Retirement Planning Education, with Andy Panko

Retirement Planning Education, with Andy Panko

Teaching you all about IRAs & Roth IRAs, employer retirement plans, taxes, Social Security, Medicare, portfolio withdrawal strategies, annuities, estate planning and much more!

Episodes

October 16, 2025 117 mins

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...

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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...
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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:


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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 (...
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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...

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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...
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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


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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...
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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 ...
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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...
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Andy summarizes the recent 2025 annual Social Security trustees report, including what it would actually mean if the system's trust fund were to deplete, and what changes can be made to ensure that doesn't happen


Links in this episode:

  • The full 2025 Social Security trustees report - here 
  • My company's August 1 2025 newsletter summarizing the 2025 Social Security trustees report - here
    • The newsletter contains...
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In this special guest host episode, Larry Pershing from Optimum Retirement Planning talks about how to reduce and manage concentrated holdings in your investment portfolio. Particular emphasis is given to the tax implications and tax management of trying to reduce highly appreciated positions in normal brokerage accounts


Links in this episode:


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Listener Q&A where Andy talks about: 

  • Why you know the return you'll ultimately realize if you hold a bond to maturity, but can't know the return you'll eventually realize if you instead hold a bond fund ( 7:13 )
  • A commonsense intuitive answer why bond prices decrease (increase) when interest rates increase (decrease) ( 9:56 )
  • His thoughts on holding only fixed maturity instruments such as CDs, bullet ETFs, indi...
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Andy chats with a real person (not an advisor) doing their own retirement planning. In this episode, Andy talks with Jan. They talk about a wide array of retirement planning topics such as leaving the workforce early due to family caregiving needs, how health changes have impacted retirement, how to distribute money from an IRA particularly when looking to do Qualified Charitable Distributions, and more!
 
 Links in this ep...

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Andy and Lauren Hunt from Daybreak Wealth share their thoughts on a handful of current events and "hot topics" relating to retirement planning. Specifically, they talk about: 

  • Their thoughts on the takeaways from 2025 annual Social Security Trustees report ( 7:17 )
  • Some of provisions in the pending One Big Beautiful Bill Act that are likely to impact most people's tax returns ( 16:12 )
  • Whether or not to get a loan o...
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In the SPECIAL EDITION episode, Andy summarizes the key provision of the recently signed into law One Big Beautiful Act that are most likely to impact you and your tax return. The topics summarized are:

  • Permanency of the current federal tax rates
  • Permanency, and a slight increase, to the current standard deduction amounts
  • A new temporary personal exemption up to $6,000 per person 65 or older
  • Permanency, and a slight increase, to th...
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Andy discusses the main ways in which investment custodians like Scwhab, Vanguard and Fidelity make money (even when you often don't outright directly pay them anything...)


Links in this episode:


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Listener Q&A where Andy talks about: 

  • A short explanation of bonds and "the bond market" ( 2:48 )
  • Are actively managed bond funds better than passive bond funds ( 21:53 )
  • What are the pros and cons of making all of the year's estimated tax payments in the first quarter ( 30:30 )
  • Why insurers don't offer a long term care product with a 2-3 years elimination period or deductible to cover just LTC needs beyond ...
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Andy chats with three different "real" people to discuss how they handled the non-financial/emotional transition from working to retirement, and what they do now to provide a sense of fulfillment, meaning and purpose and in retirement


Links in this episode:


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Andy and Larry Pershing from Optimum Retirement Planning share their thoughts on a handful of current events and "hot topics" relating to retirement planning. Specifically, they talk about: 

  • The pending "Big Beautiful Bill" tax bill that recently was approved by the House; what's in it, what's not in it, practical planning considerations around it, etc. ( 8:12 )
  • Potential concerns about US debt US go...
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