Keen on Retirement

Longtime Keen on Retirement listeners and friends of the firm are probably familiar with The Big Hat.

Matt Wilson, our Chief Investment Officer and President, is the proud owner of an oversized Dow 100,000 cap that he wears on our show from time to time. And when folks visit our offices, such as during our annual Holiday Breakfast, they often spot Matt's hat in his office and have a bit of a chuckle about its pie-in-the-sky predict...

"How am I doing?"

"Am I falling behind my peers?"

"Do I have enough money?"

"How does my nest egg measure up?"

My team at Keen Wealth spends a lot of time talking folks through these kinds of questions. And, as the years go by and folks enter their 50s, 60s and beyond, that conversation evolves and begins to coalesce around anot...

Does your financial team provide you with comprehensive tax planning, or just annual tax reporting?

When you file your 2025 taxes next April, you're essentially just reporting your financial data from the previous year. 

At Keen Wealth, tax planning is a proactive, year-round process we use to put your annual report in the best shape possible before the ink dries and windows close. 

And when it comes to your 2025 tax return, some i...

"This sounds too good to be true, but you've got to believe in those that are looking at it for you and trusting in the people with Pacific Life email addresses that are sending you the documents." 

So many stories of financial fraud and mismanagement boil down to statements just like this one. All too often, the folks who are losing large sums of money are hardworking folks working 9-to-5s who don't have a team of professionals lo...

"Risk" and "uncertainty" are similar concepts. But your financial plan has to be prepared to cope with both.

I think that mix is what's making some folks a little uneasy right now. In addition to the typical risks that all investors accept, we're also dealing with uncertainty around the government shutdown and what the effects on the economy will be until our leaders get back to the negotia...

Change is in the air every fall – not just in the leaves and weather, but in your financial planning. 

At this time of year, the federal government announces some important rate adjustments that affect tax planning and retirement benefits for the year ahead. 

And complicating matters this fall is a government shutdown that has many seniors worried about the benefits and services that they've earned, and that they rely on. 

On today...

In 1988, William Post won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania lottery. 

A year later, he was $1 million in debt. 

First, he splurged: houses, cars, a plane. Then a former girlfriend sued him for a third of his winnings. His brother was arrested and convicted for hiring a hitman to kill Post and his then-wife in hopes that he'd inherit a share. And after sinking money into a failing family business, Post spent time in jail for firing ...

Charitable giving is a cornerstone of many comprehensive retirement plans. 

It's also a cornerstone of our mission at Keen Wealth Advisors.

Our whole team takes great pride in serving as active members of our community, whether we're making monetary grants or lending a hand to projects around the greater Kansas City area. And through the efforts of the Keen Wealth Foundation, we're able to identify causes where we can have a high i...

If you're only judging based on what's happening in the world and the financial markets, there's never a "perfect" time to retire. But 2025 is throwing a bunch of extra variables at seniors that are adding more complexity to an already complicated decision. Businesses are changing. The rules around investing are changing. And, most importantly, your life is changing. Your financial plan has to be flexible enoug...

Last week, I discussed how Keen Wealth's comprehensive planning process might assess a multi-million-dollar nest egg. I think these hypotheticals, including some back-of-the-napkin math, are useful in illustrating how retirement planning can work, and also the limits of focusing exclusively on your numbers. 

However, in the Keen Wealth offices, we don't work with hypotheticals. We work with real people, their real savings, their ho...

According to a report from the Federal Trade Commission, Americans lost $12.5 billion to scams in 2024, a 25% increase from 2023. 

That's why episodes like this one are among my least favorite to record and also among the most important. 

We've all heard about so many folks losing large sums of money because they answered the wrong phone call or clicked on the wrong email link. The greed, cruelty, and, yes, ingenuity of today's fra...

Well ... we were wrong. 

During our previous discussion about The One Big Beautiful Bill, we predicted that the final law would probably pass with a different name. 

But, instead of the acronyms we're used to seeing lately, like the SECURE Act (Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement), President Trump and Congress stuck with the original title. For the most part, the final bill also maintains the big picture tax polic...

I believe that The Keen Wealth Advantage helps folks feel more confident about comprehensive financial planning and their road to retirement. I also believe wholeheartedly in the consumer being as educated as possible on their various options before entrusting their planning and investing to any financial advisor. This is one of the key reasons we are now in our 10th year of producing this podcast and blog, answering listener quest...

By the time it works through Congress to President Trump's desk, The One, Big, Beautiful Bill will probably have a few different details, and a different name. But the version of the bill that recently passed in the House gives us a fair indication of where tax policy could be headed for the next few years. 

On today's show, we discuss the current version of the 2025 tax bill, potential changes that Congress might make, and potenti...

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, there were 580,887 pending Social Security claims in March 2025. That's an increase of more than 80,000 from a year ago. Many of those claimants are seniors who have not yet reached their reach full retirement age. 

I'd love to believe that the majority of these folks are taking Social Security early as part of a carefully considered plan to achieve a specific goal, such as early r...

Matt Wilson, Chief Investment Officer and President of Keen Wealth, sure had a lot to work with when he put together his 2025 Q2 Market Update Webinar! It's been an eventful few months for the economy, and Matt delivered a clear analysis of everything from growth trends and interest rate expectations to the potential impacts of tariffs. 

On today's show, we complete our Q2 outlook by discussing some of Matt's broader points and ans...

Folks reach out to Keen Wealth for all sorts of reasons, at all different points in their lives. We talk to young couples just starting out who want to put themselves on a path towards financial security. New retirees want to feel secure about transitioning away from work. Older seniors come to us looking to secure their legacies and make life a little easier for the next generation. 

And, sometimes, a person realizes they've been ...

"Jim" (66) and "Karen" (64) both retired in the last six months.

Jim has an IRA with $900,000, and Karen has a Roth IRA with $300,000. They inherited a brokerage account with $600,000 and a cost basis of $500,000. They have $100,000 in an emergency cash fund.

Jim is receiving his Social Security benefits of $2,600 per month. He also has a pension of $1,800 per month.