#173 – Retirement planner chat, with Allen Mueller from 7 Saturdays Financial

Andy chats with fellow retirement planner Allen Mueller, CFA, CFP® from 7 Saturdays Financial. In this episode they talk about a wide array of retirement planning topics such as tax planning, distribution strategies, investing, annuities, long-term care insurance, how to know when people have enough to retire, what consumers often overlook in retirement planning and much more!Links in this episode:Allen's advisory company website - 7 Saturdays FinancialAllen's blog - hereAllen's LinkedIn Profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/allenrmueller/To send Andy questions to be addressed on future Q&A episodes, email [email protected] Financial monthly e-newsletter - Retirement Planning InsightsFacebook group - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Taxes in Retirement)YouTube channel - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Retirement Planning Demystified)Retirement Planning Education website - www.RetirementPlanningEducation.com

Andy shares his views on the few different ways in which people in the financial services/financial advisory industry can receive revenue:Commission-onlyFee-onlyHybrid or fee-basedLinks in this episode:My article in Rethinking65 - How Much Are Your Services Worth?Tenon Financial monthly e-newsletter - Retirement Planning InsightsFacebook group - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Taxes in Retirement)YouTube channel - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Retirement Planning Demystified)Retirement Planning Education website - www.RetirementPlanningEducation.comTo send Andy questions to be addressed on future Q&A episodes, email [email protected]

Listener Q&A where Andy talks about: How to calculate how much money you can gift or donate in retirement without running out ( 8:47 )Does the five-year rule met by a previous Roth IRA carry over to a new Roth IRA ( 17:03 )Is it better to draw down an inherited IRA and delay starting Social Security, or vice versa ( 19:39 )Can distributions from an annuity in a 403(b) be used to meet Required Minimum Distributions in IRAs ( 23:37 )How to get cash flow or income from illiquid assets - such as real estate investments - when more income is needed than what's otherwise produced by the asset ( 31:21 )What are the drawbacks of investing in a total world stock market fund or total world bond market fund vs instead using multiple funds for stock and bond exposure ( 37:14 )If concerned about leaving money to an heir who may not be responsible for receiving a large inheritance, is it possible to pre-arrange for the purchase of an annuity upon death so the heir gets annuity income instead ( 44:48 )Should target date funds be used in conjunction with other funds, or just used by themselves ( 48:24 )When in an assisted living facility, how much of the facility's fees are deductible as medical expenses ( 53:50 )What's the best way to save money for a grandchild: 529 account, Uniform Transfer to Minors account or an account in your own name (with the grandchild named as beneficiary) ( 57:29 )Link to Tax Planning to and Through Early Retirement To send Andy questions to be addressed on future Q&A episodes, email [email protected] in this episode:My company newsletter - Retirement Planning InsightsFacebook group - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Taxes in Retirement)YouTube channel - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Retirement Planning Demystified)Retirement Planning Education website - www.RetirementPlanningEducation.com

Andy chats with a real person (not an advisor) doing their own retirement planning. In this episode, Andy talks with Scott. They talk about a wide array of retirement planning topics such as leaving the workforce early than planned during COVID and later reengaging in part-time work to have social interaction, managing income for purposes of Affordable Care Act premium tax credits, how life and financial plans always change even in retirement, and more!  Links in this episode:Tenon Financial monthly e-newsletter - Retirement Planning InsightsFacebook group - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Taxes in Retirement)YouTube channel - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Retirement Planning Demystified)Retirement Planning Education website - www.RetirementPlanningEducation.comTo send Andy questions to be addressed on future Q&A episodes, email [email protected]

Andy and Justin Pritchard from Approach Financial share their thoughts on a handful of current events and "hot topics" relating to retirement planning. Specifically, they talk about: The pros and cons of target date funds ( 11:05 )Their thoughts on the recent presidential executive order allowing private and illiquid investments to be offered inside 401(k) plans ( 23:26 )Can you make up for insufficient retirement savings by investing more aggressively ( 31:51 )Understanding your advisor's succession plan and how to try to make the succession transition successful for you ( 39:35 )Things to consider when firing an advisor or changing advisors ( 46:39 )Whether people should consider getting a living/revocable trust ( 56:22 )Things to consider if you're looking to hold cash in banks in currencies other than US Dollars ( 59:53 )Links in this episode:Justin's firm - Approach FinancialJustin's YouTube channel - Justin Pritchard, CFP® on RetirementTo send Andy questions to be addressed on future Q&A episodes, email [email protected] company newsletter - Retirement Planning InsightsFacebook group - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Taxes in Retirement)YouTube channel - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Retirement Planning Demystified)Retirement Planning Education website - www.RetirementPlanningEducation.com

Andy summarizes some helpful IRS tools and interesting IRS and tax return-related information after his recent attendance at the annual IRS Tax Forum/conferenceLinks in this episode:IRS Taxpayer Online Account - hereID.me - hereIRS IP PINs - hereIRS Document Upload Tool - hereIRS Interactive Tax Assistant - hereTenon Financial monthly e-newsletter - Retirement Planning InsightsFacebook group - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Taxes in Retirement)YouTube channel - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Retirement Planning Demystified)Retirement Planning Education website - www.RetirementPlanningEducation.comTo send Andy questions to be addressed on future Q&A episodes, email [email protected]

Listener Q&A where Andy talks about: How to account on your tax return for the basis in inherited IRAs ( 7:00 )Is having large Required Minimum Distributions ("RMDs") really a bad thing ( 12:04 )Is there any merit to using a break-even analysis to help decide when to start Social Security ( 15:59 )When does it make sense for someone to consider working with a financial advisor ( 18:14 )Are Roth contribution and conversion rules the same across all of the various types of employer retirement accounts like 401(k)s, 403(b)s, TSP, etc. ( 26:18 )Are there separate five-year holding periods for Roth conversions done in employer retirement plans ( 27:37 )Do in-plan Roth conversions each have their own five-year holding period to waive the 10% early withdrawal penalty ( 30:36 )Can Roth conversions be done before taking any distributions or doing Qualified Charitable Distributions ("QCDs") in the year someone turns RMD age ( 31:49 )If receiving Restricted Stock Units ("RSUs") or deferred compensation in years after you stop working, is that considered earned income eligible for making Roth IRA contributions ( 34:38 )Does taking a really large Health Savings Account ("HSA") distribution make you a higher audit risk in the eyes of the IRS ( 39:19 )Is there a way to invest in broad stock market exposure but without the ongoing dividends such index fund pay out ( 42:27 )Does the progress toward meeting the five-year rule within an employer Roth retirement plan port over to a Roth IRA or other employer Roth plans when doing a rollover, or vice versa ( 46:08 )How to plan and account for an inheritance that a person is rather certain to receive, but the timing of receiving it isn't certain ( 49:43 )To send Andy questions to be addressed on future Q&A episodes, email [email protected] in this episode:My company newsletter - Retirement Planning InsightsFacebook group - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Taxes in Retirement)YouTube channel - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Retirement Planning Demystified)Retirement Planning Education website - www.RetirementPlanningEducation.com

In this slight twist to the "real" person episode format, Andy doesn't interview a real person but instead addresses the most common retirement planning questions he gets from "real" people. The questions addressed are:Do I have enough to retire?When can I retire?How much cash should I have?When should I start my Social Security?How do I get money out of my portfolio?How do I pay taxes?Should I do Roth conversions? If so, how much?Links in this episode:Tenon Financial monthly e-newsletter - Retirement Planning InsightsFacebook group - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Taxes in Retirement)YouTube channel - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Retirement Planning Demystified)Retirement Planning Education website - www.RetirementPlanningEducation.com To send Andy questions to be addressed on future Q&A episodes, email [email protected]

Andy and Mark Rosinski from Dunes Financial share their thoughts on a handful of current events and "hot topics" relating to retirement planning. Specifically, they talk about: Thoughts on common withdrawal strategies and what they use in each of their firms ( 12:04 )The level of impact of some of the changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act ( 30:51 )Things to consider when doing rule of 55 distributions from your employer retirement plan ( 37:56 )Their thoughts on how many funds and holding the stock portion of a portfolio should have ( 45:40 )When or if there are benefits to having multiple accounts of the same type, such as multiple IRAs, multiple brokerage accounts, etc. ( 57:31 )How to actually take distributions from a portfolio; from which accounts, in what frequencies, etc. ( 1:06:02 )General information and considerations about reverse mortgages ( 1:12:10 )Links in this episode:Mark's firm - Dunes FinancialMark's previous appearance on the show - Episode #146Retirement Income Style Awareness ("RISA") assessment - herePortfolio Visualizer - hereTo send Andy questions to be addressed on future Q&A episodes, email [email protected] company newsletter - Retirement Planning InsightsFacebook group - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Taxes in Retirement)YouTube channel - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Retirement Planning Demystified)Retirement Planning Education website - www.RetirementPlanningEducation.com

Andy summarizes the recent 2025 annual Social Security trustees report, including what it would actually mean if the system's trust fund were to deplete, and what changes can be made to ensure that doesn't happenLinks in this episode:The full 2025 Social Security trustees report - here My company's August 1 2025 newsletter summarizing the 2025 Social Security trustees report - hereThe newsletter contains the links I mentioned to the various other newsletters, podcasts and YouTube video's I've done on the topic of Social SecurityTenon Financial monthly e-newsletter - Retirement Planning InsightsFacebook group - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Taxes in Retirement)YouTube channel - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Retirement Planning Demystified)Retirement Planning Education website - www.RetirementPlanningEducation.com To send Andy questions to be addressed on future Q&A episodes, email [email protected]