Income & withdrawals

Retirement Planning

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

Articles

Retirement Planning, explained

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Retirement Income Coordination

The Social Security Family Maximum — When Household Claiming Hits the Cap

Most retirement content quietly assumes household Social Security stacks cleanly — worker plus spouse plus each child at full theoretical share. It doesn’t. The

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Retirement & Wealth Planning

What Inflation Actually Erodes in Retirement — and What It Doesn’t

Most retirement plans treat inflation as a single number. It isn’t. A few categories compound mercilessly for thirty years; others don’t move at all. Here’s how

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Retirement & Wealth Planning

Bucket Planning Without a Pension: Building the Income Floor From Scratch

Most retirees today aren’t building bucket planning on top of a pension — they’re building the income floor from scratch. Here’s how to engineer it using delaye

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Retirement Income Coordination

Downsizing in Retirement: The Financial Case for Right-Sizing Your Home

Alt text: A well-kept smaller home with a sold sign in a walkable retirement-friendly neighborhood. Downsizing in Retirement: The Financial Case for Right-Sizin

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Retirement & Wealth Planning

The Roth Conversion Window Between Retirement and Social Security

Between your last paycheck and Social Security, your taxable income temporarily collapses — and that’s when Roth conversions cost least. Here’s how to size and

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Retirement Income Coordination

Social Security Suspension: When It Still Makes Sense

Voluntary suspension after Full Retirement Age can lift a Social Security benefit by 8 percent for every year it stays paused — but the version that survived th

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Retirement & Wealth Planning

Sequence of Returns Risk and Three Defenses That Actually Work

Two retirees with the same average return can end up with wildly different retirement outcomes, entirely because of when the bad years arrived. Here is why sequ

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Retirement & Wealth Planning

Bucket Planning With a Pension: How the Math Actually Changes

A pension does something almost nothing else in the retirement toolkit can do at scale — it puts a permanent floor under your bills. Here’s how that one structu

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Retirement Income Coordination

Reverse Mortgages: When They Make Sense and When They Don’t

Reverse Mortgages: When They Make Sense and When They Don’t Table of Contents What Is a Reverse Mortgage (HECM)? How Reverse Mortgages Work: Your Payment Option

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Retirement & Wealth Planning

The 7 RMD Mistakes That Quietly Cost Retirees Money

Required Minimum Distributions are mechanical — the IRS calculates the number, the custodian displays it, and the penalty for missing it is automatic. None of t

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Retirement & Wealth Planning

From SSDI to Retirement: What Changes When You Hit Full Retirement Age

If you’ve been on SSDI for years, your benefit doesn’t end at full retirement age — it converts. The check looks identical, but the rules underneath change in w

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Retirement & Wealth Planning

Asset Location vs. Asset Allocation: The Tax Lever Most Retirement Savers Miss

Asset allocation gets all the attention. But where you hold each asset class — pre-tax, Roth, or taxable — can change your after-tax retirement income by a mean

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Retirement & Wealth Planning

Why Bucket Planning Beats Systematic Withdrawal for Most Retirees

Systematic withdrawal asks the wrong question for most retirees — and the answer breaks down in the year that matters most. Here’s why bucket planning is the fr

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Retirement & Wealth Planning

Does Working Longer Actually Raise Your Social Security?

Working one more year doesn’t automatically raise your Social Security benefit. It depends entirely on what that year replaces in your top 35 earning years. Her

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Retirement & Wealth Planning

How (and When) to Refill the Now Bucket: Quarterly, Annually, or Triggered?

Calendar refills work fine in accumulation, when new money flows in every paycheck. They get a lot less safe the moment you start spending the portfolio — here

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Retirement & Wealth Planning

The Social Security Restricted Application That Most People Think Is Dead — But Still Works for Widows and Widowers

The 2015 Bipartisan Budget Act killed the version of the restricted application that retirement planners loved most. But it didn’t touch the survivor-benefit ve

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Retirement & Wealth Planning

How a Roth Conversion Affects Your Social Security Taxation

Roth conversions and Social Security taxation interact in ways that quietly determine how much of your benefit Uncle Sam keeps. The bridge years between retirem

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Retirement Income Coordination

The Best Order to Withdraw from Retirement Accounts

Key Takeaways The conventional wisdom — taxable first, tax-deferred second, Roth last — is a solid starting point but isn’t always optimal for every retiree in

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Retirement & Wealth Planning

The Later Bucket: How to Get Your Retirement Growth Allocation Right

A bucket strategy doesn’t just organize your money — it changes how aggressive your growth portfolio can safely be. Here’s how to size and allocate the Later bu

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Retirement & Wealth Planning

Account Ordering in Retirement: Which Accounts to Drain First (and Why)

The textbook rule is taxable, then traditional, then Roth. For most retirees with all three account types, following that rule blindly leaves $50,000 to $200,00

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Retirement & Wealth Planning

WEP and GPO Repeal: What It Means for Your Social Security

The Social Security Fairness Act repealed WEP and GPO, retroactive to January 2024. Here’s what changed for public-sector retirees, what still applies, and why

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Retirement & Wealth Planning

Sizing Your Soon Bucket: How to Set Your Retirement Income Floor Target

Most retirement plans size the income bucket by guessing a portfolio percentage. The right way is to start with essential expenses, subtract guaranteed income,

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Retirement & Wealth Planning

The 4% Rule: What It Actually Says, What It Doesn’t, and What to Use Instead

The 4% rule is a research finding asked to do a job it wasn’t designed for. It’s a useful sanity check, not a personal retirement plan. The better question isn’

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Retirement Income Coordination

Cash Reserves in Retirement: How Much Liquidity Do You Really Need?

Picture a hypothetical retired couple with $3.2 million in retirement savings. Nearly $900,000 of it is sitting in money market funds and savings accounts. They

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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.

Explore Social Security →

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 →

Staying the course

Markets & Investing

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

Explore Markets & Investing →