Divorce and Retiring Early. Two words that generally do not go well with each other. When a marriage dissolves, nobody comes out of it unscathed regardless of how the marriage ended. When children are involved it makes divorce even tougher to navigate. In any scenario...

Due to Covid-19 there are more and more companies offering early retirement buyout packages to their employees. If you are presented with such an offer, should you take it? The answer is: Well it depends. Your goal might have been to work a few more years before you...

For those who retired in the 1960’s and 70’s life was good. Back then it was common to work at one place for 30+ years, retire with a pension and have little debt. Companies were loyal to their employees. Credit cards were not commonplace, and people bought houses...

Hands down the number one question I get about how to retire early is regarding managing the costs of health care and prescriptions. GoodRx is a discount prescription service that could save you hundreds of dollars on your next refill. The service uses coupons and...

Yes, that is me in the middle of two beautiful girls. I don’t remember when or where it was taken although it appears to be at a wedding. I’m guessing that I’m around 10 years old which would make the other two girls the same age because they were in the same grade I...

For years you were too busy raising a family, climbing the corporate ladder and running non-stop in all directions and you haven’t really thought about retirement. Retirement had a default switch that was always set on age 65. You’ve always thought “That’s when people...

With a thorough retirement plan, you can eliminate a lot of potential problems in the future.  However, no matter how good your retirement plan is there are still unforeseen issues that could derail your retirement goals. Here are the Top 4 Unforeseen Retirement...

We all have dreams or have had them at one point or another. Some are born from our childhood and other’s come along as we live our lives. We might dream of a better life, to earn more money, to drive a better car or have a beachfront home. There are some dreams that...

It’s time to get your financial house in order but you don’t know where to start. Your biggest asset is your 401k so do you start with retirement planning? But then you think about the other money you have in real estate, a college savings account and at the bank. You...

It’s been over two and a half years since I sold my financial advising practice and walked away. Trapped, burned out, stressed out and running on empty, I felt the need to make a change. During my time off, I’ve written a book, developed an online course, written over...

If someone were to ask, “What do you pay in taxes?”, most people would respond based on what tax bracket they are in. “I’m in the 24% tax bracket.”  While that might be the right answer for your tax bracket, it would be the wrong answer to what you really pay in...

When I was a young kid, I once met a man who had spent most of his life in an Iron Lung after contracting polio. An Iron Lung was a machine that encompassed most of a person’s body and assisted them with breathing when they could no longer do so on their own. I...

The answer to whether you should buy Long-Term Care Insurance lies in 70/70/100. What does 70/70/100 mean?  70% of folks 70 and older will need some sort of long-term care but 100% of people say it won’t be them.  Most people are just in denial regarding their...

You work and save for 35+ years and now it’s time to retire. Your heart says yes but in the back of your head there still might be doubt. “Will I outlive my money?” or “Do I have enough money?” With a well thought out and constructed plan, you’ll have those answers in...

As the son of a funeral director, it's ironic for me to report that just about 60% of people who die each year do so without having a will. I’d argue that putting a will in place is probably the most procrastinated personal finance task that there is. Planning your...

One of Warren Buffet’s most famous quotes is “Be Fearful when others are Greedy. Be Greedy when others are Fearful.” I’d suggest it’s fair to say that fear has ruled the day over the past couple of months. We have seen the fastest decline in history from an all-time...

According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, 48% of people over age 55 have nothing saved for retirement. That’s a scary high number which makes you wonder how that many people got to 55 without putting any money aside. I’m willing to bet that some of that...

In these uncertain times, we have created a community where we can help each other with retirement planning through discussion and education, no matter the financial environment or our own differing situations: the Retirement Made Simple Facebook Group. The group is...

As a financial advisor since 1993, I’ve gone through the Bond Market crash of 1994, the Tech bubble crash of 2001-2002 and the Financial crisis of 2008-early 2009 all the while holding my clients' hands throughout these crashes.   Here are five things you can do...

As a society, we have become more mobile and people are moving away from their childhood homes and neighborhoods to seek jobs and adventure. Times have changed and now family and friends are scattered all over the country. Aging parents live 500 miles away or your...

What is an HSA (a Health Savings Account), and should you have or use one? Simply put, they are often used to pay for qualified health-related expenses using pre-tax money. As of 2020, an individual can contribute $3,550 and $7,100 for a family with a $1000 catch-up...

What a lot of people, including financial advisors, get wrong is this: all they look at when planning for retirement are current financial numbers. What they miss is what your future lifestyle is going to cost you. That's a big deal. Here's the key question: What is...

It’s been said that the average person spends more time each year planning their vacation than they do planning their finances.  When you think about that, it’s truly a sad statement. You work all of your life to save money for retirement, yet most people spend very...

When I was a young adult, I made about every financial mistake a person could make. Now I’m 51 years old, I have been a financial advisor for the past 26 years and I have two children of my own who I hope will avoid the same mistakes I made. This article is for them...

Society’s standard on retirement is at the age of 65 when you can start Medicare. There are many in the media and entertainment industry that will tell that you need to have a minimum of $1 million dollars saved. Those two thoughts would work for almost anyone of...

The Secure Act, which stands for Setting Every Community Up For Retirement Enhancement, was signed into law several weeks ago. As with anything that the government does, it’s fair to ask “Is this really going to be a benefit or not.” Here’s what you need to know about...

As many of you know the Roth IRA is my favorite retirement account because of the tax-free growth and withdrawals it offers. In 2020, the adjusted gross income (AGI) phase out for contributing to a Roth IRA is $196,000 to $206,000 for married couples filing jointly....

The Sequence of Returns risk is the risk that the stock market is going to take a deep dive near the beginning of your retirement. Now, why does this matter if the stock market does well over the long haul? Imagine if you retired in October 2007. You’ve saved all your...

Throughout my many years as a financial advisor, I’ve seen some lifestyles with outrageous monthly costs. There have been business owners that are barely breaking even. I’ve seen retirees with large amounts of debt and mortgage payments. These folks lived month to...

You've heard me mention that a vital part of your DIAL is "Income". Depending on your situation you may need supplementary income, or a more robust stream. In our day and age, unorthodox ways to earn income are no longer unorthodox. Affiliate Marketing is an excellent...

To live and thrive as humans, we require certain basic necessities such as food, water, shelter, sleep and companionship. Whether right now or at the beginning of human history, these five items can provide for a happy and healthy life. At some point in time though,...

Airbnb has grown tremendously over the years in popularity, although it’s not a risk-free endeavor. Many cities are starting to regulate the use of Airbnb’s with restrictions on how and where an Airbnb is legal. Taking a deeper dive, some homeowner associations are...

FIRE stands for Financial Independence Retire Early and if you are researching retiring early you’ve certainly stumbled across the FIRE movement.  FIRE first came into light in the book “Your money or your Life” written by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez back in 1992. ...

Over the years we’ve all heard that you’ll need at least $1 million dollars when you retire. If you listen to Suze Orman, she’ll tell you that you’ll need $5 million if you plan on retiring early. Depending on the lifestyle you want to live most of us will get by just...

Hiring a financial advisor can be a stressful process because it’s hard to know where to start.  Do a quick google search and it’s likely that you’ll have hundreds of advisors in your general area to choose from. Here are 8 tips to keep in mind when searching for a...

We all have fears. Some are as basic as a fear of spiders, snakes... or a big favorite: public speaking. Then some are much more complex such as the fear of making a life change. There is a sense of comfort that comes along with consistency and routine. For some,...

Before writing the book, Retire Early What are you waiting for? I created a process I call DIAL into Retirement and it’s the same process I used in order to retire at age 48. My goal with the DIAL was to simplify the retirement process and make it easy for everyone to...

How much money is enough for you to retire? Is it $250,000, $500,000, $1,000,000, $2,000,000 or perhaps more? How much money will you need to retire early? If you listen to the personal finance entertainers on TV, you might need as much as $6,000,000 to retire early....

This has been an active debate in the personal finance space for many years. Ask most people and they will answer “Term Insurance is the way to go because you can buy term and invest the rest.” Ask an insurance salesperson and you’ll get “Buy whole life because it...

Last year one of my most popular blog series was a “How to Retire On..." $100,000, $50,000, $25,000 and $10,000. This was an exercise of imagination and logistics based on how I would retire if I had a minimal dollar to work with. I included ideas on how I would...

The media is reporting on the inverted yield curves, repo market madness with the banks, student loan debt defaults and plenty of other areas of financial doom and gloom. With all the spooky talk of a recession let’s look at 5 ways you can lessen the risk in your...

During my 24-year career as a financial advisor, I saw just about everything you could see in the financial world. One area that intrigued me was the relationship people had with their money. Some folks guarded their money like it was their last dime whereas a lot of...

Living a non-traditional life can lead to a lifetime of adventure. Not only will you be able live as you wish but often it will lead to keeping more money in your bank account. The dream of a traditional home with a white picket fence is not as desired as it used to...

I was a full-service financial advisor for 24 years. It was the only career I ever had. Besides shoveling horse manure back on the farm I grew up on, it was really the only thing I knew how to do well. Often in my career, the manure I was dealing with in the financial...

It can feel like you’re dragging a big anchor around when you have a large amount of debt. Debt comes with stress and that can weigh on you mentally and get to the point where it even starts to affect you physically. Here are the 5 huge benefits to being Debt Free:...

One of the weekly blogs was about writing for additional income in retirement– and in that I referenced a piece I had done for International Living as an example that I would be sharing when it was available. Here it is! This is the article I wrote for International...

Webster’s dictionary defines retirement as “withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from active working life.” Society further defines the standard for retirement to happen at the age of 65.  If you fall into line with society standards, then you can’t blame...

Did you know there are countries not too far from the U.S. where you can live really cheap? A large percentage of folks will never look at other options or even do the research to see what’s available to them, but it's true. Maybe this blog will start to get the...

I have seen life enter this world with the birth of my children and I’ve seen that life can exit this world without warning. The time in between birth and death is not assured. As a kid, I spent a good bit of time at the funeral home my family ran for over 100 years,...

The short answer is: Rarely. Pretty much gone are the days that you work for one company for 40 years and retire with a gold watch and a pension. Employees had opportunities to advance and move departments so as not to get stagnant in one job. Training and education...