Updated December 2025 to reflect the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) I’ve written previously about withdrawing from my Traditional IRA to help fund our retirement. I’ve also described how I began making Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs) in early 2023 after turning 70½ In a recent article, I explained how I might optimize my income … Read more
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
This article is part of the Retirement Financial Life Equation (RFLE) series. It was initially published in March 2024 and updated in March 2026. It’s that time of year again: income tax time. And I can’t be sure, but I think many retirees are more concerned about taxes in retirement than they were when working. … 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
This article is part of the Retirement Financial Life Equation (RFLE) series. It was initially published in October 2022 and updated in December 2025. 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 … Read more
This article is part of the Biblically Informed Framework for Retirement Stewardship (BIFRS) series. It was originally published in 2022 and updated in 2026. When I originally wrote this article in December 2022, I was 70 years old and eagerly anticipating my eligibility for Qualified Charitable Distributions at age 70½. I was fascinated by the … 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
