• Should I do ...

Andy and Mark Rosinski from Dunes Financial share their thoughts on a handful of current events and "hot topics" relating to retirement planning. Specifically, they talk about: 

• Thoughts on common withdrawal strategies and what they use in each of their firms ( 12:04 )
• The level of impact of some of the changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act ( 30:51 )
• Things to consider when doing rule of 55 distributions from your em...