The Self-Sustaining Principle—Article #9: Tier 3 Income (Portfolio Withdrawals and Variable Income Sources)

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This article is part of the Biblically-Informed Framework for Retirement Stewardship (BIFRS) series. In this article, we’ll explore Tier 3 income. This variable, self- or advisor-managed layer sits atop your guaranteed income (Tier 1: Social Security, pensions, annuities) and semi-stable income (Tier 2: bonds, dividends, TIPS). It’s the most flexible part of your retirement income, … Read more

Stewardship is Not a Lecture Series

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If you’ve spent any time around Christians who take money seriously — especially pastors, teachers, deacons, and writers like me — you’ve noticed something: we really love the word stewardship. We put it on book titles and seminar banners. We name giving campaigns after it. We work it into sermons, small-group discussions, and financial-planning conversations. … Read more

Introducing “The Lighter Side” of Retirement Stewardship

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I’ll admit that retirement planning is serious business. Scripture, faith, wisdom, stewardship; plus sequence of returns, required minimum distributions, Social Security optimization strategies—there’s no shortage of weighty topics to wrestle with, and we wrestle with them regularly around here. I’m still working on the “Biblically-Informed Framework for Retirement Stewardship” (BIFRS) series, which will probably take … Read more

The Self-Sustaining Principle—Article #8: Tier 2 Income (The Stability Layer)

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This article is part of the Biblically-Informed Framework for Retirement Stewardship (BIFRS) series. In the previous article, we explored Tier 1 Income—your guaranteed, lifetime income floor from Social Security, pensions, and annuities. This foundation is the bedrock of a sustainable retirement, providing income you cannot outlive, regardless of market conditions. We now move to Tier … Read more

Introducing My New Book! Legacy Stewardship: A Biblical and Practical Guide to the Last Chapter of Life

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After almost ten years of writing about retirement stewardship—this blog and four other books—I’ve written a book about living and planning for what comes next. If you’ve followed this blog for any length of time, you know that I write about retirement from a particular angle. It’s not just about the numbers—though the numbers matter—but … Read more

The Self-Sustaining Principle—Article #7: Tier 1 Income (Building a Solid Foundation)

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This article is part of the Biblically-Informed Framework for Retirement Stewardship (BIFRS) series. In the previous article in this series, we explored retirement income and its three-tiered structure. We established that income is arguably the most critical component of the Sustainability Principle, which is the idea that your retirement will be financially sustainable when your … Read more

The Self-Sustaining Principle—Article #6: Generating Retirement Income

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This article is part of the Biblically-Informed Framework for Retirement Stewardship (BIFRS) series. I remember when I received my last paycheck from my employer in 2018, I felt an odd mix of emotions. I was excited about what was to come (I was going to finish my first book and do lots of other things … Read more

The Self-Sustaining Principe—Article #5: How Much Is Enough?

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This article is part of the Biblically-Informed Framework for Retirement Stewardship (BIFRS) series Before we delve into ways to generate sustainable retirement income, we need to discuss how to determine how much you need to save to retire with dignity and self-sustainability. How do you calculate this for your specific situation? What can you do … Read more

I’ve Revised and Expanded My Redeeming Retirement Book!

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I’m excited to announce that I have completed a significant update and expansion of my Redeeming Retirement book, originally published in 2021. The new edition is titled: Redeeming Retirement: How to Steward What You Have and Retire with Dignity. In may ways, this book is now an excellent “sequel” to NextGen Steward—it picks up where … Read more