The Rob Berger Show

In today's video, we discuss how Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount (IRMAA) payments are calculated and 8 strategies to reduce or even eliminate the payments.

Resources from the Video
Reddit Forum Post: / strategies_to_reduce_irmaa_costs_medicare 
2025 IRMAA Brackets: https://www.humana.com/medicare/medic...
IRMAA MAGI Calculation: https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0...
SSA-44 Form: https://ww...

In today's Five Question Friday (FQF), we cover five great questions and one tax calculator:

1. What is the Tax Triangle? (Traditional, Roth, and taxable accounts)
2. Is the Withdrawal Amount in FICalc the same as spending?
3. When should you sell an investment that's at a loss?
4. How far into the future should we plan?
5. When and how quickly should you change asset allocation as you near retire...

A viewer recently asked about bracket filling:

"I haven't heard you or other financial advisors say much about "bracket filling" in retirement. Is it reasonable to think that in retirement I should be filling a tax bracket up with pre-tax accounts, then using after-tax accounts for withdrawals that reach into the higher bracket? Is there a way to model this in Bolden?"

It's a great qu...

The passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act has brought us a number of changes to the tax laws. Some changes are "permanent," meaning it would take an act of Congress and the President to change them. Some are "temporary," meaning they expire at some point in the future. Almost all of them can affect how we plan for retirement, particularly when it comes to Roth conversion strategies, tax-gain harvesting, and ...

Here are the five questions we cover this week in Five Question Friday:

1. Should we park cash in a money market fund or a t-bill ETF?
2. Are Robo-Advisor Tax-Loss harvesting features worth it?
3. What is the Retirement Spending Smile?
4. What rate of return assumption should you use in retirement planning software?
5. Which IRA account types can be combined?

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In today's Five Question Friday we look at the following questions:

1. How should the $6,000 senior deduction affect Roth conversions?
2. Are short-term bonds a reasonable alternative to intermediate-term bonds?
3. Are tax-managed balanced funds ok in a taxable account?
4. How should I invest money I'll use to pay the rent in retirement?
5. Boldin vs ProjectionLab for Roth conversion analysis?Join...

One of the challenges of the 4% Rule is what your initial safe withdrawal rate should be. While the name of the rule suggests one should start with 4%, there are countless reasons why that start point may not be right for you. For example, you may retiree early, you may not use the same asset allocation the rule was based on, you may have concerns about future stock market returns, inflation or both.

Enter withdrawal strat...

In today's Five Question Friday (FQF), we look at the following questions:

1. TIPS Funds vs Individual TIPS--which provides the better inflation protection?
2. Is a 4% withdrawal each year with no inflation adjustment a reasonable withdrawal strategy?
3. Can tax loss harvesting reduce IRMAA payments?
4. How can you estimate the annual income of an investment portfolio?
5. How do I track my net worth?

We look at the following questions in today's Five Question Friday:

1. Are growth stocks best for Roth IRAs?
2. How should you pay taxes on retirement account withdrawals?
3. How should you invest in retirement if you are scared of the stock market?
4. What's the ideal set-it-and-forget-it retirement portfolio?
5. Should you withdrawal cash from investment accounts to create an emergency fund?

In today's Five Question Friday video we cover these questions:

1. Why has Bill Bengen gone from 4% to 5%?
2. Is it ok to put Social Security bridge money in a money market fund?
3. How do Fidelity's Zero Funds compare to Vanguard Index Funds?
4. Should cash count towards your asset allocation?
5. Should you convert Vanguard Mutual Funds to ETFs?

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I viewer named Eileen asked about how her children, who are in their twenties, should invest. Here's her question: Can you do a video on constructing a retirement account (Roth) for my 20 year old kids? They are contributing 15%. I am thinking 10% VGSLX, 10% VSIAX, 30% VTIAX and 50% either VTSAX or VVIAX. Your thoughts please.

In this video I'll walk through the 3 goals of long-term investing, evaluate Eileen&apo...

In this video, I share my experience attending a free dinner investment seminar. The seminar was allegedly to help investors handle volatility in the markets. Instead, it turned out to be a sales pitch for expensive, complex investing products like a leveraged options strategy.

Here are links to the resources I mention in the video:

SPIVA Report: https://www.spglobal.com/spdji/en/res...
Concentration of SP500:...

In this edition of Five Question Friday (FQF), we look at these five questions:

1. My 401k is not employer matched, should I stop contributing to my employer 401k and open a Roth IRA instead?
2. Where should we keep cash we'll need to spend in 12 to 18 months?
3. Can you implement the bucket strategy in Boldin?
4. SCHD + TIPS & Chill?
5. Do Short-Term Treasury Bills provide the same inflation prote...

In today's Five Question Friday (FQF) we'll tackle the following questions:

1. Is now a good time to change your asset allocation?
2. Do target date funds force you to sell stocks in a down market?
3. Does the IRS treat the withdrawal of dividends as taking out earnings or contributions from a Roth IRA?
4. Is an 80% Chance of Success in Retirement reasonable?
5. How much should you allocate to int...

In this video, I'll run down several high-yield options for your cash. I'll also discuss where we are keeping our cash today.

Bank Bonuses: https://www.allcards.com/best-bank-bo...
CD Rates: https://www.allcards.com/cd-rates/
Savings Rates: https://www.allcards.com/savings-acco...
No-Penalty CD Rates: https://www.allcards.com/no-penalty-c...
Vanguard Money Market Funds: https://investor.vanguard.c...

The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College recently surveyed financial advisors, asking what the major risks were to their clients' retirement. In this video, we'll look at the top 5 risks financial advisors identified, and compare them to the five biggest risks according to retirees.

Here's the study: https://crr.bc.edu/wp-content/uploads...

ProjectionLab (Use Code RBERGER-10 for a 10% di...

Here are today's Five Question Friday (FQF):

1. Are financial apps safe?
2. Can you help me understand the risk of bonds?
3. How are mutual fund dividends taxed?
4. How should we think about annuities for retirement income?
5. Does Ben Felix hate index funds?

Ben Felix video:    • The Problem With Index Funds 

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Here are the five questions we'll cover in this week's edition of Five Question Friday:

1. Is now a good time to do a Roth conversion? (John)
2. Mutual Funds vs ETFs (Shane)
3. Should we invest more in international stocks? (Phil)
4. Is Gold a hedge against inflation? (Cathy)
5. Has 2025 wrecked our retirement plans? (Doug)

Resources

Boldin: https://go.robberger.com/boldin/yt-fqf...