Seeking a “Guide” for Decumulation

[Badger]

So, my accumulation phase of life is over and I have reached retirement. Now I’m seeking a guide (advisor, software, etc.) for my decumulation phase of life. Complex financial issues such as Roth conversions, tax efficient withdrawal strategy, Social Security, annuity considerations, estate planning, etc. must be planned and implemented.

What is the best resource you have found to assist you in this phase of your financial life?

Don't make the mistake of not planning for RMD.

Cheers!

 

[2HOTinPHX]

Josh seems like a money grubbing BS artist. Just saying......... He's working hard, running his business and taking his little chunk of your FIRE savings to be his own. His "neighborly" come-on is laughable.

You seem to have deep doubts too since you're still working despite having far, far more than enough to FIRE, despite those "doomsdayers saying you can never afford to retire."

Wow how do you really feel... LOL

So I take you don't like Josh....did you watch many of his videos? Is there anyone's advice you find trustworthy? Like OP were just looking for some good advice.

Not sure what you mean by second part about us having far more than enough to fire? What is enough?

 

[Sunset]

We are closing in on retirement I think. It's pretty scary when you mostly hear you need millions or you will run out of money... usually by those who have an interest in your continued contributions to their funds...
We have recently discovered Josh at Heritage Wealth Planning on YouTube. To us he seems to be the contrarian to all the retiring doomsdayers saying you can never afford to retire. He was in the industry and couldn't take all the BS. He took the risk and decided to start his own company where he could do things his way. He post a lot of videos on how you can retire on less than the industry keeps telling us. Took a little time for his off the cuff video style to grow on us but now we enjoy it. He seems like a neighbor trying to give you some good advice. https://youtube.com/c/HeritageWealthPlanning
He does offer some books he has written and financial planning course videos and planning service's on his own site. We have been contemplating using his services but are still in the research process.

https://heritagewealthplanning.com/
Interesting to hear what others might think.

What services would you be planning to use ?
What does he charge for those services ?

 

[2HOTinPHX]

https://heritagewealthplanning.com/fees/

I was thinking about his $250.00 Can I retire video course or his Financial planning for $1250.00.

We have been watching lot of videos on YouTube and taking notes and making our own spreadsheets...trying Firecalc...but the devil is in the details....seems like some software like the OP was looking for would be helpful to max withdrawal and tax strategies.
I like Josh's videos cause he seems honestly trying to tell us time is precious and limited and no need to keep working that crappy old job as long as the system tells you.

It's been hard to go from we'll never be able to afford to retire mentality to hey maybe we can. Covid and loosing people around us has really made us question everything.... tomorrow is not a given for anyone.

 

[Midpack]

Like many questions here, it depends on your capabilities, interest and specific needs - what works perfectly for one, may be useless to someone else. I want to “see the work” when it comes to financial decisions as big as retirement financial plans - the difference between a good and bad plan is 6-7 $ figures for many. And some significant mistakes can’t be undone. I wouldn’t just take someone’s (or some online calculator) recommendations without proof…

Not for the faint of heart, but the most convincing decumulation planning tool I found was https://www.incomestrategy.com/. A $20 subscription for just one month was all I needed to actually show me why I needed to do Roth conversions among other things. None of the free ones even come close to proving the case, some are “black boxes” - not convincing IMO.

I recently re-subscribed to Income Strategy for $20, to recheck their recommendations since implemented 3 years ago, and there have been some changes such as the SECURE act. The interface has changed a little, and it's still very useful, but they've stripped out some of the details that I enjoyed having back in 2019. And it still takes some time to learn, not for the faint of heart. But it's still only $20 for a one month subscription, all I needed in 2019 and again in 2022. So I'm tempering my Income Strategy recommendations somewhat. FWIW

 

[barak]

Don't make the mistake of not planning for RMD.

Cheers!

Got'em on the radar, thanks.

 

[Sunset]

https://heritagewealthplanning.com/fees/

I was thinking about his $250.00 Can I retire video course or his Financial planning for $1250.00.

We have been watching lot of videos on YouTube and taking notes and making our own spreadsheets...trying Firecalc...but the devil is in the details....seems like some software like the OP was looking for would be helpful to max withdrawal and tax strategies.
I like Josh's videos cause he seems honestly trying to tell us time is precious and limited and no need to keep working that crappy old job as long as the system tells you.

It's been hard to go from we'll never be able to afford to retire mentality to hey maybe we can. Covid and loosing people around us has really made us question everything.... tomorrow is not a given for anyone.

I went to his site, and wanted to watch the preview videos he offers, but turns out "This video is not available. Please contact the instructor for more information."

Not a good sign.

Over the years I've been on this site, I've seen people ask various questions, usually the first often is: I have $X , can I retire ?
It's informative, nobody makes money answering, so the answer is not swayed by $$.

On YouTube I listened to his video "How Much Income DO You Need in Retirement? (Not Even Close To ... "

Ignoring the dramatic bashing of other companies, and the pseudo/bizarre religion espoused, and bashing of some individual in the IRS, he does say some good stuff:

1. Pay off ALL debts. (Often stated by folks here).
2. You can retire with less than 85% of working income (Also stated by often by folks here, and is obvious as a person would not have to save for retirement once retired, and no work expenses, etc).

However, his 22 minute video could have been shortened to 2 minutes or less if he didn't bash the world.

 

[RetireBy90]

By the way I have now become my wife's fiduciary FA. She has a little understanding of our retirement finances but I am not sure how well she could do once I my bucket is kicked. So I have set up an easy list of instruction to follow to stay financially safe, how to deal with the investments, which areas from which to draw money, where to take tax papers, what new changes takes place once she is single, etc.

Cheers!

So my DW is likewise not as familiar and no desire to learn so we have an FA from Fido we meet with each year so DW can work with her if I go first. Good idea to have a succession plan if both of you aren’t involved.

I setup our plan myself as part of the accumulation phase, but soon found I had not planned very well. My first year there were lots of reading here and elsewhere, and now we are good with plan working very well except I need to bust the scotch budget when I write checks for tax man.

 

[target2019]

Wow how do you really feel... LOL

So I take you don't like Josh....did you watch many of his videos? Is there anyone's advice you find trustworthy? Like OP were just looking for some good advice.

Not sure what you mean by second part about us having far more than enough to fire? What is enough?

I didn't raise your ire, but this is what I think.

If you're of sound mind, read a few books by Bogle or Bernstein. I trust them.

If your needs are more than that, adn you have concerns about wealth management for heirs, then you need a local trusted adviser, not a digital huckster.

The sales pitch, "I am not like others in the financial industry" is repeated at every meeting I've been to while researching these pitches as a volunteer.

You could start a thread here and get a lot of valuable advice too.

 

[2HOTinPHX]

Well I think I am of sound mind... LOL...but in this day and age who really knows?
Interested in what kind of research you were doing in these guys.

Will eventually get around to posting numbers in another thread here...

 

[pb4uski]

https://heritagewealthplanning.com/fees/

I was thinking about his $250.00 Can I retire video course or his Financial planning for $1250.00.

We have been watching lot of videos on YouTube and taking notes and making our own spreadsheets...trying Firecalc...but the devil is in the details....seems like some software like the OP was looking for would be helpful to max withdrawal and tax strategies.
I like Josh's videos cause he seems honestly trying to tell us time is precious and limited and no need to keep working that crappy old job as long as the system tells you.

It's been hard to go from we'll never be able to afford to retire mentality to hey maybe we can. Covid and loosing people around us has really made us question everything.... tomorrow is not a given for anyone.

This youtube video seems to take a pretty sensible approach:

 

[2HOTinPHX]

This youtube video seems to take a pretty sensible approach:

Thanks that was a pretty interesting video...and they have lots more to learn from too...nice.

 

[brett]

Prior to early retirement we sat down with a tax accountant and worked out a strategy to minimize our taxes.

We will be doing the same next year when some income items come on stream.

Doing this planning has reduced our tax liability.

 

[pb4uski]

Prior to early retirement we sat down with a tax accountant and worked out a strategy to minimize our taxes.

We will be doing the same next year when some income items come on stream.

Doing this planning has reduced our tax liability.

Keep in mind that sometimes minimizing taxes can be suboptimal, depending on what one means by minimizing taxes. Minimizing lifetime taxes would be more optimal.

As an example, right now we could easily pay no taxes at all, but if we did that we would get killed with taxes later in life once RMDs start, so we are voluntarily doing low-tax cost Roth conversions now and paying about 9.5% to avoid paying 12% or 22% or more later (15% or 25% if rates revert).

 

[Midpack]

We are closing in on retirement I think. It's pretty scary when you mostly hear you need millions or you will run out of money... usually by those who have an interest in your continued contributions to their funds...
We have recently discovered Josh at Heritage Wealth Planning on YouTube. To us he seems to be the contrarian to all the retiring doomsdayers saying you can never afford to retire. He was in the industry and couldn't take all the BS. He took the risk and decided to start his own company where he could do things his way. He post a lot of videos on how you can retire on less than the industry keeps telling us. Took a little time for his off the cuff video style to grow on us but now we enjoy it. He seems like a neighbor trying to give you some good advice. https://youtube.com/c/HeritageWealthPlanning
He does offer some books he has written and financial planning course videos and planning service's on his own site. We have been contemplating using his services but are still in the research process.

https://heritagewealthplanning.com/
Interesting to hear what others might think.

Josh seems like a money grubbing BS artist. Just saying......... He's working hard, running his business and taking his little chunk of your FIRE savings to be his own. His "neighborly" come-on is laughable.

You seem to have deep doubts too since you're still working despite having far, far more than enough to FIRE, despite those "doomsdayers saying you can never afford to retire."

I've watched quite a few of his videos, and they're not what they used to be IMO, and I don't watch many anymore. He used to do some great case studies, quite useful. Now he seems to mostly rehash what he finds from other articles and websites that he agrees with. His production values have also fallen, I just watched one where he's out exercise walking taking video of himself talking about the perfect retirement plan (see link below). There's not much to it.

It's pretty apparent he's going for quantity (of videos) over quality, which could be seen as "money grubbing." He's knowledgeable but IMO he's gone from really trying to help people to just putting out as many videos as he can for the YT payments.

In addition, his politics have increasingly crept into his content, I really don't want to hear that from an FA regardless of your POV.

I've been watching the Safeguard Wealth Management YouTube videos lately, and find them very useful and well done.

 

[2HOTinPHX]

I've watched quite a few of his videos, and they're not what they used to be IMO, and I don't watch many anymore. He used to do some great case studies, quite useful. Now he seems to mostly rehash what he finds from other articles and websites that he agrees with. His production values have also fallen, I just watched one where he's out exercise walking taking video of himself talking about the perfect retirement plan (see link below). There's not much to it.

It's pretty apparent he's going for quantity (of videos) over quality, which could be seen as "money grubbing." He's knowledgeable but IMO he's gone from really trying to help people to just putting out as many videos as he can for the YT payments.

In addition, his politics have increasingly crept into his content, I really don't want to hear that from an FA regardless of your POV.

I've been watching the Safeguard Wealth Management YouTube videos lately, and find them very useful and well done.


https://youtu.be/DwteyBiEuiA

Yes I think you nailed it with all of the above...: