Annuities and Retirement Stewardship – Part 1

As a financial coach, I often work with folks who are in the accumulation/growth phase of planning for retirement (i.e., 5 to 10 years or more away). Sometimes I come across someone who has either: 1) received a recommendation from their stock broker or insurance salesperson to purchase a fixed-rate, indexed, or variable annuity product … Read more

Stewardship and the Challenge of Generosity

Generosity is part of this blog’s tagline: “helping you to save diligently, invest wisely, give generously, and live abundantly.” Generosity is of great importance during all stages of life, but according to the data, we Christians aren’t nearly as generous with our money as you might think. I recently looked through a six-week study book … Read more

Planning for Health Care Expenses in Retirement

This article is part of the Biblically-Informed Framework for Retirement Stewardship (BIFRS) series. It was originally published September 12, 2016 and updated in March 2026. When I first wrote this article in 2016, I was 63 years old and still three years away from Medicare eligibility. Healthcare costs were theoretical—something I needed to plan for … Read more

Medicare Health Insurance Options

This article is part of the Biblically-Informed Framework for Retirement Stewardship (BIFRS) series. It was originally published on September 5, 2016, and updated in April 2026. When I first wrote this article in 2016, my wife and I were closing in on Medicare eligibility at age 65. We were trying to navigate the complexity from … Read more

Health Insurance Options Before Medicare

This article is part of the Biblically-Informed Framework for Retirement Stewardship. It was originally published on September 3, 2016, and substantially updated in April 2026. Your medical insurance choices will depend greatly on whether you are young and far from retirement, an “early” retiree with a few years until Medicare eligibility, or 65 or older … Read more