Educational Videos

Many people approach retirement with most of their savings sitting in a traditional 401(k) or other pre-tax accounts. While those accounts are great for accumulation during your working years, they can create a different kind of planning challenge once retirement begins.In this video, I walk through an often overlooked shift that occurs when most of Learn More

Social Security taxation is one of the most misunderstood areas of retirement planning.In this video, I walk through the concepts that tend to cause the most confusion, including provisional income, how filing status affects taxation, and how deductions and withholding interact with your Social Security benefits.Many people are surprised to learn that provisional income is Learn More

One of the most common questions I hear is:How much do I need to retire?But what people are really asking is:Do I actually have enough to stop working without worrying every time the market moves?The truth is, there is not a single number that works for everyone. What feels comfortable for one person can feel Learn More

When people think about retiring early, most of the focus is on the first few years of retirement. Health insurance, market risk, and whether savings can comfortably support the transition. All of that matters. But there is another piece that often gets overlooked. How stopping work earlier than planned can quietly change your future Social Learn More

Claiming Social Security at age 62 is one of the most common retirement decisions people make. And for some, it is absolutely the right choice.The problem is usually not claiming early. It is making the decision too quickly, without fully understanding the tradeoffs.In this video, I walk through three situations where claiming at 62 is Learn More

Most people spend decades saving for retirement, but far less time thinking about where they are saving. In many cases, money ends up heavily concentrated in traditional, pre tax accounts simply because that is what was available at work.In this video, I walk through how I actually think about the mix of traditional, Roth, and Learn More

Roth conversions are one of the most talked about strategies in retirement planning, and for good reason. A well timed conversion can reduce future required minimum distributions, lower your lifetime tax bill, help you avoid Medicare IRMAA surcharges, and even make things easier for a surviving spouse or for your kids.However, a poorly timed conversion Learn More

The moment the paycheck stops, everything changes. Even with years of planning behind you, the first twelve months of retirement can feel very different from what you expected. The structure of work disappears. The routine shifts. And for many people, the questions start to creep in: Am I on track? Am I spending too much? Learn More

If you are planning to retire in the next five years, the decisions you make now can have a major impact on how smooth your transition feels. In this video, I walk through the key steps that help people retire with more clarity and confidence.I start with defining what you want life to look like Learn More

Even if you have saved diligently, have no debt, and know you are financially ready, it is common to still feel uneasy about stepping away from work. After years of helping people retire, I have seen how that anxious feeling rarely comes from the numbers. It comes from uncertainty.In this video, I talk about why Learn More