About this episode

The hosts review a listener's DIY retirement plan and discuss its implications on spending and tax planning.

Chris’s Summary Jim and I continue our Fun Number series with a listener email laying out a DIY retirement plan built account by account, each with an assigned purpose. We cover where her approach lines up with positioning dollars by spending need, where tax planning could change what comes from which account, and how declining ability to manage money shaped her decisions. Jim’s “Pithy” Summary Chris and I get back to the series we interrupted, this time with a long email from a listener who has done the work herself and laid the whole thing out for us. She is retiring next year, she has been tracking her actual spending for years, and she has built a DIY retirement plan that throws out the two rules of thumb she started with a decade ago. I have never understood where that 75 to 80 percent of income number came from. Your mortgage or rent and your utilities do not shrink because you stopped working, and the money you were putting into the 401k does not vanish. It goes to fun. Where she really got my attention is that she gave every account a job. She has a good life account, a reserve for emergencies, aging and long term care, one for charitable giving…

People in this episode

Hosts: Jim Saulnier, Chris Stein

Topics covered

• DIY retirement plan
• tax planning
• spending needs
• financial management
• retirement strategies

Keywords

• retirement plan
• spending needs
• tax planning
• financial management
• charitable giving

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