Retirement Planning

You got a raise, a bonus landed, or your business had a better year than expected. Normally, that's good news. Then comes the Roth IRA question: “Did I just make too much money to contribute?” That's where Roth IRA income limits get confusing. The IRS doesn't look at your salary alone. It uses...

No. Roth IRA contributions are not tax-deductible. You fund a Roth IRA with after-tax dollars, so putting $1,000 into a Roth IRA does not subtract $1,000 from your taxable income for the year. But that does not mean a Roth IRA has no tax benefit today. That is where this...

Ever had that sinking feeling around Tax Day? It's way more common than you think. One of my clients, “Deadline-Danielle,” a sharp project manager, called me in a flat panic last April. “Michael,” she said, “I meant to max out my Roth for last year, but my bonus pushed...

A Roth IRA contribution is new money put directly into a Roth IRA for a specific tax year. For 2026, the IRS says the combined annual limit for traditional and Roth IRA contributions is $7,500, or $8,600 if you're age 50 or older. Your allowable Roth contribution can be...

Alright, let's looks into Required Minimum Distributions, or RMDs. If you're cruising into age 73 in 2026, or perhaps you're already there, Uncle Sam has a yearly to-do list for you: start taking withdrawals from most of those retirement accounts you’ve so carefully built up.  Doesn't it feel a bit like finally...

The best asset allocation for a retiree is not determined by age alone. It should reflect how much of your spending must come from the portfolio, how soon you will need the money, your ability to tolerate losses, and how much growth you still need for a retirement that...

Will Social Security run out before you retire? You’re not alone if you’ve lost sleep over that question—especially with headlines about trust fund depletion and benefit cuts making the news almost daily. Just recently, one of my clients gasped when she learned her expected benefit could be slashed by...

The 4% rule is a retirement-withdrawal starting point, not a promise. The basic idea is simple: withdraw 4% of your portfolio in the first year of retirement, then adjust that dollar amount for inflation in later years. But your actual spending plan also depends on retirement length, asset allocation,...

Alright, let's talk retirement savings. You're likely here because you're wondering, maybe even worrying, if you're actually putting away enough. It’s the question I heard constantly over 25 years of advising real people. Engineers, teachers, small business owners. They’d used generic online calculators, got a big confusing number, and...

Look, if you've been with Publix for a while, you probably own a decent chunk of stock. That's great, it shows you believed in the company and stuck around. But here's the thing: having too much of your net worth in any single stock is risky as hell for...