There are many retirement financial milestones to pay attention to: your penalty-free early distribution age from an IRA (59/12), eligibility for Social Security (early filer at 62 and full retirement age at 66–67), Medicare eligibility (age 65, for most), and your RMD age (currently 73; 75 beginning in 2033). I’ve already hit all those milestones … Read more
First and foremost, thank you for subscribing to this blog. I’ve had quite a few new subscribers this year and really appreciate the kind comments I received from readers. If you have a topic you’d like me to explore next year, just a question that you and perhaps others would like me to respond to, … Read more
In a previous article, I discussed the two presidential candidates’ major policy positions on taxes, the debt limit, and abortion. Taxes and the debt limit directly impact retirees’ finances and stewardship. We’re now on the other side of the election, and the Republican Party won a clear victory, a “trifecta,” as they call it, as … Read more
It’s that time of year again: income tax time. And I can’t be sure, but I think many retirees are generally more concerned about taxes in retirement than when working. I’m no different than anyone else; I don’t enjoy withdrawing from my retirement savings, handing some of it to the government, or having them take … Read more
The Secure Act 2.0 was finally passed as just one part of a massive funding package by the outgoing congress just before Christmas on December 23, 2022, and signed into law by the president as the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, an omnibus spending bill authorizing roughly $1.7 trillion in new Federal spending (yikes!). You’re … Read more
If you read much about retirement finance, you’ll see a lot of hyperbolic rhetoric about “Required Minimum Distributions,” or “RMDs.” You’d think RMDs are going to sneak up on you and devastate your financial plans in retirement. Spoiler alert: they’re probably not. Yes, RMDs will impact your savings, income, and taxes, but not as much … Read more
This article is the second of two about retirement account transfers and rollovers. First, we focused on transfers, which I defined as moving assets between two of the same type of retirement account, e.g., from a Traditional IRA with one provider to a Traditional IRA at another. In this article, we’ll look at rollovers, which … Read more
Well, folks, I have great news: as of today, my new book, Reimagine Retirement: Planning and Living for the Glory of God, has been released by B&H Publishing (LifeWay)! It is a project I have been working on for about 18 months, and I am thrilled to announce that it is available to order from LifeWay.com, Amazon.com, Christianbook.com, … Read more
A few years ago, a University of Chicago college professor named Harold Pollack remarked that everything you really needed to know about personal finance could be fit on a single 3×5 inch index card. Someone asked him to prove it, the result went viral, and Pollack actually ended up co-writing a book about it called … Read more
