- 14
- Episodes
- 3
- Ratings
- 2024
- First episode
About Navigating the Retirement Risk Zone
The Retirement Risk Zone is the period of time that begins roughly 10 years before retirement and ends 10 years into retirement. During that time, you will make many of the most consequential financial decisions of your life, including your exact retirement date and age, when to claim social security, how to claim Medicare, how to reposition your retirement assets, as well as how to create an income from retirement savings. So much focus is put on the accumulation (Savings phase) of retirement, or the distribution (spending phase) of retirement that the risk zone often gets overlooked despite its importance. This podcast is designed to not only help you navigate the retirement risk zone but thrive in retirement. My name is Eric Amzalag, I am a Certified Financial Planner TM, Retirement Income Certified Professional, and owner of the independent Financial Planning and Wealth Management Firm Peak Financial Planning. Let's explore retirement income planning, social security, retirement investing, and retirement satisfaction together. Happy Retirement Planning!
- Publisher
- Eric Amzalag
- Category
- business · education
- Language
- en
- Explicit
- No
- First episode
- 28 Apr 2024
- Latest episode
- 4 Dec 2024
Latest episodes
14 episodes in the feed.
4 Dec 2024
How to evaluate a retirement investment portfolio
Eric Amzalag, CFP®, RICP®, shares 3 critical ways to manage risk in your retirement portfolio and deploy your cash, reduce risk, or shield from volatility.
20 Nov 2024
Is The 1% Rule Actually Worthwhile in Retirement?
Eric Amzalag, CFP®, RICP®, weighs the merits of the 1% rule in retirement, revealing when a one-off financial planning fee is more beneficial than a percentage of assets under management fee.
30 Oct 2024
50% Outrun Savings in Retirement? Here's Why They're Wrong...
I came across a retirement finance article recently that really sent me loopy. The title was: Almost 50% of US households will outrun their savings in retirement — but this 1 money move could sustain your nest egg The article quotes a study from the Morningstar Center for Retirement & Policy Studies. Once I got past how misleading and malicious the headline was, the content underneath was actually reasonably good. But I thought I’d make a quick video on the matter to show you all, people looking to retire happily and well, how the machine is working against you. If you found this episode helpful, subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. Also, I'd greatly appreciate it if you gave a rating and review. It helps other people just like you find the podcast and benefit from discussions on these topics as well. Eric Amzalag, CFP®, RICP® _ _ Want help with your Retirement Plan? Schedule a free consultation (https://www.thepeakfp.com/free-consultation) Email me: Eric@thepeakfp.com Visit my Youtube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/@thepeakfp) #retirement #howmuchtoretire #retirementplanning #rothira #rothconversion #investing #401k #socialsecurity
16 Oct 2024
The #1 Sign You Can Retire Earlier Than You Think
People who are in a good place to retire often do things that others do not - knowingly or unknowingly. See, retirement is all about having plans in place. Proactive plans that tell you what you SHOULD do. But also REACTIVE plans that tell you what to do in case of an emergency. These REACTIVE plans are what you rely on when one of your proactive plans goes wrong. The group of people who are unknowingly in a good position to retire early are frequently there because they have been better about preparing their PROACTIVE plans. If you found this episode helpful, subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. Also, I'd greatly appreciate it if you gave a rating and review. It helps other people just like you find the podcast and benefit from discussions on these topics as well. Eric Amzalag, CFP®, RICP® _ _ Want help with your Retirement Plan? Schedule a free consultation (https://www.thepeakfp.com/free-consultation) Email me: Eric@thepeakfp.com Visit my Youtube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/@thepeakfp) #retirement #howmuchtoretire #retirementplanning #rothira #rothconversion #investing #401k #socialsecurity
25 Sept 2024
Stop Paying RMD Taxes: How To Avoid Costly RMD Mistakes
No one wants to pay taxes - not before retirement, and certainly not IN retirement. Today we are going to talk about Required Minimum Distributions and how to minimize the tax consequences of those RMDs. The truth about taxes in retirement is very different from what we are led to believe online… It’s very easy to feel like there is a “tax bomb” somewhere in your future. It would be reasonable for that “tax bomb” to instill fear in you. But the reality is that fear - especially when it comes to taxes - often leads to decisions with consequences that we may not always be clear about. I'm going to illustrate this using a story. If you found this episode helpful, subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. Also, I'd greatly appreciate it if you gave a rating and review. It helps other people just like you find the podcast and benefit from discussions on these topics as well. Eric Amzalag, CFP®, RICP® _ _ Want help with your Retirement Plan? Schedule a free consultation (https://www.thepeakfp.com/free-consultation) Email me: Eric@thepeakfp.com Visit my Youtube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/@thepeakfp) #retirement #howmuchtoretire #retirementplanning #rothira #rothconversion #investing #401k #socialsecurity
11 Sept 2024
How Much Should I Pay My Advisor? 1% vs Fee Only
In today’s video I’m going to do my best to address what might be the most frequently asked question when hiring a financial advisor - how much should I pay? I am a Certified Financial Planner and Owner of an Independent Financial Planning Firm, and every year, we help retirees build robust retirement plans that match their life goals. Despite the fact that I myself AM a financial advisor, and therefore am undoubtedly biased in this evaluation, I believe there are many routes to financial and retirement success - and many of those routes DO NOT require hiring a paid, professional financial advisor. But if you are in the position where you may want the help of a paid professional, it can be a truly daunting task to understand if you’re getting the value that you are paying for. In this video not only are we going to walk through how to identify whether or not you should hire a professional paid financial advisor, we are also going to compare and explain the different fee structures within which financial advice can be obtained. If you found this episode helpful, subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. Also, I'd greatly appreciate it if you gave a rating and review. It helps other people just like you find the podcast and benefit from discussions on these topics as well. Eric Amzalag, CFP®, RICP® _ _ Want help with your Retirement Plan? Schedule a free consultation (https://www.thepeakfp.com/free-consultation) Email me: Eric@thepeakfp.com Visit my Youtube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/@thepeakfp) #retirement #howmuchtoretire #retirementplanning #rothira #rothconversion #investing #401k #socialsecurity
21 Aug 2024
The Retirement Plans That Work For ALL Retirees
The 3 types of retirement plans (The Retirement Plans That Work For ALL Retirees) Today I am going to explain how to prioritize your retirement planning efforts if you are within 10 years of retirement. After building hundreds of financial plans, I’ve learned that there is an optimal “financial” order of operations that when used helps retiree’s save time and reduce stress. In this podcast I am going to share the exact protocol we use at our independent financial planning firm to help clients get the most done with the smallest investment of time. If I could summarize all the concepts from this video into 1 sentence it would be: A mediocre plan that you can execute over long periods of time is far better than an incredible plan that you eventually abandon. [...] The downloadable material referenced in the podcast can be found here. (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OsAHAwqA_Zf0eYXBAJ8d5SetySZaKdBAsPqLUIh2ygk/edit?usp=sharing) If you found this episode helpful, subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. Also, I'd greatly appreciate it if you gave a rating and review. It helps other people just like you find the podcast and benefit from discussions on these topics as well. Eric Amzalag, CFP®, RICP® _ _ Want help with your Retirement Plan? Schedule a free consultation (https://www.thepeakfp.com/free-consultation) Email me: Eric@thepeakfp.com Visit my Youtube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/@thepeakfp) #retirement #howmuchtoretire #retirementplanning #rothira #rothconversion #investing #401k #socialsecurity
10 Jul 2024
Retirement Planning Tools Will Ruin Your Retirement
Resources referenced in the video: Income Labs (https://incomelaboratory.com/) Everydollar (https://www.ramseysolutions.com/ramseyplus/everydollar) RPI Spreadsheet Calculator (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rjDmswOlsNvuaOHNqGAcEemQZlVZSlsFmxVE550KPiU/edit?usp=sharing) Better Portfolio Risk Measures (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNUMTwkQgp0-TC1PpAx7XP_ZlEKHKaI6L) If you found this episode helpful, subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. Also, I'd greatly appreciate it if you gave a rating and review. It helps other people just like you find the podcast and benefit from discussions on these topics as well. Eric Amzalag, CFP®, RICP® _ _ Want help with your Retirement Plan? Schedule a free consultation (https://www.thepeakfp.com/free-consultation) Email me: Eric@thepeakfp.com Visit my Youtube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/@thepeakfp) #retirement #howmuchtoretire #retirementplanning #rothira #rothconversion #investing #401k #socialsecurity
26 Jun 2024
How to Plan for Sequence of Returns Risk
In this episode I cover sequence of returns risk as thoroughly as one can cover it. The episode show notes include: What is sequence of returns risk? Sequence of returns risk is the risk of negative market returns near or during the time when you will take withdrawals from retirement assets. It’s particularly pernicious for people within 5-10 years of retirement or in the first 5 years of their retirement because it has an exponential effect on portfolio depletion Welcome back to Navigating the Retirement Risk Zone. I’m Eric Amzalag, Certified Financial Planner and Retirement Income Certified Professional. I am the owner of Fee Only Financial Planning firm Peak Financial Planning. For the next 15-20 minutes we are going to go deep down the rabbit hole of sequence of returns risk - not academically, but very practically. I’ll explain what it is, how to understand it, and how to plan for it in your retirement planning efforts. You’ll want to stick around to the last third of this podcast where I’ll address the investment specific strategy. Two layered principals that make up SORR The unequal relationship between market declines and positive returns Give example from spreadsheet what happens when we add in distributions on top of market declines Example relationship from spreadsheet Why SORR is particularly pernicious in retirement planning tools Most retirement planning tools will default to straight line illustrations (straight line rate of return) If you don’t look under the hood, you will get blindsided How do we plan for/ protect against sequence of returns? Comprehension 1 - Understand the two components mentioned before - the unequal relationship between market growth and market decline and the time it takes to recover 2 - understanding portfolio withdrawals additional impact on that recovery timeline Proper Planning Don’t rely on Monte Carlo or retirement planning tools probability of success - it will mislead you Stress test your financial plan with multiple “investment return scenarios” as well as multiple withdrawal / spending strategy scenarios Bottom up withdrawal to investment strategy Usually we begin with asset allocation in mind - and it is important and should be addressed but planning for sequence of returns Withdrawal rules - something like: withdraw from portfolio returns when portfolio values are up (to preserve cash and cash like investments), withdraw from cash and cash like investments when portfolio is down (to allow time for investments that have lost value to recover) Depending on ability and level of wealth, build an asset allocation that will support that withdrawal strategy Each person will need to determine the amount of cash/cash like investments they can support in their portfolio and still meet their desired spending in retirement. Fill in the asset allocation with specific and appropriate investments that actively support the hedging goal - don’t blindly purchase funds that fit the asset allocation at a categorical level - an easy example of where people go wrong is thinking that intermediate and long term bonds are actually LOW VOLATILITY and are “cash like” because the asset allocation says that the bond part of the portfolio is the defensive part. Share anecdote about result of 2022 market correction and int+long bonds getting clapped. Diversify out of concentrated positions Having more individual investments reduces “concentration risk” and allows for investment specific pruning when markets decline. A 3 fund portfolio only has so many areas where you can prune while waiting out a recovery Thinking about planning for sequence of returns It’s like purchasing insurance When things are going well, we think we don’t need it But in many areas of our lives, we buy insurance. Even though we hope we never need to rely on it - and will be thrilled if we get through life without having to call upon it, we still purchase it because it is prudent Portfolio strategies to protect against SORR serve the same function When markets are going up - it will feel unpleasant to watch the “hedge” in your portfolio underperforming the rest of the portfolio. It is not an investment strategy if you do not have a hedge - that is called gambling. If you found this episode helpful, subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. Also, I'd greatly appreciate it if you gave a rating and review. It helps other people just like you find the podcast and benefit from discussions on these topics as well. Eric Amzalag, CFP®, RICP® _ _ Want help with your Retirement Plan? Schedule a free consultation (https://www.thepeakfp.com/free-consultation) Email me: Eric@thepeakfp.com Visit my Youtube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/@thepeakfp) #retirement #howmuchtoretire #retirementplanning #rothira #rothconversion #investing #401k #socialsecurity
12 Jun 2024
How to Know When You Can Spend More In Retirement
This episode will detail how we help clients understand when they can SPEND MORE in retirement. Retirement is all about matching how much you would like to spend, with how many years you expect to live, with how large a portfolio you will need to support that spending. The permission to spend problem arises bc of the amount of uncertainty around this spiraling formula. And what ends up happening is without a good grasp of how to measure risk and likelihoods of success, we tend to default to being OVERLY CONSERVATIVE, thus the permission to spend problem. Why You Should Care About the problem The goal of saving all those years is to maximize your satisfaction later in life - to rely less on work and more on savings to support the activities you want in life. Shift retirement from fear to fun What contributes to the problem Psychology The fear of running out of money The “paralysis” that comes from having too many things to consider but no great way to prioritize them Terrible “one size fits all” information The 4% rule ROTH conversions for everyone! Social Security at age 70 is ALWAYS the best! ACA subsidies because it’s free money! Taxes are ALWAYS bad How to solve the permission to spend problem Proper financial planning and education The educational process of building a plan (with the right guidance) hypertrophy your “distribution” or “pay yourself” muscle The educational process of building the plan and reviewing scenarios will help you appropriately determine if and which of the “one size fits all” information ACTUALLY applies to you. The if-than, or contingency plans will help remove the decision making friction The plan itself will help you prioritize the never ending set of action items or optimizations that can be done. Documenting and reviewing the plan regularly with a set cadence that you commit to (not too frequently, not too infrequently) will help prevent you from making impulsive (fear based) decisions and help you make decisive (confidence based) decisions. If you found this episode helpful, subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. Also, I'd greatly appreciate it if you gave a rating and review. It helps other people just like you find the podcast and benefit from discussions on these topics as well. Eric Amzalag, CFP®, RICP® _ _ Want help with your Retirement Plan? Schedule a free consultation (https://www.thepeakfp.com/free-consultation) Email me: Eric@thepeakfp.com Visit my Youtube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/@thepeakfp) #retirement #howmuchtoretire #retirementplanning #rothira #rothconversion #investing #401k #socialsecurity
30 May 2024
Social Security for Dummies
This podcast will cover all things social security. How social security works Explain 35 years of earning Full retirement age (what age it is) Early claiming (decreased benefit) Delayed claiming (increased benefit) How social security is taxed Explain the “Claiming decision” - factors to evaluate Other sources guaranteed income Portfolio size Early or later - push back risk by claiming earlier or bring forward risk by claiming later? Spouses guaranteed income Social Security as an investment Explain COLA (the power of it!) It’s an annuity - delegating investment responsibility The long term viability of social security and whether to plan for it According to a recent update (https://click.convertkit-mail4.com/xmuop09e34u6hr6gd0es5h0oe5lllbn/l2hehmh3qxxq4zc6/aHR0cHM6Ly9jcnIuYmMuZWR1L3NvY2lhbC1zZWN1cml0eXMtZmluYW5jaWFsLW91dGxvb2stdGhlLTIwMjMtdXBkYXRlLWluLXBlcnNwZWN0aXZlLw==) from the Center for Retirement Research: Likely changes to social security : Cost of living adjustment, reducing level of benefits, or increasing retirement age. Reducing the COLA by 1% per year would solve half of the social security shortfall Increase retirement age from 67 to 70 over a period of 12 years. This would solve half the social security shortfall Listen to the episode to learn more. If you found this episode helpful, subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. Also, I'd greatly appreciate it if you gave a rating and review. It helps other people just like you find the podcast and benefit from discussions on these topics as well. Eric Amzalag, CFP®, RICP® _ _ Want help with your Retirement Plan? Schedule a free consultation (https://www.thepeakfp.com/free-consultation) Email me: Eric@thepeakfp.com Visit my Youtube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/@thepeakfp) #retirement #howmuchtoretire #retirementplanning #rothira #rothconversion #investing #401k #socialsecurity
22 May 2024
You Can't Retire Until You Know THIS
In this episode we review a simple retirement formula that you can use to find the minimum amount of portfolio assets you would require on the day you retire. We call this formula the "Required Portfolio Income" formula. Required Portfolio Income is a fancy way of putting a dollar number to your expected distribution rate. Thinking only about distribution rates is very hard to relate to for most of us. We think in terms of dollars and cents. Therefore, translating that distribution rate into an actual dollar amount answers the question: How much money will I need to take out of my portfolio each year in retirement in DOLLARS. Getting familiar with this formula will help take your retirement planning efforts out of the theoretical and into the practical... Listen to the episode to learn more. If you found this episode helpful, subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. Also, I'd greatly appreciate it if you gave a rating and review. It helps other people just like you find the podcast and benefit from discussions on these topics as well. Eric Amzalag, CFP®, RICP® _ _ Want help with your Retirement Plan? Schedule a free consultation (https://www.thepeakfp.com/free-consultation) Email me: Eric@thepeakfp.com Visit my Youtube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/@thepeakfp)
15 May 2024
Retirement Plannings Missing Phase (The Retirement Risk Zone)
Avoiding retirement planning until JUST before you retire is extremely dangerous. To use an analogy we are all familiar with - it would be like waiting to lose weight until you have a heart attack scare. Planning for retirement is like turning the Titanic - not like turning a speed boat. You need time and runway to maneuver so that you don't make rushed decisions from a place of panic or urgency. This video will teach you the importance of retirement planning EARLY and educate you about THE MISSING PHASE OF RETIREMENT PLANNING so that you can take control of your financial future. By the end of the episode, you'll be ready to start your retirement planning and make sure you're on track for a SUCCESSFUL RETIREMENT. If you found this episode helpful, subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. Also, I'd greatly appreciate it if you gave a rating and review. It helps other people just like you find the podcast and benefit from discussions on these topics as well. Eric Amzalag, CFP®, RICP® _ _ Want help with your Retirement Plan? Schedule a free consultation (https://www.thepeakfp.com/free-consultation) Email me: Eric@thepeakfp.com Visit my Youtube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/@thepeakfp)
28 Apr 2024
4 Things The Most Successful Retirees Do...
4 Things the Most Successful Retirees Do... In this video we are discussing four key things that decrease the anxiety in retirement. Have a system for: 1) Retirement Certainty 2) Retirement Reliability 3) Retirement Predictability 4) Retirement Frequency Listen to the episode to learn more. If you found this episode helpful, subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. Also, I'd greatly appreciate it if you gave a rating and review. It helps other people just like you find the podcast and benefit from discussions on these topics as well. Eric Amzalag, CFP®, RICP® _ _ Want help with your Retirement Plan? Schedule a free consultation (https://www.thepeakfp.com/free-consultation) Email me: Eric@thepeakfp.com Visit my Youtube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/@thepeakfp)
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