Retirement planning is a delicate process, and you need to carefully consider your various income streams, including Social Security benefits. For those of us who plan to continue working while claiming Social Security, it’s important to understand how this decision can impact the monthly benefits you receive. 

In this episode, we’re sharing how to avoid financial shocks in retirement. We discuss the essentials of earned income, the reduction in benefits due to excess earnings, and specific scenarios such as spousal and ex-spouse benefits. 

Outline of This Episode

• [1:08] Social Security benefits may be impacted if you work while claiming
• [04:27] How retirement financial planning strategies vary by individual circumstances
• [07:17] Earnings affect Social Security benefits before retirement
• [11:51] Your spouse's income doesn't affect your Social Security
• [15:18] SSA withholds payments until excess income is accounted for
• [18:44] Social Security timing advice
• [20:04] Seek financial advisor help to make an educated decision about retirement 

Resources & People Mentioned

• How Is My Social Security Benefit Calculated? - Financial Symmetry, Inc. 
• SSA - Social Security in retirement 
• The Retirement Podcast Network

Connect With Chad and Mike

• https://www.financialsymmetry.com/podcast-archive/ 
• Connect on Twitter @csmithraleigh @TeamFSINC
• Follow Financial Symmetry on Facebook

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We all have visions of our ideal retirement. However, our financial plans can quickly veer off course if we haven't appropriately managed our risks. 

On this episode of Financial Symmetry, Greg Suggs from Greg Suggs Insurance joins me to discuss how to manage common risks that could negatively affect your wealth. You won’t want to miss out on these easy-to-implement pieces to your insurance puzzle that could save your assets.

Outline of This Episode

• [1:23] A bit about Greg
• [2:09] Biggest changes in insurance over the past 30 years
• [5:12] The biggest risks for homeowners
• [11:11] Common mistakes homeowners make
• [14:33] What to think about if you are considering a second home
• [17:21] What to consider if you own a rental property
• [19:00] Automobile insurance for young drivers
• [23:22] What about insurance for gig work?
• [25:37] How to lower your insurance needs

Resources & People Mentioned

• The Retirement Podcast Network
• Greg Suggs Insurance

How do you begin to save for your children to go to college? With the rising costs of college education, is it worth the monetary commitment? 

Including tuition & fees, room & board, books & supplies, etc. the average cost of college is anywhere from $27,000 for an in-state public school up to $80,000–$90,000 a year for an Ivy League School.

How you pay for your student’s college is one of the most important financial decisions you’ll ever make. In this episode, we cover the three phases of saving for college and what you need to pay attention to in each phase. 

Outline of This Episode

• [1:53] Why college? Is it necessary? 
• [2:41] Average cost of college
• [4:42] Phase #1: The Saving Phase 
• [10:02] Phase #2: Preparing for college
• [20:44] Phase #3: In-college strategies 
• [22:57] Summarizing the big points 

Resources & People Mentioned

• The Retirement Podcast Network
• Social Security – Lifetime Earnings of College Graduates
• Morningstar – How to Choose a 529 Plan
• The FAFSA Application
• IRS – American Opportunity Tax Credit (AORC)
• IRS – Lifetime Learning Credit
• Independent Education Consultants Association
• US News – Qualified 529 Expenses
• Charles Schwab – 529 to Roth Rollovers

Some problems are easily solved with a bit of reasoning, logic, or by using a bit of math. Other problems go beyond quantitative thinking. 

The most thought-provoking issues aren’t numbers-based. Many decisions surrounding retirement require much deeper consideration and often cause you to reevaluate your thinking of what you had originally imagined retirement to be.

In this episode, you’ll learn how to identify “wild problems” people face when retiring and develop a framework for working through them. 

Resources & People Mentioned

• Show Notes 
• The Retirement Podcast Network
• BOOK - Wild Problems by Russ Roberts
• BOOK - The New Retirementality by Mitch Anthony
• BOOK - Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

One of the retirement questions that persists through the ages is whether to take a pension or a lump sum payment. On this episode, we flesh out an example from baseball: Did Bobby Bonilla Day make the right decision back in 1999 to take $1.2 million per year instead of a $5.9 million lump sum payment?

Seeing this example play out over time can help you make your own pension vs. lump sum choice. Listen to find out whether Bobby hit a home run with his financial decision. 

___________________

• Show Notes
• The Retirement Podcast Network

 

What if you had a magic app that told you how much of your net worth you never got to spend at the end of your retirement?

The trouble with planning for retirement is all the uncertainty, however, proper planning can help. In this episode, Cameron Hendricks joins me to discuss how you can learn to spend more in retirement. 

Outline of This Episode

• [0:50] We need to talk about your retirement spending
• [1:55] What if you had an app that told you how much of your net worth you never got to spend?
• [10:25] Why it’s important to have a retirement withdrawal strategy
• [18:55] Our takeaways

Resources & People Mentioned

• Show Notes
• The Retirement Podcast Network
• We need to talk about your retirement spending

 

 

Have you considered how your instincts influence your decision-making around retirement planning?

Our natural instincts and biases create frameworks that lead our perspectives on how we think the world works. 

These frameworks influence our decisions surrounding our financial decisions. 

On this episode of Financial Symmetry, we discuss how to build prosperity by analyzinging and identifying your perspective. Listen in to learn 10 instincts identified by the book Factfulness and what you can do to combat the biases they lead to. 

Outline of This Episode

• [0:50] Our article of the week
• [1:58] Your instincts influence your decision making
• [5:41] Why are we worried about the current situation?
• [7:13] Combatting the gap instinct
• [10:36] The negativity instinct
• [16:10] The fear instinct
• [10:18] Size matters
• [23:56] The generalizing instinct
• [26:10] Destiny instinct
• [29:23] Who’s to blame?
• [31:05] The urgency instinct

Resources & People Mentioned

• Show Notes
• The Retirement Podcast Network
• Gapminder
• BOOK - Factfulness by Hans Rosling
• Episode 209 - 5 Reasons to Consider Investing in More Than the S&P 500
• BOOK - Making Numbers Count by Chip Heath
• BOOK - Super Communicators by Charles Duhigg

 

Today we’re diving in to a specific path that many retirees consider as they move away from the “corporate” world and enter their second act – which is starting a business.

With increased life expectancy, cost of living increases and a desire for continued fulfillment, many retirees are excited to begin a new experiment in an area they are passionate about.

Some surveys show the proportion of people starting businesses at ages 55 to 65 has increased in recent years and, at one point, even surpassed the typical entrepreneur age group of 25- to 35-year-olds.

So today we’re speaking to those currently operating sole proprietorships and single-member LLCs OR those considering starting their own business. We’re going to shine the light on the S Corp business type and provide some details on why this could be an opportunity to explore.

Outline of This Episode

• [0:55] How to know when you have enough
• [2:09] Starting a business in retirement
• [6:02] Why it's important to understand what an S-corp is 
• [10:10] An example 
• [14:54] The downside of the S-corp

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📬 Get our Retire On Purpose Guide here. 

📰 See the full show notes here

🌐 Explore the Retirement Podcast Network here

Now that you have made it through the retirement danger zone, you have made it to the Arrivement phase of retirement. You may be wondering, what are my next steps?

This season can be full of opportunities and connection with those you care about. At this point in your life journey, you may face some difficult decisions around relocating or how best to spend or give the wealth you've worked hard to accumulate.

Listen in to hear about the financial and tax moves that we see most commonly used during the middle years of your retirement.

📬 Sign up for the Advisor Corner Newsletter here and receive our Retire On Purpose Guide. 

📰 See the full show notes here

🌐 Explore the Retirement Podcast Network here

Have you thought about retiring abroad?

Oftentimes when we think of retirement, we think about sunny beaches with crystalline water shimmering in the sunshine. Could this or some other idyllic vision be your future? 

The realities of retiring abroad can be exciting, but at the same time overwhelming. Complex financial strategies need to be considered before grabbing your passport and setting off for the unknown. 

In this episode, we discuss seven crucial financial considerations that you’ll need to keep in mind if you are interested in retiring abroad.

Outline of This Episode

• [0:36] Overcoming frugality in retirement
• [2:15] More people are retiring abroad
• [3:44] Put together a blueprint of what life will look like for you
• [5:00] Dealing with finances
• [6:53] Dealing with taxes
• [8:40] Dealing with investments
• [10:32] Dealing with real estate
• [12:24] Dealing with healthcare
• [13:41] Dealing with estate issues

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📬 Get our Retire On Purpose Guide here. 

📰 See the full show notes here

🌐 Explore the Retirement Podcast Network here

If you are retiring soon, you've most likely wondered if your asset allocation is too risky.

Some have called the period just before and after retirement the Retirement danger zone as it's a time where understanding how you should be invested matters for your long-term financial success.

After years of great returns in tech and large cap US stocks, many retirees could have bigger risks present in their allocations than they realize.

In today's episode, you'll learn why sequence of return risk has been called the retirement danger zone and how to prepare for it within the context of your retirement plan rather than by planning by generalized rules of thumb.

Resources & People Mentioned

• Show Notes
• DOWNLOAD our guide to "Retire on Purpose"
• Retirement Podcast Network