Retirement GPS Radio (Senior Retirement and Income Solutions)

This summer's Social Security and Medicare trustees report sounds the alarm on two trust funds, then calls Medicare Parts B and D “adequately financed into the indefinite future.” This week Retirement GPS Radio explains why that fund can never run out: its funding is reset every year, and the bill lands on retirees as rising premiums and IRMAA surcharges taken straight out of Social Security checks. Then a walk through one couple's case where Roth conversions cut lifetime taxes from about $5.1 million to $894,000.

The United States crossed $40 trillion in debt on August 19th — climbing about five and a half million dollars a minute. This week Retirement GPS Radio skips the outrage and talks about what it means for money you spent decades saving, and how a side-by-side look at both paths lets the math, not opinions, decide.

A deep dive on conversions and the Widow’s Penalty. This week Retirement GPS Radio uses the Tax Scorecard to show the other side of the pre-tax equation: one couple’s total retirement taxes and surcharges came to about $2.6 million through age 95, even after every deduction.

In football, the red zone is the last twenty yards — the highest-value, least forgiving real estate on the field. This week Retirement GPS Radio applies it to the years around retirement: why a plan that dominated for decades can still lose, what actual market returns do to a “safe” 5% withdrawal, and the Happiness Dividend that a retirement buffer can pay.

“They got rid of tax on Social Security.” We hear it at the firm almost weekly, and it isn’t true. This week Retirement GPS Radio unpacks what the One Big Beautiful Bill actually did: a new senior bonus deduction of up to $6,000 per person that phases out as income rises and expires on its current path in 2029. Then the Tax Torpedo itself: how ordinary retirement withdrawals can drag your Social Security into taxation, and what to do about it while the window is open.

While paying voluntary tax is likely an insulting thought, so many retirees are setup to do exactly that. The US Treasury has a big heart and will accept voluntary taxes from retirees--but we think you shouldn't pay them. This week, we aim to inform you on how to start paying way less in taxes in retirement on your accounts and keep more of what's yours. 

Almost all retirement goals combine to one common end: peace and confidence in retirement. What retirement strategies tend to support that aim, and which--unknowingly--tend to diminish the likelihood of its achievement? Today, we how to bring your retirement assets and strategies into alignment with your goals. 

Protecting the luster of the golden years can be more challenging than most realize. The path is fraught with pitfalls and false allures, but knowing where they are gives you a distinct advantage in overcoming them. Today we cover 9 myths that can turn your retirement blue--and what to do about them. 

More yield. Better Social Security timing. Higher returns. Retirees try all of it in the quest for maximum income. Some of it works. Some of it backfires. And almost none of it compares to the one strategy that can increase what you actually keep by 30, 40, even 50 percent — without taking a single dollar of additional risk. This week — the quest for max income.
 

Here's the cruelest twist in retirement planning: the people most likely to get hit with IRMAA are the ones who saved the most. The harder you worked and the more you saved, the bigger the target on your back. This week we're talking about the IRMAA Ambush — what it is, how it finds you, and what you can do about it.