Planning & Risk
What retirees say they got wrong
Surveys and accounts from people already retired converge on a short list of regrets.
Retirement Wealth Planner — The arithmetic before the advice
Planning & Risk
The plan in one page
Everything on this site reduced to a single document you could hand to a spouse, an executor or an adviser without explanation.
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Planning & Risk
Fraud and how retirees are targeted
The specific patterns are well documented, and knowing the script is most of the protection.
Planning & Risk
Talking to family about money
Conversations that are avoided for decades and then have to happen in a hospital corridor.
Healthcare Costs
Health as a financial asset
The return on maintaining physical function in later life exceeds most available financial decisions.
Taxes in Retirement
Keeping records that someone else can follow
Documentation is needed decades after the event, by people who were not there when it happened.
Social Security
What to do about a shortfall
Where the projection does not work, the options are limited, real, and better taken early.
Accounts & Vehicles
All accounts & vehicles →
Accounts & Vehicles
Simplifying a portfolio you already have
Most portfolios accumulate holdings rather than being designed, and reducing the number is generally an improvement.
Accounts & Vehicles
Insurance you still need and insurance you do not
Retirement changes which risks need transferring, and several policies bought during working life stop being necessary.
Accounts & Vehicles
Investment costs and what they actually take
Fees are the one element of investment returns that is knowable in advance, and they compound the same way returns do.
Withdrawal Strategy
All withdrawal strategy →
Withdrawal Strategy
Withdrawing in a way you can actually follow
The best withdrawal strategy is the one that gets executed, which usually means the simplest one that works.
Withdrawal Strategy
What to do when markets fall
A short list of actions that are useful during a decline, and a shorter list of actions to avoid.
Withdrawal Strategy
Concentrated positions and what to do about them
A large holding in one company is the most common serious portfolio problem, and unwinding it has a tax cost that makes people freeze.
Social Security
All social security →Social Security
What to do about a shortfall
Where the projection does not work, the options are limited, real, and better taken early.
Social Security
Benefits for veterans and their families
A set of entitlements that are substantial, under-claimed, and separate from the Social Security system.
Social Security
Pensions that interact with Social Security
Public sector workers with pensions from non-covered employment have faced specific provisions that recently changed.
Taxes in Retirement
All taxes in retirement →Taxes in Retirement
Keeping records that someone else can follow
Documentation is needed decades after the event, by people who were not there when it happened.
Taxes in Retirement
Deductions retirees frequently miss
A handful of provisions that apply specifically to older taxpayers and are routinely left unclaimed.
Taxes in Retirement
Gifts to family and how they are treated
Helping adult children and grandchildren has tax rules that are simpler than most people assume and consequences that are not.
Healthcare Costs
All healthcare costs →Healthcare Costs
Health as a financial asset
The return on maintaining physical function in later life exceeds most available financial decisions.
Healthcare Costs
Nursing homes, assisted living and the differences
The categories are distinct in what they provide, what they cost and what pays for them, and the distinctions matter.
Healthcare Costs
Cognitive decline and protecting finances
Financial capability declines before it becomes obvious, and the protections have to be set up while capacity is intact.
Planning & Risk
All planning & risk →
Planning & Risk
The plan in one page
Everything on this site reduced to a single document you could hand to a spouse, an executor or an adviser without explanation.
Planning & Risk
What retirees say they got wrong
Surveys and accounts from people already retired converge on a short list of regrets.
Planning & Risk
Fraud and how retirees are targeted
The specific patterns are well documented, and knowing the script is most of the protection.
About Retirement Wealth Planner
Accounts, withdrawal rates, Social Security timing, taxes, healthcare and the sequence risk that decides whether a retirement plan holds. We publish explanatory articles rather than news, which means an article here is written to still be useful a year from now. Every piece is bylined, sourced and read by an editor before it appears — the full process is set out in our editorial policy.