Staying the course

Markets & Investing

Market context for retirees and the psychology of staying invested through volatility.

Articles

Markets & Investing, explained

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Market & Economic Insights

Geopolitics and Your Retirement Portfolio: When It Actually Matters

Most geopolitical news doesn’t move retirement portfolios — and the bucket architecture already absorbs the noise. Here’s how to tell when geopolitics actually

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Market and Money Mindset

Bond Ladders in Retirement: Building Predictable Income from Fixed Income

Alt text: A stylized bond ladder illustration representing staggered fixed-income maturities used to build retirement income. Bond Ladders in Retirement: Buildi

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Market & Economic Insights

Why Earnings Season Matters Less in Retirement

Q2 earnings season starts in mid-July, and the financial press will treat every beat and miss as a verdict on the market. For a retiree with a real bucket archi

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Investing & Trading

Does Sector Rotation Belong in a Retirement Portfolio?

Sector rotation as a strategy looks tidy on a slide. In a real retirement portfolio, the signal usually arrives late, the costs land early, and the bucket struc

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Market and Money Mindset

The Retirement Risk No One Talks About: Cognitive Decline and Financial Decision-Making

The Retirement Risk No One Talks About: Cognitive Decline and Financial Decision-Making Table of Contents The Research: A Gap That Creates Disasters Warning Sig

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Investing & Trading

Position Sizing: The Most Underrated Skill in Trading

Most retail traders blow up their accounts not because they pick bad entries, but because they size positions wrong. Here’s the math that decides whether you’re

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Market & Economic Insights

The Fed’s Dual Mandate: What Each Rate Decision Actually Means for Your Retirement Income

On April 29, four Fed members dissented for the first time since 1992. The headline is the split. The useful read is what the split is about — and what it tells

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Market and Money Mindset

Three Months, Six Months, or Twelve? The Emergency Fund Question, Honestly

“Three to six months of expenses” is a heuristic from a household structure most readers no longer live in. A better question — what specific risk am I funding,

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Market and Money Mindset

The 4% Rule in 2026: Does It Still Work?

The 4% Rule in 2026: Does It Still Work? Table of Contents Where the 4% Rule Came From What the 4% Rule Actually Says — and What People…

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Market & Economic Insights

When ‘This Time Is Different’ Is Actually True (and When It Isn’t)

Sir John Templeton called “this time is different” the four most expensive words in investing. He was usually right — but not always. Here is the small set of t

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Market & Economic Insights

Sell in May and Go Away? What Retirees Should Actually Do

The old “sell in May and go away” adage has a kernel of truth in the long-run data — and it still shouldn’t change how a retiree invests. Here’s what the season

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Investing & Trading

When Trading and Retirement Planning Should Never Mix

Trading and retirement investing use the same tools but reward opposite instincts. Here’s why mixing them quietly costs retirees, and where active trading actua

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Investing & Trading

What an Expense Ratio Actually Costs You Over 30 Years

An expense ratio looks trivial on paper – half a percent, maybe one percent. Over 30 years, the gap between a cheap fund and an expensive one can quietly cost y

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Market & Economic Insights

Election Years and the Stock Market: What 80 Years of Data Actually Show

Eighty years of S&P 500 data say election-year volatility is mostly noise — and the twelve months after a midterm have historically been the strongest stretch o

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Market & Economic Insights

Reading the Yield Curve: What the Bond Market Is Telling Retirees

Most retirees track the stock market. That’s the wrong dashboard. The bond market — and the shape of the yield curve — is where retirement income actually gets

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Market and Money Mindset

5 Behavioral Finance Traps That Derail Retirement Plans

Key Takeaways Loss aversion makes retirees feel losses roughly twice as intensely as equivalent gains — leading to overly conservative portfolios that can’t kee

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Market and Money Mindset

Inflation Risk in Retirement: How Rising Prices Erode Your Purchasing Power

Key Takeaways Inflation is the silent threat to retirement income — at just 3% annual inflation, your purchasing power drops by roughly 26% in 10 years and near

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Market & Economic Insights

Why Headline Inflation Doesn’t Match Your Grocery Bill

The official inflation number is built around a working-age household. For retirees, the gap between the headline and the lived experience at the grocery store

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Market and Money Mindset

The Retirement Confidence Gap: Why Women Need a Different Financial Plan

Key Takeaways Women live an average of 5-6 years longer than men, which means their retirement savings must last significantly longer — often 25-30+ years. The

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Market & Economic Insights

What a 10% Market Correction Actually Means for Retirees

A 10% market correction sounds frightening if you are retired. The actual math — and what to do about it — is calmer than the headlines suggest. Here is how the

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Market and Money Mindset

Dollar-Cost Averaging vs. Lump Sum Investing in Retirement

Key Takeaways Historically, lump sum investing outperforms dollar-cost averaging about two-thirds of the time — because markets rise more often than they fall,

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Investing & Trading

What Technical Analysis Can and Cannot Do for Traders

Technical analysis is a real tool, but a narrow one. From a trader’s seat: what charts can do — managing risk, gauging conviction, timing entries — and what the

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Market and Money Mindset

Dividend Stocks in Retirement: Why Chasing Yield Can Backfire

Dividend stocks in retirement feel like free money. A check shows up every quarter without selling a single share. For retirees, that feels safer than selling s

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Market and Money Mindset

The Psychology of Spending in Retirement: Why It Is Harder Than Saving

The Psychology of Spending in Retirement: Why It Is Harder Than Saving You spent 30 or 40 years building this nest egg. Every paycheck, you set something aside.

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Where to start

Start free. Go as deep as you want.

Four ways to get your Social Security and retirement decisions right — beginning with the free guide and the free calculator, all the way to the book and the binder.

01Free

The free Social Security guide

The claiming questions most people get wrong — answered in plain English, with the numbers that actually move the decision.

Download it free→

02Free tool

The Social Security calculator

Run your own claiming scenarios in minutes and see what waiting — or filing early — is really worth to you.

Open the calculator→

03$8.99

Social Security Decisions Made Simple

Every claiming decision that matters — spousal, survivor, taxes, the earnings test — in one plain-English place, with current 2026 figures.

See the book→

04Printable

The Just in Case Binder

The printable that lets your spouse find every account, policy, and password — without guessing — when it matters most.

See the binder→

Keep exploring

The other retirement decisions.

Claiming & benefits

Social Security

When to claim, spousal and survivor strategy, the earnings test, taxes on benefits, and the costly mistakes to avoid.

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Income & withdrawals

Retirement Planning

Turning a lifetime of savings into a dependable retirement paycheck — sequencing, withdrawals, and an income floor that lasts.

Explore Retirement Planning →

The Now / Soon / Later framework

Bucket Planning

Thomas's signature framework — Now for liquidity, Soon for a guaranteed income floor, Later for growth.

Explore Bucket Planning →

Coverage at 65+

Medicare & Healthcare

Choosing the right coverage, avoiding IRMAA surprises, and planning for healthcare costs in retirement.

Explore Medicare & Healthcare →

Keep more of it

Tax-Smart Retirement

Roth conversions, withdrawal order, RMDs after 73, and keeping more of every retirement dollar.

Explore Tax-Smart Retirement →