Secure Your Retirement

In this Episode of the Secure Your Retirement Podcast, Radon and Murs discuss retiring before your spouse, walking through the specific decisions couples face with early retirement planning when one partner is ready to stop working and the other isn't. This episode covers retirement planning for couples navigating that in-between stretch, including health insurance before Medicare, retirement income planning, and the retirement tax planning tradeoffs that come with a staggered retirement timing decision.
Listen in to learn about the three paths for health insurance before Medicare, why a written retirement income plan protects your future flexibility around Roth conversions in retirement, how Medicare and retirement timing intersect with Social Security planning, and the practical retirement checklist to work through once one spouse decides to retire, including what a 401K to IRA rollover actually involves.
In this episode, find out:
The three health insurance before Medicare options when one spouse retires early and the other keeps working, and why the obvious choice isn't always the cheapest one
Why retirement income planning starts with a written plan, and how pulling from the wrong account today can limit your ability to do Roth conversions in retirement later
How a drop in household income opens a retirement tax planning window, and why you have to pick a priority between Roth conversions, Social Security planning, and health insurance subsidies rather than optimizing all three at once
What a 401K to IRA rollover really means once you retire. It's a tax-free move, not a taxable event, and it opens up investment options beyond what most 401k plans offer, often with the chance to reduce the fees tied to those plans
Why planning retirement isn't only about retirement cash flow and taxes, and how thinking through the non-financial side helps you retire comfortably instead of just affordably

Tweetable Quotes:
"Can you put a dollar value to not having to worry about this stuff when you're getting close to retirement?" — Radon Stancil
"The idea is before one of the two retire, understand what the impact of that's going to be and how you're going to play it out so that it's really clear in mind." — Murs Tariq
Resources:
If you are in or nearing retirement and you want to gain clarity on what questions you should be asking, learn what the biggest retirement myths are, and identify what you can do to achieve peace of mind for your retirement, get started today by requesting our complimentary video course, Four Steps to Secure Your Retirement!
To access the course, simply visit POMWealth.net/podcast.

In this Episode of the Secure Your Retirement Podcast, Radon and Murs discuss what actually happens once a household crosses the $1 million mark in their 401k, and why hitting that number raises new questions instead of settling old ones. They walk through why the balance on your statement isn't the number you actually get to spend, how required minimum distributions can sneak up on even careful savers, and why the investment strategy that built your nest egg isn't the one that should carry you through retirement.
Listen in to learn about the tax traps that catch people off guard when withdrawing from a 401k, why Roth conversions deserve a serious look before required distributions kick in, how the three-bucket strategy protects your income from a bad market at exactly the wrong time, and what changes financially (and it's not what you'd expect) when one spouse passes away.
In this episode, find out:
Why a $1 million 401k balance is really closer to $650,000 to $700,000 after taxes, and how that mistake trips people up when withdrawing for big expenses
How required minimum distributions work, and why waiting too long to touch a 401k can create a bigger tax problem later
Why a Roth conversion strategy, done while both spouses are alive and filing jointly, can meaningfully reduce lifetime taxes
What sequence of returns risk is, and how the three-bucket strategy (cash, safety and income, growth) protects retirement income from market downturns
Why moving from a joint tax return to a single filer after a spouse passes away often raises your tax rate, even if your income barely changes

Tweetable Quotes:
"While you see the million on paper, really only about 650 to 700,000 of that's actually yours." — Murs Tariq
"How I take money out of a 401k has some things I've got to think through. So, I've got to think through my taxation. I've got to think through potential problems with IRMAA." — Radon Stancil
Resources:
If you are in or nearing retirement and you want to gain clarity on what questions you should be asking, learn what the biggest retirement myths are, and identify what you can do to achieve peace of mind for your retirement, get started today by requesting our complimentary video course, Four Steps to Secure Your Retirement!
To access the course, simply visit POMWealth.net/podcast.

In this episode of the Secure Your Retirement Podcast, Radon and Murs discuss whether you can truly be a fiduciary and still talk about annuities and walk through exactly when an annuity earns a place in a retirement plan versus when it doesn't.
Listen in to learn about the three-bucket strategy for organizing retirement money, why an income safety bucket targets a specific historical return range instead of chasing the market, how sequence of returns risk can quietly damage a retirement plan, and the honest, no-spin answer to the fee concerns you've probably come across online.
In this episode, find out:
Why being a fiduciary doesn't rule out recommending an annuity, and why fit matters more than the product category itself
The three layers of retirement spending (essential needs, wants, and wishes) and how covering the first two changes your relationship with market volatility
How the three-bucket strategy, cash, growth, and income safety, is designed to prevent the emotional roller coaster of panic selling during a downturn
Where the high annuity fee reputation actually comes from, and why it's mostly confined to one specific category
Why sequence of returns risk changes the entire calculation once you're retired and withdrawing income, not just saving

Tweetable Quotes:
"We're not trying to sell the concept, we're saying we like the concept." — Radon Stancil
"This strategy is really there for predictability and reliability in your retirement income." — Murs Tariq
Resources:
If you are in or nearing retirement and you want to gain clarity on what questions you should be asking, learn what the biggest retirement myths are, and identify what you can do to achieve peace of mind for your retirement, get started today by requesting our complimentary video course, Four Steps to Secure Your Retirement!
To access the course, simply visit POMWealth.net/podcast.

In this Episode of the Secure Your Retirement Podcast, Radon and Murs discuss long-term care, one of the topics that comes up most often with clients, including those who have saved well and still want a clear plan for it. They break down what long-term care actually means, why it's not the nursing-home picture most people assume, and how continuous care retirement communities and in-home care both fit into real financial planning.
Listen in to learn about the two hybrid approaches available today for funding long-term care, a life insurance policy with a built-in long-term care benefit and a long-term care annuity, and why the tax treatment on each one matters more than most people realize when it comes to protecting retirement savings.
In this episode, find out:
What long-term care actually means, based on the technical definition of needing help with two out of six activities of daily living
Why continuous care retirement communities offer an independent, resort-style option most people don't expect
Why Medicare does not cover long-term care, and what gap that leaves in a retirement plan
How a life insurance policy with a long-term care rider can provide either a tax-free death benefit or tax-free care funding, depending on what happens
How a long-term care annuity works, including the typical two-to-three-times benefit multiplier and tax-free withdrawals for qualifying care

Tweetable Quotes:
"The technical definition of long-term care is that you have someone that cannot perform two out of the six activities of daily living." - Radon Stancil
"If you don't use the money, if you don't go into long-term care and you end up passing away, there's still a benefit that goes to the beneficiaries." - Murs Tariq (flagged for audio verification before publishing per standard compliance check)
Resources:
If you are in or nearing retirement and you want to gain clarity on what questions you should be asking, learn what the biggest retirement myths are, and identify what you can do to achieve peace of mind for your retirement, get started today by requesting our complimentary video course, Four Steps to Secure Your Retirement!
To access the course, simply visit POMWealth.net/podcast.

In this Episode of the Secure Your Retirement Podcast, Radon and Murs discuss the tax problem quietly building for anyone with a large 401(k) or IRA, required minimum distributions, Roth conversions, and the Medicare IRMAA surcharge that catches even careful savers off guard.
Listen in to learn about how RMDs are calculated once you reach your 70s, why a disciplined saving habit can turn into a bigger tax bill than expected, how a Roth conversion strategy can smooth that out over time, and how Medicare's IRMAA surcharge fits into the timing of it all.
In this episode, find out:
What a required minimum distribution (RMD) actually is, and why it can surprise even the most disciplined savers
A simple way to estimate what your own future RMD could look like, using nothing more than your current balance and a rough growth assumption
How a Roth conversion strategy can smooth out RMDs over time, including a real example from POM's tax strategy sessions that projected six figures in lifetime tax savings
What the Medicare IRMAA surcharge is, why it's tied to your income two years before you enroll, and why it can add hundreds or thousands of dollars a year to your Medicare premium
Why RMD planning and Medicare IRMAA planning can't be handled separately, and need to be revisited every year as part of a real tax strategy

Tweetable Quotes:
"Not everybody should do a Roth conversion, but everybody should have an analysis done to find out if it makes sense." — Radon Stancil
"A big 401(k) is a good problem to have, but it's still a problem you need a plan for." — Murs Tariq
Resources:
If you are in or nearing retirement and you want to gain clarity on what questions you should be asking, learn what the biggest retirement myths are, and identify what you can do to achieve peace of mind for your retirement, get started today by requesting our complimentary video course, Four Steps to Secure Your Retirement!
To access the course, simply visit POMWealth.net/podcast.