Retirement Planning Education, with Andy Panko

Andy discusses the ins and outs of Trump accounts:

• Legislative background
• How to open them
• How to fund them
• Investing inside them
• How to distribute from them
• Reporting around them
• Taxation of them
• The two potential worthwhile use cases I see for them

Links in this episode:

• My in-depth write-up of Trump accounts, including all of the links I referenced in the show - Trump accounts: what they are, how they work, and use cases

Andy summarizes the recent 2026 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 2026 Social Security trustees report - here
• Summary of the recently proposed PROMISE Act - here
• The recent episode of Inspired Money with me, Wade Pfau and Mary Beth Franklin discussing all ...

Listener Q&A where Andy talks about: 

• Should Roth conversion analysis look at marginal or effective tax rates ( 4:21 )
• His thoughts on why qualified Roth account distributions might eventually be included in certain measures of Modified Adjusted Gross Income ("MAGI") ( 8:28 )
• What other MAGIs are potentially impacted and should be watched out for with doing Roth conversions ( 12:38 )
• The difference between "directionality"...

Andy chats with a real person (not an advisor) doing their own retirement planning. In this episode, Andy talks with Tom. They talk about a wide array of retirement planning topics such as when he started getting serious about planning for retirement, why he went back to work as a consultant a year after retiring, why their plans of relocating to a different state have since changed, what his Roth conversion plan is, and more!

&...

Andy and Tanya Nichols from Retire Agile share their thoughts on a handful of current events and "hot topics" relating to retirement planning. Specifically, they talk about:

• How we help clients get over the hurdle of actually spending their savings ( 10:27 )
• Their thoughts on having mortgages in retirement ( 22:27 )
• What they think is likely to happen to the Social Security system, and what changes might be made in advance of the ...

Andy discusses common tax planning mistakes often made in retirement. Additionally, he shares insight on how to attempt to prevent such mistakes, and/or fix them after they've happened

The 8 common mistakes are:

• Not paying enough income tax timely throughout the year, and having underpayment penalties as a result
• Missing or not taking the correct amount of Required Minimum Distributions (“RMDs”)
• Having improper benefici...

Listener Q&A where Andy talks about: 

• Are tax return amendments needed if info from a 1099-R was left out but doesn't impact the return's gross or taxable income ( 4:08 )
• What are the pros and cons of using average cost basis tracking for mutual funds ( 8:36 )
• Tax implications of nonqualified annuities and surrendering vs annuitizing it ( 13:55 )
• Is there a more optimized way to pay taxes on in-plan Roth conversions as opp...

Andy and Mark Ross from the Rock Retirement Club talk about Mark's journey in retiring to become an "encorepreneur" by starting a coaching business, and spending more time creating art. They also address some of standard "real person" planning questions such healthcare before Medicare, Social Security claiming, the emotional transition to leaving the corporate world, and more!

 
 Links in this episode:

• Mark's coa...

Andy and Adam Grossman from Mayport Wealth Management share their thoughts on a handful of current events and "hot topics" relating to retirement planning. Specifically, they talk about:

• How to analyze an existing annuity and whether to keep it, exchange it to another annuity or surrender it ( 11:44 )
• The different things to factor in when considering retiring to a different state ( 23:18 )
• What to do with your investments regardi...

Andy discusses the various areas of consideration and analysis that go into deciding whether Roth conversions might potentially be of value. Furthermore, he explains why it's impossible to actually quantify how much tax savings, if any, Roth conversions might potentially create. And what to consider when figuring out how much to convert in any given year

Links in this episode:

• Vanguard's "Break Even Tax Rate" Roth conversion anal...

Listener Q&A where Andy talks about: 

• Claiming your own Social Security benefit at 62 and then later switching to collecting a spousal benefit after your spouse starts their benefit ( 5:45 )
• It's said by comedians that there are just a small number of basic jokes and everything else is just a variation. The same could be said about financial planning, where there are just a few core topics, and everything else is a varia...

Andy chats with a real person (not an advisor) doing their own retirement planning. In this episode, Andy talks with Daryl. They talk about a wide array of retirement planning topics such as when he started getting serious about planning for retirement, how he's gotten comfortable spending from his nest egg, what he's doing for health insurance since he's not yet on Medicare and what his claim to fame was with being on television.....

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

• Portfolio withdrawal strategies for addressing sequence of returns risk ( 10:44 )
• Using financial planning software and dealing with its limitations ( 26:25 )
• Thoughts on Medicare surcharges known as IRMAA, and how much they should be factored into tax plannin...

Andy discusses the different options for holding cash and cash equivalents (i.e. things that are principal protected, offer some amount of interest and are highly liquid and readily accessible)

The options are:

• Physical bills and coins
• Checking accounts
• Savings accounts
• Certificates of Deposit, or CD's
• Money Market Mutual Funds or Exchanged Traded Funds that invest like Money Market Mutual Funds
• Multi-Year Guaranteed Annuities, or MYG...

Guest host Mark Rosinski, CFP®, CPA, RICP®, from Dunes Financial does a "hot topics" episode where he talks about:

• US Government obligation interest and what to look for on your consolidated 1099 to make sure you properly reflect the state income tax treatment on your tax return ( 9:06 )
• Understanding and tracking after-tax "basis" in inherited IRAs ( 20:14 )
• Required Minimum Distribution ("RMD") aggregation rules ( 25:03 )
• Potenti...

Listener Q&A where Andy talks about: 

• Correction to a previous Q&A episode regarding taxation of lump sum Social Security benefits paid in one year for benefits attributable to the prior year ( 9:54 )
• His thoughts on artificial intelligence and how it can impact the financial planning industry ( 13:00 )
• The "withhold and replace" method of paying taxes when doing IRA distributions or conversions and using the indirect...

Special edition 200th episode where Andy shares some of his observations about the financial services industry from his time working in it:

• Creating good and consistent content is hard to do and do well ( 9:32 )
• A lot of content is just clickbait to get your views and/or advertise something to you, and not actually good content ( 13:15 )
• Personal finance is a lot more personal than it is finance ( 17:40 )
• The vast majority (all?) o...

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

• Given current world affairs and their impacts on the markets, should you do anything different with your investments, or are there any other planning opportunities to consider ( 14:20 )
• Tax updates for 2026, and some recap of tax takeaways ...

Andy discusses the pros and cons of taking a lump sum vs taking monthly payments for your pension, questions to ask yourself to help figure out if it might be better for you to take one vs the other, and other considerations to keep in mind in making the decision

Links in this episode:

• www.ImmediateAnnuities.com
• www.PBGC.gov
• Tenon Financial's April 2026 newsletter - Whether to take a pension as a lump sum or monthly payments