A couple of years ago, I met with a client to review her retirement plan.

The plan’s probability of success score: 85%.

Her first question: “How do I get that number up to 90?”

Five points. That's what she was focused on.

I’ve had this conversation more times than I can count over the years.

And I get it.

An 85 out of 100 looks like a solid B on a test. Of course you want an A instead.

But the score isn’t measuring what most people think it’s measuring.

What the score actually measures

Probability of success measures one thing: whether you’ll still have money left when your plan ends.

And your plan ends when you run out of blood pressure, though we don’t know exactly when that will be.

It has nothing to do with how well you lived.

It only tracks whether your money lasts.

To guarantee money remaining in every possible future — every bad market, every inflation spike, every longer-than-expected life — you have to plan to spend less than you could in many of those potential futures.

Here’s what surprises most people: the spending level most likely to be right for you produces a score of around 50%.

A 50% score is the middle of the distribution of potential outcomes.

This means you have the best chance of spending an amount that isn’t too much or too little.

That’s just how the math works.

But 50% is also a letter grade of “F” and no one wants to fail their retirement, right?

So if you’re targeting a score of 80%, 90% or higher, you’re deliberately planning to spend less (maybe MUCH less) than you could afford.

You’re leaving your life on the table. Not just your money.

This is Goodhart’s Law in action, which states:

When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.

Flip the number around and it gets a little more useful.

An 85% probability of success could also be considered a 15% likelihood that your plan will need to be adjusted at some point.

That’s closer to how retirement actually works than a single pass/fail score.

But don’t stop there.

Even a plan with a 100% score will inevitably need adjusting.

Markets move.

Spending needs change.

Life happens.

No score, however high, gets you out of that.

The risk hiding on the other side

We spend almost all our energy worrying about running out of money.

But there’s another risk: spending so carefully (or fearfully) that you’ll eventually look back with regret.

The Disney trip with the grandkids you kept postponing.

The things you passed on because you were worried when the numbers would have been just fine.

That’s the real cost of chasing a high probability score: playing it so safe that you miss your own retirement.

And your own life.

A better way to think about it

Instead of a score, think of guardrails.

One guardrail keeps you from running out of money.

The other keeps you from spending so little that you’re not really living.

A good retirement income plan sets and monitors both.

It starts with a spending level that’s reasonable and sustainable, then monitors if you’re spending needs to be adjusted based on your personalized guardrails.

If the portfolio falls below the lower guardrail, that’s the signal to trim back on the discretionary spending — travel, gifts — until things recover.

If it exceeds the upper guardrail, that’s the signal to spend some more, not less.

Either way, it’s planned (and we discuss it) in advance.

You’ll know what would trigger a change and what that change looks like.

In dollar terms. Not percentage scores.

This means fewer surprises.

That’s a different conversation than watching a percentage score bounce around and wondering if you should be worried.

And you can’t spend your percentage score at the grocery store.

Questions worth asking about your plan

• What spending level are we actually planning for, in dollars per month?

• What would trigger a change, up or down?

• Am I spending within my means, or well below them?

• What does a good retirement look like for me, and is the plan built around that?

That client who wanted 90%?

We talked through what the score actually meant, then rebuilt her plan around guardrails instead.

She’s spending closer to what the math always said she could — and she took the grandkids to Disney a few months ago.

Bottom line

The goal isn’t a higher score. It’s a well-lived, regret-free retirement.

— Russ

Retirement Planning for Women

Disclosures

A client recently wrote a $5,000 check to a charity.

It cleared.

And then the problems started.

Cleared doesn’t mean safe

She almost stopped there.

Cleared means done, right?

But she looked at the check image online.

Not just the amount. The actual picture of the check.

Someone had changed the payee. They changed the memo line too.

Her $5,000 never reached the charity.

The check cleared. It just didn’t go where she sent it.

She called her bank right away.

The check had been changed somewhere between her mailbox and the bank that cashed it.

The bank put a hold on the account. They said they’d move everything to a new account.

But the account was titled in their trust.

That meant the fix had to happen in person, at a branch.

My clients were traveling and not in the state where their trust was domiciled. They would have to work on this once they were back at home.

Now every autopay and direct deposit on that account is frozen. Bills are still due.

The bank said they’d investigate. They hoped to fix it soon.

Hope is no guarantee.

Big banks aren’t immune

This happened at one of the largest banks in the country. Not a small local bank. A brand name you know.

My clients have accounts at Charles Schwab. Another big name. I’d like to think that keeps them safe.

It doesn’t.

Fraud like this can happen anywhere a check travels through the mail. A big financial brand lowers some risks.

It doesn’t erase them.

So don’t panic. And don’t trust your bank less. Just pay closer attention.

I’ve been there

It’s easy to think this happens to other people. I thought that too.

Back in 2014, I opened the mail and found a letter from Best Buy.

They were congratulating me on my new credit card account.

An account I never opened.

More letters came over the next few days.

Each one was for an account I didn’t opened.

Thankfully, we didn’t lose any money.

But I lost hours upon hours cleaning it up.

Police reports. Phone calls. More phone calls.

That year, I froze our credit.

Mine and Elizabeth’s have stayed frozen ever since. That’s more than a decade now.

It hasn’t made either of us immune, just harder to target.

And it’s given me one less thing to worry about.

What you can actually do about it

There’s no way to guarantee you’ll never be targeted.

The people doing this are patient. They get better every day.

But there are steps you can take.

Most cost nothing. Together they take less an hour.

And they make you a much harder target.

1. Pull your credit reports. Go to AnnualCreditReport.com. By law, it’s the only site that gives you free reports from all three credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. No credit card. No subscription. No sales pitch. Just look over each report for any account or details you don’t recognize.

2. Turn on free alerts. This is a separate step. Go to each bureau’s own website and set up a free account. Turn on alerts for new credit checks and score changes. AnnualCreditReport.com won’t do this part for you.

3. Freeze your credit at all three bureaus. It’s free. It takes about ten minutes per bureau. You can temporarily lift the freeze in minutes any time you actually need to apply for credit. And it stops most new-account fraud before it starts.

4. Lock your Social Security number with the Social Security Administration. Here’s a good explainer on how and why. If you care for minor children or grandchildren, freeze their credit and lock their Social Security number too.

5. Mail fewer checks. Use direct deposit and online bill pay when you can. If you must mail a check, try to drop it at a post office box, not your own mailbox. If you have a trust account, ask your bank about Positive Pay. It’s typically a business tool, but some banks may offer it for trust or large accounts. And if you give to charity often, look into a donor-advised fund. That’s a giving account that sends money to charities for you, so you write fewer checks yourself.

Bottom line

None of this guarantees you won’t be a fraud victim.

But it’s free or low cost, doesn’t take much time, and makes you a harder target. That’s worth doing now, before you need it.

I’ve written about parts of this before, here and here. But it’s worth saying again, because most people still haven’t done it.

If you know someone this could help, forward it to them. A parent. An older relative. A friend.

This kind of fraud catches people off guard. A five-minute email might be what finally gets them to act.

Her check cleared. It just didn’t go where she meant it to. Don’t let that be you.

Hit reply and tell me: have you frozen your credit yet? If not, what’s stopped you?

Until next time,

— Russ

Retirement Planning for Women

P.S. ~ Good news! Thankfully the funds are now back in my client’s bank account!

Disclosures

You can afford the trip.

The math says so.

You book it anyway with a knot in your stomach.

That’s not a math problem.

It’s a psychological and/or emotional problem.

Most retirement plans can tell you whether your money will last.

Almost none tell you what adjustments you’ll have to make along the way. And what would trigger those adjustments.

That gap is where the knot in your stomach lives.

Most retirement projections are either a straight-line fantasy — a steady 6% or 7% return, simple and absolutely wrong — or a Monte Carlo score that hands you a number like “87% probability of success” and stops there.

Both skip the part that actually matters: what do you do if things start moving the wrong direction? At what point? By how much?

That’s where guardrails come in.

Think of it this way: a weather forecast tells you the probability of rain. A GPS tells you when to turn, which direction, and whether you’re going to arrive later (or earlier) than planned.

Most retirement projections are weather forecasts.

A guardrails-based plan is a GPS.

The guardrails approach builds a dynamic spending strategy around your specific situation.

First, it tells you a specific dollar amount you can afford to spend each month and from which sources (Social Security, investment accounts, etc.).

This is your retirement paycheck.

It also establishes, in advance, the conditions under which you’d increase your retirement paycheck, or reduce it, and by exactly how much.

I’ve written before about a hypothetical client I call Jane Sample — a 64-year-old single woman with a $1.8 million portfolio, a mortgage-free home, and a monthly spending need of around $6,900.

Read the case study here.

When we ran Jane’s numbers through a guardrails analysis, here’s what we found.

Her sustainable monthly spending — factoring in her portfolio, her Social Security benefit starting at 67, taxes, and realistic return assumptions — came to approximately $7,812 per month. That’s roughly $900 more than she thought she needed.

The retirement paycheck amount is useful.

The guardrails around it are even more useful.

Her lower guardrail: if her portfolio (not the market) dropped by 31%, to about $1.24 million, she’d need to reduce her monthly spending by about $390 — roughly 5%. A specific, known adjustment, not a lifestyle overhaul that has her living off cat food.

Her upper guardrail: if her portfolio grew by 19%, past $2.14 million, she’d be eligible for a $1,480 monthly increase.

That’s the information that was missing when you booked that trip with a knot in your stomach.

Not just odds… an exact answer for what would need to happen before anything changes, and what you’d need to do about it.

When you know your spending is mathematically sustainable, and you know precisely what would need to happen before an adjustment is required, you can spend with more comfort and confidence.

You can actually use the money you spent your career saving and investing.

With less anxiety and worry.

A few questions worth considering, whether you’re approaching or already retired:

1. What would trigger a change to my spending — up or down?

2. If an adjustment were needed, do I know, in dollars, roughly how much?

3. Is my current spending level based on what’s mathematically sustainable, or just what feels comfortable?

   1. For many people, those are two different numbers. The sustainable one is often higher.

4. How would my spending plan have held up in challenging market periods in the past?

You worked a long time for this chapter. Spend it living, not scared to spend.

Until next Wednesday,

Russ

Retirement Planning for Women

P.S.~ You might be interested to check out my recent conversation about the challenging retirement transition from saving to spending with Josh Patrick on his Long Strange Trip podcast.

Disclosures

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today.”

That old saying could have been written for the new 530A accounts (also known as Trump accounts).

Just not for the reason most people think.

I get some version of the same question from clients all the time: how can I help my kids or grandkids financially?

Most often, that question is about college.

A 529 plan. Tuition. Books.

But there’s a new tool, and it opens up something bigger than college.

Back in June, I wrote about the new Trump accounts: what they are, the $1,000 the government deposits for children born between 2025 and 2028, and how the basic tax rules work.

If your child or grandchild was born in that window, go claim it. It’s free money.

Actually it’s Treasury-funded, taxpayer money. So not entirely “free.”

But here’s what I really want you to hear: that $1,000 is a headline that’s distracting almost everyone from the bigger idea.

The better question

Most people hear about Trump accounts and ask: does my child qualify for the $1,000?

Fair question. Free money is free money.

But it only applies to kids born in a three-year window. If your grandchild was born in 2019, or won’t be born until 2030, that seed money was never on the table for them.

Here’s the better question:

Could you open and fund one of these accounts for any child in your life under 18, seed money or not, and let them benefit from the power of compounding over the next several decades?

The answer is yes!

And it changes what these accounts can do.

What you can do

Any U.S. citizen under age 18 with a Social Security number can have a Trump account. Not just babies born in the last couple of years.

Anyone can contribute up to $5,000 a year on that child’s behalf.

Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, or friends can contribute.

It doesn’t matter whether they ever received the free $1,000.

That money grows tax-deferred in a low-cost index fund until the child turns 18.

At that point, the account simply becomes a Traditional IRA in their name.

Then it keeps growing, for as long as they’re willing to leave it be.

What this could actually look like

Say you have a 5-year-old granddaughter.

You decide to contribute $3,000 a year on her behalf, starting this year, through the year she turns 18.

That’s 14 years of contributions. $42,000 out of your pocket, total.

At a hypothetical 6% average annual return, that account could grow to somewhere around $67,000 by the time she’s 18.

Then the contributions stop.

But the money can continue compounding.

By the time she’s 60, another 42 years down the road, that same account, still growing at that same hypothetical rate, could be worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $770,000.

From the $42,000 you contributed.

Nothing about that is guaranteed. It’s simply what the math shows if a 6% average holds for 55 straight years.

But that’s not how investment markets work, so your reality will absolutely be different.

I built an interactive calculator to show how this could work:

Click here to access the interactive calculator and play around with your own numbers and assumptions.

Using the account

You contribute to these account with money you’ve already paid tax on.

So the dollars you put in come back out tax-free later.

Only the growth inside the account gets taxed as ordinary income when it’s withdrawn, the same as any Traditional IRA.

A window for Roth conversions

Once your grandchild turns 18, the account becomes a Traditional IRA in her name.

It’s likely she’ll have little-to-no income those first few years out of high school, so that’s often the lowest income tax bracket she’ll ever be in.

That can be a good window to convert some or all of the account to a Roth IRA.

She’d pay income tax (at her presumably low rate) on the conversion of the growth and earnings so it can grow and be accessed tax-free for good after that.

The account could be converted to Roth all in one year or spread over multiple years.

We won’t work through the Roth conversion mechanics here.

But it’s a real strategy, and one I can write more about if you’re interested.

And a quick word on gift taxes

One more note...

Contributions to these accounts count as gifts.

Earlier this year, the IRS clarified that contributions like the $3,000-a-year example above won’t require a gift tax filing, as long as your total gifts to that child stay under the annual exclusion for the year.

I wrote about how the annual and lifetime gift exclusions fit together here, if you want the fuller picture.

None of this is tax advice. Talk with your tax advisor about your specific situation before you contribute.

One important caveat

This isn’t a strategy to pursue in isolation just because it sounds appealing.

It only makes sense in the context of your own retirement plan.

You need to first consider what you need for yourself.

What you can comfortably set aside for the people you love, second.

And nobody actually knows what the next 14 years hold, let alone the next 55. Growth could run higher than 6%. It could run lower.

Markets will do what markets do.

That uncertainty isn’t a reason to avoid this.

It’s the reason a real financial plan gets reviewed and adjusted regularly, not set once and forgotten.

Is there a child or grandchild in your life this could help?

Not because they qualify for the $1,000, but because they could benefit from the power of compounding. And time.

What would $42,000, turned into something like $770,000, actually mean for them at age 60?

And is there a version of “helping family” you’ve been waiting to do later that you could start now instead?

You can’t buy a fifty-five-year-old tree. You can only plant one today and let it grow.

Bottom line: The $1,000 is a nice bonus, if your family happens to qualify.

The real gift is compound growth over the coming decades.

And almost any child in your life still has time for compounding to work for them.

If any of this sparks something, hit reply or reach out anytime.

I’m always happy to help you think through whether it fits your family and your plan.

Until next Wednesday,

Russ

Retirement Planning for Women

Disclosures

A writer I follow, Dan Haylett, calls it the Permission Paradox.

His argument: successful people arrive at retirement and find they can’t authorize their own enjoyment.

The job title is gone.

The paycheck stopped.

The external signals that once said “you’ve earned this” have been unplugged — and without it, spending can feel reckless.

Indulgent.

Like something that needs to be justified.

He’s right.

But in working with women for 30+ years, I’ve noticed something he doesn’t quite name.

For many of the women I work with, the problem isn’t that they lost permission somewhere along the way.

It’s that they were never given it.

For a lot of women in their 60s and 70s, the earliest lessons were clear: be careful, be modest, don’t be extravagant. Save for a rainy day. Think of others first.

Those messages came from parents.

They came from careers where women learned to ask rather than decide.

From marriages and partnerships where one person handled the finances and the other deferred.

None of that was malicious.

But layer after layer, year after year, the message sunk in for many women: someone else will take care of this.

This is how we develop our own money scripts.

And now here she is.

Capable. Accomplished. Four million dollars in savings. A paid-off home. More financial security than she imagined in her 40s and 50s.

Still waiting for someone to say go ahead.

I’ve written recently about what sometimes breaks this pattern: a diagnosis. A loss. A relationship that ends.

Painful events that force a woman to step into the driver’s seat — not because she’s ready, but because there’s suddenly no one else to take the wheel.

But it shouldn’t take a crisis to sit in the driver’s seat of your own life.

That seat has always been yours.

Thomas Keating puts it simply:

The chief act of the will isn’t effort. It’s consent.

That’s what’s actually missing — not a new investment strategy, not a different balance sheet.

Consent to your own life.

No one is coming with a permission slip — not a parent, not a partner, not a doctor’s report.

If you’ve been going through the motions — spending less than makes sense, deferring decisions that are yours to make, waiting for some signal that hasn’t come — take an honest look at that.

Not to assign blame. The people who shaped your relationship with money were doing their best.

But you are responsible for what you do next.

Here’s where to start:

Take some quiet time. Away from your phone and anyone else’s agenda. Sit with a blank piece of paper. Think about financial decisions you’ve pulled back from — not because the money wasn’t there, but because it didn’t feel like your call.

Name one thing. Just one. A choice you’ve been deferring. Write it down. Naming it turns a feeling into something real.

Bring it to a conversation. Share it with someone you trust — your advisor, a close friend. A conversation is how it becomes a plan.

The driver’s seat has always been yours.

You just need to take the wheel.

Until next time,

— Russ

Retirement Planning for Women

Disclosures

At 18, your child becomes a legal stranger to you.

You lose the automatic right to see their medical records, weigh in on their care, or even get their grades from college.

It doesn’t matter if you’re still paying the bills or they still live under your roof.

A story that’s hard to read, but worth it

In 2018, Baylie Grogan was a 19-year-old pre-med student at the University of Miami.

A car hit her, and she suffered a severe brain injury.

Her parents, Shawnee and Scott Baker, rushed to the hospital.

Without a signed health care proxy, the hospital wouldn’t share details about her condition or her treatment.

A hospital ethics committee — not her mom and dad — decided her care.

The Bakers went to court to get legal guardianship of their own daughter.

That process takes months. Baylie didn’t have months.

WBUR reported her full story here.

Here’s the key idea

The day your child turns 18, you lose the automatic legal right to help in a crisis: medically, financially, even academically. Unless they’ve signed paperwork that hands some of that authority back to you.

It doesn’t matter if she’s still on your health insurance, still living at home, or you’re still paying tuition.

Age eighteen means adult in the eyes of the law.

If your own kids are already in their 40s or 50s, here’s who this piece is actually for: your granddaughter, the one who just left for her sophomore year.

Or your grandson, three states away at his first job.

Pass this along to your own kids — they’re the ones who need to act on it now.

Think of it like the fire extinguisher under your sink

Nobody requires you to have one.

You hope you never need it.

If a fire starts, it’s the only thing in the room that can help — and by then, it’s too late to go buy one.

These documents work the same way.

No law requires an 18-year-old to get them.

Most families never think about them until a crisis forces the question, and by then it’s too late to sign anything.

Why most families haven’t done this

More than 70% of adults haven’t done their own estate planning.

If you haven’t finished yours, it’s no surprise your 20-year-old hasn’t started theirs — and that’s exactly why this needs to be a family project, not one person’s job to remember.

The three documents every adult child needs

• HIPAA authorization — lets doctors and hospitals share medical information with you. Without it, they legally can’t tell you anything, even if you’re standing in the waiting room.

• Medical power of attorney — lets you make health care decisions if they can’t make those decisions themselves.

• Financial power of attorney — lets you handle money matters (rent, a bank account, a landlord or lender) if they’re incapacitated.

If your child is in college, add one more:

• FERPA release — lets the school share grades or disciplinary records with you. Without it, privacy law treats an 18-year-old student’s records as theirs alone.

How to actually get this done

You don’t need a complicated estate plan to knock this out.

Three ways to go:

1. The simple route. A tool like Five Wishes covers the medical side in plain English. It costs about $5 and takes about 20 minutes. I wrote about it here.

2. The attorney route. A local estate attorney can draft these documents in one meeting, usually for a few hundred dollars.

3. Either way, keep it accessible. Signed copies belong somewhere you can reach them — not in a safe deposit box your child can’t get into at 2 a.m.

Pick one. Get it done this month.

You can refine it later. Done beats perfect.

This doesn’t end at graduation

This isn’t only a college issue.

The need doesn’t disappear when your child graduates, gets a job, or moves into their own place.

It runs from 18 until the day they marry, or otherwise have a partner who can legally step in for them, however many years that takes.

Bottom line: Turning 18 gives your child independence. It also takes away your legal right to help them if something goes wrong, unless you both sign a few pieces of paper first.

Your challenge

If your kids are in their 40s or 50s with children of their own, call them this week. Ask if your grandchildren have these documents in place.

If not, help them get it done.

If you know other parents or grandparents who need to hear this, send them this article.

It’s far easier to talk about before a crisis than during one.

I’m not an attorney, and this isn’t legal advice. This is something every family should prioritize alongside their own estate planning.

Until next Wednesday,

— Russ

Retirement Planning for Women

P.S. If you want the simplest starting point, Five Wishes is still my first recommendation — here’s the piece I wrote about it. Reply and tell me: does your grandchild already have these documents in place, or is this the first time you’re hearing about it?

Disclosures

Your financial plan was built for someone else.

Your priorities have shifted.

Maybe your marriage has.

Maybe your health has changed in ways you didn’t see coming.

The plan you made 3 years ago is for the person you were 3 years ago. Not the person you are today.

Psychologists call this the end-of-history illusion.

Dan Gilbert put it plainly:

“Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they’re finished.”

Watch Gilbert’s 2014 Ted talk about this idea:

We’re good at seeing how much we’ve changed in the past decade.

We’re terrible at imagining we’ll keep changing just as much in the next one.

Your financial plan has the same blind spot you do.

I’ve watched women navigate real disruptions — a diagnosis out of nowhere, a divorce at 67, health changes in their 70s that rewrote everything the next decade was supposed to look like — with a financial plan built for a life that no longer existed.

Not because the plan was wrong when it was made.

Because no one had touched it since.

There's a difference between a one-time financial plan and ongoing financial planning.

A plan built once is a snapshot.

It was accurate the moment it was made.

It gets less accurate with every passing day.

After a year or two — maybe less, if life moved fast — it may be a plan for someone you no longer recognize.

This is why I no longer offer one-time financial plans.

Not because going through the process once has no value, but because the true value isn’t in the plan.

It’s in the ongoing work: the updates, the adjustments, the ability to respond when your life changes.

And it will.

What to do right now:

• Assess: Pull your plan out and read it like you're meeting it for the first time. Ask whether any of these have shifted since it was made: your health, or a spouse's; how close retirement feels and what you picture it looking like; your family situation; how you think about spending and what "enough" actually means to you. If you couldn't tell someone what your plan assumes about your spending or your timeline — or if any of those things have changed — that's your answer. It needs to catch up with you.

• Act: Put a review date on your calendar — at least once a year, ideally twice. Treat it as a real conversation, not a number check. And don't wait for the scheduled date if something significant happens. A health change, a family shift, a major decision you're wrestling with — those are exactly the moments when an outdated plan is most costly. That's what I'm here for.

The plan you have is only as useful as it is current.

— Russ

Retirement Planning for Women

P.S. ~ When was the last time you actually reviewed your financial plan? Hit reply and tell me — I’m curious how many of you are working from something more than a year or two out of date.

Disclosures

Most people spend their working years accumulating money.

Saving, investing, growing.

But somewhere along the way, accumulation becomes the goal itself.

The money stops being a means to an end and starts being the end.

And most financial advisors, if we’re being honest, make this worse.

We talk about portfolio returns.

Allocation percentages.

Withdrawal rates.

Tax efficiency.

But none of it is the point.

Money is fuel. And fuel only matters if you’re going somewhere.

Think about your car.

You don’t fill the tank just to watch the gauge stay full.

You fill it because you have somewhere to be — somewhere worth going.

Your money works the same way.

It’s in service of something.

The question worth asking — the question most financial planning conversations never get to — is:

What is YOUR something?

I’ve had this conversation with clients more times than I can count.

Often not by design.

Usually because something happened — a health scare, a loss, a fractured relationship — that cracked things open.

And suddenly the conversation shifted from “what should I do with my portfolio” to “what am I actually doing with my life?”

Those are the most important conversations I have.

Not because I have the answers.

I don’t.

But because having a financial advisor who’s willing to ask the question — and sit with you while you think about it — is rarer than it should be.

Most of us spend far more energy optimizing money than we do thinking about time: how much we have, how we’re spending it, and whether we’re spending it on what matters most.

But time is the actual resource. Money is just what makes certain choices possible.

The financial industry is built around a simple story: accumulate as much as possible, then figure out what to do with it.

But that story has it backwards.

The better question is: what kind of life do you want to live, and what will it take to support that life?

It means knowing what you want your days to look like.

Who you want to spend them with.

What you’d regret not doing.

What “enough” actually feels like — not as an abstract number, but as something real you can point to.

What are you actually here for?

That’s not a question with a right answer. But it’s the right question to be asking.

When you get clear on even a little of this, the financial decisions get easier.

Once you know what you’re planning for.

Because you know when enough is enough.

What to ask yourself:

• If money weren’t a concern at all, how would you spend your time? What would you stop doing? What would you start?

• When did you last feel like you were truly living — not just managing life, but actually present in it?

• Is your financial plan organized around a number you’re trying to reach, or a life you’re trying to live?

• When something hard has happened — a loss, a scare, a moment of real perspective — what did it clarify for you?

• What are you waiting for?

A plan built around a life you can describe is a completely different thing than a plan built around a number you’re trying to hit.

One is a tool. The other is a map.

I’m here to help you use your money to live a great life.

Your great life.

Not use your life to pile up a bunch of money.

If that’s the conversation you want to have, I’m ready to have it.

That’s the work I find most meaningful.

Until next time,

Russ

Retirement Planning for Women

P.S. ~ I was happy to share my thoughts in this recent article about the fear of running out of money. And no, I haven’t changed my name to “Ross” despite the article indicating otherwise. 😉

Disclosures

You sit down with your advisor.

The market is doing whatever the market is doing. Up, down, sideways.

But you’re not really thinking about the market.

You’re thinking about your mother’s diagnosis last month.

Or the call from your daughter that you’ve been turning over in your head all week.

Or the conversation with your husband last weekend that ended without a decision about when he’ll retire.

You scheduled a meeting to “talk about the portfolio.”

But that’s not really what you want to talk about.

A new report says you’re not alone

Earlier this year, a company called Jump — they make AI tools for financial advisors — analyzed roughly 12,000 advisor-client conversations across the country.

They were looking for patterns.

What clients actually bring up. What shifts their mood during a meeting. What makes them feel better — or worse — by the time they leave.

One finding stood out:

Life events shape how clients feel walking into a meeting. Far more than markets do.

• Bereavement.

• A serious medical diagnosis.

• Caring for an aging parent.

• An inheritance — yep, even that one.

These show up most often in planning conversations.

And almost all of them correlate with clients arriving in a noticeably lower emotional state — before a single word about the market is spoken.

The report1 put it bluntly:

“It is disruption and responsibility — not milestone moments alone — that most affect how clients feel entering advisory conversations.”

In other words: it’s not the wedding. It’s not the new grandchild.

It’s the things you didn’t see coming.

And those life events don’t arrive empty

They bring something with them.

The same report found that nearly half of all meetings — 48% — included at least one stated client fear.

Some of the most common ones:

• Outliving your savings

• Medical costs

• Supporting family members

• Covering the bills

Look at that list again. Notice how closely each one tracks with the life events that came before it.

A diagnosis brings medical cost fears.

An aging parent brings questions about elder care — and another question underneath: is this going to be me someday?

An inheritance brings complexity, maybe some guilt, and the loss it came with.

A spouse’s retirement timing brings the oldest fear of all: once the paychecks stop, will the money last?

These aren’t financial questions in the technical sense.

They’re financial questions wrapped around something else.

What most planning misses

Most planning conversations don’t start here.

They start with the portfolio. The asset allocation.

Your money and how you want to spend it.

Which is fine.

Until it isn’t.

Because if what was weighing on you when you joined the meeting never gets named, no amount of planning makes it lighter.

I’ve written before about why a real plan goes beyond the portfolio.

This is what I mean.

A real plan accounts for the fact that you’re not a balance sheet.

You are not your money.

You’re someone in a particular season of life. Carrying particular weight. Worried about particular things.

The portfolio is the easy part.

The rest of your life is where the real work happens.

Try this

Next time you meet with your advisor, don’t lead with the portfolio.

Lead with what’s actually on your mind.

The diagnosis. The conversation you’ve been having with your sister. The question you keep almost asking.

You don’t have to have it figured out. That’s not your job.

That’s what the conversation is for.

The point

You are not the same person you were five years ago.

And whatever is making this season different is, by definition, part of your plan now.

A good advisor will want to know what you brought in with you — before they say a word about the market.

If you’re carrying something heavy into your next planning meeting, don’t let it be a distraction.

Make it the conversation.

Russ

Retirement Planning for Women

P.S. ~ What’s on your mind right now? If you’d like to talk about it, I’m happy to listen.

Disclosures

You know the number.

It’s the dollar amount that would feel like too much to spend on yourself this year.

The trip.

The renovation.

The gift to your daughter that’s bigger than your husband would approve of, if you still had to ask.

You know exactly what it is.

And you’ve never said it out loud.

I’ve sat across from women with $4 million, $6 million, $10 million, and more in savings and investments who can tell me their grocery budget down to the dollar but can’t bring themselves to say what they’d actually love to spend on what they actually want.

Oh, they know.

The problem is that saying it makes it real, and real feels reckless.

Here’s what most advisors will tell you: the math works.

You can afford it. Your plan supports it.

They’re not wrong.

They’re also not helping.

The math has never been the problem.

The problem is that nobody ever taught you how to spend money you’ve learned to accumulate and protect over the last 40+ years.

You were rewarded for saving and praised for not being the kind of woman who is irresponsible when it comes to money.

Now you’re sixty-seven, sitting on a portfolio that does its job whether you watch it or not, and the muscle you spent a lifetime building, the one that says not yet, not now, is the same muscle keeping you from the life your money was always for.

This pattern is what’s reckless.

Living small to protect money you’ll never spend is a slow surrender of the years that were supposed to be the whole point.

So here’s the assignment, and I mean it:

Pick the thing.

Say the number out loud.

To yourself, to your partner, to me if you want.

The trip, the gift, the renovation, the 2nd home — whatever’s been sitting in the corner of your mind for two (or twenty) years.

Saying it doesn’t commit you to anything.

Just say it.

The spell breaks on its own.

— Russ

Retirement Planning for Women

P.S. Hit reply and tell me your number. I read every message. No advice back unless you ask — sometimes you just need to put it somewhere that isn’t your own head.

Disclosures

Most retirement plans answer the wrong question.

They tell you how many years you can afford.

But they don’t tell you how many of them you’ll actually remember.

It’s the difference between a long retirement and a retirement that feels long.

Mitch Thrower’s recent LinkedIn essay “Your Brain Is Quietly Deleting Your Life” captures the neuroscience: your brain files routine lightly and novelty deeply.

Weeks that all look the same compress in memory.

A single new experience can stretch for years.

His essay is worth a read.

But the lesson lands differently for a woman in her 60s than it does for a triathlete in his 40s.

The average American gets about 27,375 days from birth to death.

A typical 25-to-30 year retirement is roughly 9,000 to 11,000 of them.

That’s nearly a third of your life, and it arrives at the moment you finally have full control of your calendar.

So let me say it plainly.

You don’t have one portfolio in retirement. You have two.

The first is your financial portfolio. You’ve worked on that for thirty or forty years. You probably know its numbers inside and out.

The second is your experience portfolio.

Most people never consider it.

Which is exactly why it never gets managed.

The deferred-life problem

There’s a line often credited to Confucius:

We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one.

In 30+ years of doing this work, I’ve watched what usually triggers that second life.

Almost always, it’s something hard.

• A death.

• A diagnosis.

• A friend who got the news first.

Suddenly the trip that was always “next year” gets booked.

The conversation that was always “someday” happens.

The money that has been sitting still starts moving toward something that matters.

I am asking you to skip the catalyst.

Please.

I am asking you to stop waiting for a wake-up call.

Because in retirement, the costliest risk is a deferred life. The slow accumulation of “I’ll do it next year” until the next years run out.

What feels like prudence is often a withdrawal from the one account you cannot replenish.

Why routine is more expensive than it looks

Years that all look the same compress in your memory.

The same Saturday morning routine, the same drive to the same restaurant, the same weeklong trip to the same place every August.

None of it is bad, and some of it is truly wonderful.

But your brain files repetition and routine much more lightly than it files first-time experiences.

Think back five years and ask honestly: where is the novelty, the surprise, the breaking of your own routine?

Most of what is still vivid is the trip to a new destination, the milestone, the unexpected day, the new face.

The rest, however pleasant, has gotten fuzzy. Less memorable.

This quote captures the idea:

“The most common way to not see something is to see it too many times.”

Two portfolios, one life

Both of your portfolios deserve a plan.

Your financial portfolio funds the days.

Your experience portfolio decides whether the days register at all.

Whether or not they create memory dividends.

The mistake I see is over-optimizing the first while leaving the second on autopilot.

Smart, careful women are especially prone to it — because the financial portfolio rewards caution and the experience portfolio punishes it.

This is not a rehearsal.

You don’t get a do-over.

You don’t get to come back next time and try the version of your life where you took the trip, made the call, told the person.

You get this one.

Starting right now!

What to do next

If any of this resonates, here are six places to start. None of them require you to abandon your plan. All of them require you to actually use it.

1. Look at your calendar 90 days out. If nothing on it would be worth remembering, you have your answer.

2. Book one trip, class, or event this month that you have been putting off. Put real money behind it so it sticks.

3. Make a list of three people you have been meaning to see in person. Pick a date for one of them this quarter.

4. Audit one weekly routine (the same restaurant, the same Saturday, the same drive) and break it once.

5. Ask yourself whether your spending plan reflects the life you dream of — or just the life you’ve settled for.

6. Tell someone what they mean to you. Don’t wait.

One life, two portfolios

Planning for tomorrow still matters. Nothing I’ve said here changes that.

But planning for tomorrow at the cost of today is a trade most people make without meaning to, and then regret without saying so.

Fear is not a financial plan.

You have two portfolios. Both deserve to be managed on purpose.

A life deferred is the most expensive thing you’ll ever own.

Until next Wednesday,

Russ

Retirement Planning for Women

Disclosures

A client called me recently about her grandson.

He’s graduating college, headed to medical school, and she’d love to help — probably by gifting him some appreciated stock.

My clients are wonderful people and family is important to each of them.

But it got me thinking about my clients’ younger grandchildren — the ones still in car seats.

Because there’s a brand-new option that could do something for them her grandson is already too old to enjoy.

Here’s the truth about helping the youngsters in your life: with a small child, time matters even more than money.

Money is only the seed.

Time is the ingredient compounding can’t work without. And a newborn has more of it than anyone else.

Starting July 4, 2026, there’s a new account built almost perfectly for that idea.

They’re called “Trump accounts.” Here’s the official website.

Yes, that’s the official name, and I’m using it the way the IRS does.

Let me explain what they are, and then give you an honest look at whether one makes sense for the children, grandchildren, nieces, or nephews in your life.

What they are

A new kind of long-term savings account for children.

Think of it as a retirement account that starts in childhood.

The money is invested in a low-cost index fund that tracks the U.S. stock market, and it grows without being taxed along the way.

The part that’s basically free money

If a child is born between 2025 and 2028, is a U.S. citizen, and has a Social Security number, the government will deposit $1,000 to get the account started. No contribution required from you.

Those deposits begin July 4, 2026. Someone just has to open the account first.

If you have a grandchild (or child or anyone else) who qualifies, that $1,000 is the closest thing to found money you’ll see this year.

Who can have one, and who can add to it

Any U.S. citizen child with a Social Security number who hasn’t turned 18 can have a Trump account, not just babies. Only children born 2025–2028 get the free $1,000, but any eligible child can receive contributions.

And here’s the part that matters for you: family can chip in.

Up to $5,000 a year, from parents, grandparents, anyone.

So this can absolutely be a vehicle for the kind of help you might want to give.

How the taxes work

• You contribute with after-tax dollars. This means no income tax deduction.

• The money grows tax-deferred year to year.

• The child can’t touch it until 18. At 18, it becomes a regular Traditional IRA.

• When money comes out later, any growth (and that $1,000 seed) is taxed as ordinary income, like a retirement account. The dollars you personally put in come back out tax-free.

One important caveat: these rules are brand-new and still being finalized, so some details may shift.

Please treat anything specific as “check with your tax advisor,” not gospel.

Now the fun part: what time can do

What if you never add another dollar beyond the free $1,000?

Left alone in the market, at a relatively conservative, hypothetical 6% a year return, here’s roughly what that single $1,000 could become:

• About $2,850 by age 18

• About $5,700 by age 30

• About $13,800 by age 45

• About $33,000 by age 60

From one $1,000 deposit that was never touched. Time did all the work.

Now add a modest commitment.

Say you add $2,000 a year, well under the $5,000 limit, until the child turns 18.

At that same hypothetical 6%, about $36,000 of contributions could grow to roughly $65,000 by college age. A real head start on school, a first home, or simply launching into adult life.

Note: 6% is below the broadly diversified stock market’s long-run average, and nothing is guaranteed. Some years will be down. And money decades from now buys far less than it does today.

The lesson here is simple: time, more than the size of the gift, does most of the heavy lifting.

Is it the best place to save for a child?

Not always.

• If the goal is education, a 529 plan is likely more tax-efficient: it grows tax-free and comes out tax-free for school.

• If the child has earned income from a job, a custodial Roth IRA is often the strongest long-term deal. (A newborn can’t use one, since you need earned income, which is exactly the gap the new Trump account fills.)

• A custodial investment account offers the most flexibility, with its own tax quirks.

So my honest take: the free $1,000 is a clear win.

If you have a child or grandchild who qualifies, why not claim it?

Beyond that, whether to keep funding a Trump account or steer those dollars to a 529 or a Roth depends on what you’re trying to accomplish.

If you’d like to explore it

• Mention it to your children. For a child or grandchild born 2025–2028, someone needs to open the account to claim the $1,000. You can start the process here.

• Mark the date: accounts and contributions begin July 4, 2026.

• Get clear on the goal first, whether that’s education, a general head start, or long-term security, because that points to the right account, which may or may not be this one.

• Loop in your tax advisor before contributing, since the rules are still settling.

• Or bring it to our next conversation, and we’ll see if it fits your family and your own plan.

Most of the women I work with have more than enough for their own lifetimes.

What they want is to do something meaningful for the people coming up behind them.

This is one simple, powerful way to do exactly that.

You can’t give a grandchild more time on this earth.

But you can give their money more time to grow. Started early enough, that may be the most generous gift of all.

If you have a question, just reply — I read every one.

Until next Wednesday,

Russ

Retirement Planning for Women

Disclosures

A client emailed me recently with a question.

“We’d like to hear your knowledge about overseas travel health insurance.”

Smart question.

And one I’d guess a lot of you have wondered about too — especially if there’s an trip outside the U.S. on your calendar (or one you’ve been dreaming about for years).

With summer travel season upon us, let’s talk about it.

The trip you’ve been waiting for

Maybe it’s Italy. Maybe Portugal. A safari. The Greek islands.

Or somewhere else around the globe.

You’ve planned the flights, the hotels, the rental car. You’ve made room in the budget. You’ve earned this.

And then — somewhere over the Atlantic — most retirement plans stop working.

I’ve written before about keeping healthcare costs down when you travel within the U.S.

Consider this the international version of that conversation.

Your Medicare card doesn’t have a passport

Here’s the part most people don’t realize until they need to.

• Original Medicare: Covers next to nothing outside the U.S.

• Medicare Supplement (most plans): Include a foreign travel emergency benefit — but it’s capped at a $50,000 lifetime maximum, and only covers 80% after a deductible. A serious hospital stay can chew through that in a few days.

• Medicare Part D: Doesn’t cover prescriptions you buy abroad.

• Medical evacuation: A flight home with medical staff onboard can run from $25,000 to well over $250,000. Out of pocket.

That’s the hole.

Why this matters

There’s an old folk song some of you will remember.

There’s a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza...

Your bucket list might have a hole too.

Not because you didn’t plan. You did.

You saved, you invested, you got the portfolio right.

But planning isn’t only about portfolios.

I’ve written before about why a real plan goes beyond the portfolio — this is why.

It’s about all the parts of the life you’re actually trying to live.

The trip is part of your plan. Which means the healthcare on the trip is part of your plan too.

And here’s the asymmetry that matters: a quality travel medical policy for a typical international trip might cost a few hundred dollars.

The bill if something goes wrong can run into six figures.

That’s a trade most people would make without thinking — if they realized it was a trade at all.

Next steps

Four steps that handle most of it:

1. Ask the question. Before your next international trip, ask your advisor (or me): “Does my plan account for healthcare outside the U.S.?” If the answer is fuzzy, that’s your first clue.

2. Check what you already have. Pull up your Medicare Supplement and look for the foreign travel emergency benefit. Know the cap. Know what it covers and what it doesn’t.

3. Make sure any travel policy you consider includes medical evacuation. This is the line item that turns a bad day into a six-figure problem. It’s also the one most people overlook.

4. Get a quote. I work with Move Health on health insurance for many of my clients. They recently added travel insurance options through Blue Cross Blue Shield Global Solutions (formerly GeoBlue). If you’d like an introduction to Move Health, let me know.

A note on scope: this piece is about medical coverage on international trips.

Trip cancellation insurance — for the flight you can’t take, the deposit you can’t get back — is a separate conversation worth having on its own.

There are other considerations depending on the trip, your health, and how often you travel.

That’s a conversation, not a checklist.

But these four cover most of the ground for most people.

However, another client pointed out that some tour groups like Tauck offer Travel Protection which includes:

Medical Expenses – reimburses covered medical expenses incurred in the event you become injured or sick during your trip.

The point

You don’t buy travel insurance because you expect something to go wrong.

You buy it so a small problem stays a small problem — and so a big one doesn’t follow you home in the form of a bill.

Patch the hole. Then go enjoy the trip.

That’s what the plan is for.

If you’ve got a trip on the horizon and want to talk it through, hit reply.

Happy to help.

Thank you for reading!

Have a question? Reply to this email — I read every one and I’ll respond personally.

Until next Wednesday,

Russ

Retirement Planning for Women

Disclosures

I recently wrote about beneficiary designations and how they override your will without asking permission.

Readers were surprised to learn that an outdated form on a single account can undo years of estate planning.

But there’s another quiet override sitting right next to those forms.

It’s how your accounts and property are titled.

When the title and the will disagree, the title wins.

Every time.

The titling options worth knowing

There are more options than people realize, and the differences matter.

Individual (sole name). You own it alone. At your death, it passes through your will — and through probate.

Joint with rights of survivorship (JTWROS). Two owners. When one dies, the survivor automatically owns the whole thing. No probate. No will involvement. This is the most common form between spouses.

Tenants in common (TIC). Two or more owners, but each owner’s share passes through their own estate when they die. The surviving co-owner does not automatically inherit. People assume “joint” always means survivor takes all. It doesn’t.

Tenants by the entirety. A spouses-only version of joint ownership available in some states. Offers extra protection from creditors. Rules vary widely by state.

Community property. Only nine states. If you ever lived in Texas, California, Arizona, or another community property state, the rules around what you own — and what gets a step-up in basis — can follow you.

Trust-titled. The account is owned by your trust. The trust controls who gets it and when, often without probate.

Transfer-on-death (TOD) or payable-on-death (POD). Technically a beneficiary designation rather than a title, but they live on the same form and operate the same way. They bypass the will.

A quick note before we go further: the goal here isn’t to avoid probate at all costs.

Probate is usually manageable, especially in Georgia. Florida, not so much.

The goal is alignment — making sure the title matches your intent.

“And” vs. “or” — what really controls your account

This one trips people up.

The traditional rule sounds simple: a joint account titled “Mary and John” requires both signatures. “Mary or John” lets either owner act alone.

That’s still the principle. But it’s not always how modern accounts work.

The determining factor is the signature card and account agreement you signed when the account was opened.

Most retail banks today default joint accounts to “either signer can act alone” — regardless of how the names appear on statements. True two-signature accounts have largely become a commercial product, not a personal one.

The older distinction still matters in some places:

• Accounts opened decades ago under different rules

• Some credit unions and smaller community banks

• Some brokerage and investment accounts

• Many trust and fiduciary accounts

Why this matters:

A true “both signatures required” account can quietly become a trap. If one spouse has a stroke, develops dementia, or otherwise can’t sign, the account effectively freezes for the other one too. Right when access is most needed.

An “either signer” account is more flexible. Bills get paid. Money moves. Life continues without a trip to the bank or to court.

That flexibility cuts both ways. The convenience depends on trust — and on the other person acting in good faith.

For most married couples, “either signer” is the right setup, paired with mutual trust and regular conversations about what’s happening in the accounts.

So don’t rely on what the statement shows. Pull out your signature card or account agreement — or call your bank — and confirm what your account actually allows.

Then ask yourself if it still matches what you’d want today.

The mistake I see most often

A widow tells me her adult son is “on the account” so he can help pay her bills.

She means well. He means well.

But adding an adult child as a joint owner — instead of using a power of attorney — quietly does a few things she didn’t sign up for:

• It exposes her account to her son’s creditors and any future divorce.

• It can disinherit her other children, because the account passes to him alone at her death — regardless of what her will says.

• It can be treated as a gift for tax purposes.

• And if Medicaid is ever needed down the road, it complicates the look-back.

The fix is almost always a durable power of attorney. Same goal — someone who can help if she can’t. Without the unintended ownership transfer.

If your goal is help managing the account, a POA is the right tool.

If your goal is to give the account away at your death, a beneficiary designation is the right tool.

Joint ownership is rarely the right answer for either one.

The trust funding gap

If you have a trust — and many of you do — the title on each account decides whether the trust actually controls it.

I’ve seen plenty of beautifully drafted trusts that own almost nothing.

The attorney drafted the document. The accounts and your house were never re-titled.

When the owner died, the trust did exactly nothing for those accounts. They went through probate.

Worth checking. The fix is usually straightforward.

A note on cost basis at the first death

For non-retirement accounts, sole-name vs. joint titling makes a real difference at the first spouse’s death — particularly in non-community-property states like Georgia.

In a sole-name account, the entire account gets a step-up in cost basis when the owner dies.

In a joint account, only half does.

That difference can be meaningful for couples with significant taxable investment accounts.

It’s worth a conversation with your advisor and tax professional before you assume joint titling is automatically the right move.

What to do next

1. Pull a list of every account and how it’s titled. Investment, retirement, bank, real estate. Write down the exact ownership as it appears on the most recent statement or deed.

2. Check joint accounts carefully. Are they JTWROS or tenants in common? Are they “and” or “or”? Ask the custodian if the paperwork doesn’t make it obvious.

3. Confirm trust-funded accounts are actually titled to the trust. Open the most recent statement and read the registration line.

4. Reconsider “convenience” joint accounts. If you’ve added an adult child to an account so they can help, ask whether a durable POA would do the job better.

5. Don’t forget the home. Your deed has its own titling, and the same principles apply.

6. Loop in your advisor and your estate attorney with specific questions. Don’t just send a list — ask them to walk through each account and confirm the title still reflects your wishes. Most clients haven’t done this in five years or more.

Like beneficiary designations, account titling isn’t a topic that comes up unless someone raises it.

But the day it matters, it matters a lot.

If you’d like a second set of eyes on your account registrations and how they line up with your wishes, just reply to this email.

I’m happy to help.

Links and things

I just happened to stumble across this Linkedin post from St. Louis estate planning attorney Jennifer Belmont Jennings a couple of days ago.

She seems to agree that’s it’s rarely, if ever, a good idea for a non-spouse to be a joint account owner.

Thank you for reading!

Have a question? Reply to this email — I read every one and I’ll respond personally.

Until next Wednesday,

Russ

Retirement Planning for Women

Disclosures

In 1975, a first-class stamp cost 10 cents.

In July, it’ll cost 82.

The U.S. Postal Service announced the latest increase last month — 78 cents to 82, effective July 12.

Most of us see a headline like that, shrug, and move on.

But a stamp is a receipt. And the receipt tells a longer story — more than 4% a year, every year, for half a century.

A quick look back

By 2008, the same 10-cent stamp was up to 42 cents.

Today, it’s 78. In July, it’ll be 82.

That’s more than an eightfold jump in 50 years — on one small, simple thing most of us use without much thought.

Why it matters

They’re raising prices because their costs went up.

Fuel, labor, trucks, facilities — all more expensive than last year, and the year before that.

The same forces are showing up in your grocery bill.

Your power bill.

Your property tax.

Your dog food.

Your dinner out.

The stamp isn’t special. It’s just visible. Familiar.

Most price increases don’t come with a news headline — they show up quietly, month after month, in what you spend.

What this means for your retirement

If you’re planning a 30-year retirement, the question isn’t whether prices will rise.

They will.

The question is whether your plan can keep up.

I made the same argument back in 2008, when a stamp cost 42 cents. I used it as a reason to stay invested in stocks over the long term (see Why stocks are safer than bonds).

Since then, the stamp has nearly doubled.

A diversified global stock portfolio has done several times better.

What to do next:

• Know your spending. Not last year’s — today’s. What does your average month look like?

• Stress-test your plan against higher inflation. A good plan doesn’t assume 2%; it shows how 4% or 5% would impact your plan. And your life.

• Keep a meaningful portion of your money in investments that tend to grow faster than your cost of living — usually that means diversified, global stocks, held for the long term.

• Revisit your plan regularly. The stamp went up again. So did everything else. Your plan needs to adjust as things change.

Bottom line

A stamp is a small thing.

But it’s one of the clearest reminders that the cost of living doesn’t stand still — and your plan shouldn’t either.

Inflation is the receipt that keeps arriving, whether you realize it or not.

Thank you for reading!

Have a question? Reply to this email — I read every one and I’ll respond personally.

Until next Wednesday,

Russ

Retirement Planning for Women

P.S. ~ What’s one money question that’s been on your mind lately? Reply and let me know.

Disclosures

You did the hard part.

You hired an attorney. You signed the documents. You have a will, maybe a trust.

You feel organized and prepared.

And you probably are — mostly.

But here’s what a lot of people don’t realize: having an estate plan isn’t the same as having a complete one.

Life keeps moving after you sign those documents.

And the gaps that open up over time can create exactly the kind of chaos you were trying to prevent.

Think about the scenarios you’ve probably heard of.

• A child who struggles with money receives an inheritance all at once — outright, with no protection — and it’s gone within a year.

• A son or daughter’s marriage falls apart, and suddenly assets you intended for your grandchildren are at risk in a divorce settlement.

• A car accident that exceeds your liability coverage wipes out a portion of the estate.

• An ex-spouse who’s still listed as a beneficiary — because no one updated the paperwork — inherits assets you never intended them to have.

These aren’t rare.

They happen to families who thought they had everything in order.

The problem isn’t that people don’t plan. The problem is that plans go stale.

Think of your estate plan like a smoke detector.

Having one installed gives you a sense of security — and it really is better than nothing.

But if the battery is dead, or it’s the wrong type for the fire that starts, it won’t do what you need it to do when you need it most.

Your estate plan works the same way.

It needs to keep up with your life.

Children and grandchildren are born.

Marriages happen — and sometimes end.

People move, start businesses, inherit assets, change their minds about who they trust.

Each of those changes can affect whether your plan does what you intended.

Even well-drafted documents from just a few years ago may not reflect your current wishes — or the current reality of your family and relationships.

Your estate plan isn’t a “set it and forget it” document.

Neither is your financial plan.

And ideally, the two are working together.

What to do next:

• Review your documents. Read your will, trust, powers of attorney, and healthcare directives. Confirm they still say (and do) what you want.

• Ask about potential gaps. Talk to your estate planning attorney — or a financial advisor familiar with estate planning — about vulnerabilities you may not have considered. Spendthrift provisions for heirs who struggle with money. Divorce protection for assets you leave to children. Creditor exposure. Whether your trust has actually been funded (a trust that hasn’t been funded is essentially worthless).

• Make sure your financial plan and estate plan are coordinated. Beneficiary designations, account titling, insurance coverage, and trust funding all need to be aligned. A mismatch in any one of these can override even the most carefully written will or trust.

• Set a review reminder. Every 3 years at minimum — sooner if something significant changes in your life or your family’s.

• Ask “what if.” What if my child gets divorced? What if I become incapacitated? What if a beneficiary dies before I do? The answers will tell you a lot about where your plan may need work.

If you don’t have an estate plan yet, let this be the nudge: get one.

It doesn’t need to be complicated, but it needs to be there.

If you have one, take it off the shelf.

Not just to confirm where your money and property goes — but to think honestly about the scenarios that could derail it.

And if you’d like help thinking through how prepared your estate plan really is, or whether your financial plan and estate plan are working together the way they should, I’m happy to talk.

That’s exactly the kind of conversation worth having before life makes the decision for you.

Links and things

Here are a couple of free webinars from my health insurance planning partner this month:

• Turning 65: What To Know About Medicare on May 12th

  • By the end of the webinar, you’ll have an understanding of:

    - Initial Medicare Enrollment timelines

    - The difference between Original Medicare and Medicare Advantage

    - How Medicare drug plans work

    - How personal preference, risk tolerance, and other factors impact available plans and the cost of coverage

  • Register here

• Early Retirement: Healthcare Coverage 101 for Pre-65 Retirees on May 21st

  • By the end of this webinar, you will:

    - Understand the basics of ACA health plans and other health insurance options available to pre-65 retirees.

    - Know important action items, such as specific enrollment timeframes.

    - Understand how personal preference, risk tolerance, and other factors impact available plans and the cost of coverage.

    - Learn the advantages and disadvantages of Health Savings Accounts.

    - Learn how working with Move Health makes it easy for you and your financial advisor to determine your optimal healthcare coverage.

  • Register here

Another approach to retirement planning:

Thank you for reading!

If you have a question or would like my advice, simply reply to this email with your questions and I’ll be happy to respond with my thoughts…

Until next Wednesday,

Russ

Retirement Planning for Women

Disclosures

A few weeks ago, a client emailed me.

She was worried.

Iran was in the news.

So was the federal debt, rising interest rates, and uncertainty about what’s coming next.

She wanted to know if her portfolio — and her retirement — was okay.

She wasn’t alone. I’ve had a handful of similar conversations lately.

And I completely understand why.

The world feels unsettled right now. And when you’ve spent decades building toward retirement, watching your account balance drop — even a little — can feel alarming.

Here’s the thing: what’s happening right now is almost certainly normal.

Let me show you what I mean.

So far in 2026 (through late March), the S&P 500 has dropped more than 1% in a single day 10 times out of 59 trading days. That’s about 17% of the time.

Over the past 10 years, that number was closer to 11%. So yes — a bit more volatility lately.

But here’s the longer view: since the S&P 500 launched in 1957, days like these have happened about 16.5% of the time on average.

What we’re experiencing right now is essentially the long-run historical average.

Not exceptional.

Not a crisis.

Just markets doing what markets do.

There’s something else worth knowing.

No one I work with holds 100% of their money in the S&P 500.

A well-diversified portfolio spreads risk across different types of investments — and that diversification dampens the swings.

The volatility you see in the headlines isn’t the volatility in your account.

Related: Research also shows that investors who check their portfolios daily are unhappy nearly half the time.

Those who check annually? Happy about 80% of the time.

Here’s a useful way to think about all of this.

Before a hike, you check the weather forecast.

If there’s a chance of rain, you pack a jacket. And then you go.

You don’t cancel the whole trip because the sky looks gray.

You’ve prepared. You trust the plan. You walk out the door and enjoy the day.

That’s what a good retirement plan does.

It’s designed for uncertainty.

What to do next

I have one recommendation.

Close the app. Put down your phone. Turn off the news and get off social media.

Then go outside.

Take a walk.

Cook dinner with your spouse.

Call a friend.

Do something that reminds you why you’ve been saving all these years.

Your money exists to support your life — not to create a constant source of anxiety and distraction.

Bottom line:

Markets are doing roughly what they’ve always done. Your portfolio is diversified. Your plan was built for moments like this.

If you’re feeling unsettled, or you’d just like to talk through where things stand, I’m here.

Reply to this email or get in touch — I’d be glad to help.

Links and things

I encourage you to read both of these:

• Why time speeds up as you age (and what to do about it) by George Mack

• Why You’re Wasting Your Time Worrying About Running Out of Money by Dan Haylett

Thank you for reading!

If you have a question or would like my advice, simply reply to this email with your questions and I’ll be happy to respond with my thoughts…

Until next Wednesday,

Russ

Retirement Planning for Women

Disclosures

You spent time and money on your will. Maybe a trust.

An attorney explained everything carefully, and you left feeling like it was handled.

But there’s a part of your estate plan that your will doesn’t control — and most people never think about it again after the day they set it up.

Beneficiary designations.

These are the forms you filled out when you opened your IRA or signed up for life insurance. You can designate beneficiaries on bank and brokerage accounts too.

They’re quiet. They sit in a file somewhere.

Yet they override everything else.

It doesn’t matter what your will says. The name on that form is who gets the money.

I learned this firsthand through a family experience I wrote about a few years ago.

My father-in-law John had a life insurance policy with his ex-wife listed as the primary beneficiary.

He wanted her to receive those proceeds — but he never confirmed that wish with the insurance company after their divorce.

In Florida, a 2012 law automatically voids an ex-spouse as a beneficiary after divorce.

So even though John’s intentions were clear to his entire family, the insurance company didn’t know.

What followed was a detour through probate court that nobody wanted.

You can read that full story here.

The lesson wasn’t that John did something wrong.

It’s that beneficiary designations require active attention.

Life changes. Laws change.

Beneficiary designations don’t update themselves.

The most common mistake I see

You named your spouse as beneficiary on your 401(k) in 2003. You’ve since divorced and remarried.

But the form still says what it said 20+ years ago.

This is almost never malicious.

It’s just out of sight and out of mind.

Nobody sends you a reminder. Nobody flags it at tax time.

It quietly sits there until the worst possible moment — and then it becomes someone else’s problem to untangle.

Four places to check right now

Beneficiary designations live across your entire financial life, not just in one place. Here’s where to look:

• Retirement accounts — IRAs, 401(k)s, Roth IRAs. These are the highest-stakes designations because of the tax implications and the rules around inherited accounts. Who you name here matters enormously.

• Life insurance policies — Both employer-provided and individually owned. If you’ve had the same policy for a long time, there’s a good chance the beneficiary hasn’t been reviewed since you bought it.

• Non-retirement accounts — Brokerage accounts, bank accounts, and savings accounts can have transfer-on-death or payable-on-death designations — worth checking whether you set them up.

• Real estate — Your home often passes through mechanisms that sit outside your will — joint ownership, a trust, or a transfer-on-death deed in states that allow them. Worth confirming the setup still reflects your wishes.

One concept worth understanding: per stirpes vs. per capita

When you name multiple beneficiaries, you’ll sometimes be asked to choose how assets are distributed if one of them dies before you do.

Per capita means the surviving beneficiaries split the share equally among themselves. Per stirpes means the deceased beneficiary’s share passes to their children instead.

I’ve written a full explanation with examples here — it’s worth five minutes of your time, especially if you have children or grandchildren you want to include.

What to do next

1. Review your beneficiary designations now. Pull up each account type listed above and confirm who is named — primary and contingent.

2. Compare them to your current wishes. Does the name on the form still match what you’d want today? Does it align with your will or trust?

3. Set a reminder to review again. I recommend every three years as a baseline, or sooner if something significant changes — a marriage, divorce, death, new grandchild, or updated estate plan.

4. Ask your advisor to do a sweep with you. This is exactly the kind of thing that’s easy to overlook on your own and easy to catch with a second set of eyes.

The good news: this is easy to update.

Most custodians let you update a beneficiary designation with a simple form. Or you can log in and do it online.

It doesn’t require an attorney. It doesn’t take long. It just requires knowing to do it.

The form you filled out years ago doesn’t have to be the final word. But you have to be the one to update it.

If you have questions about your beneficiary designations, or if you’d like to talk through what a review might look like for your situation, just reply to this email.

I’m happy to help.

Links & things

Wanted to share recent articles from a couple of my favorite UK-based advisors this week…

First, check this out from Dan Haylett. It’s a MUST READ if you ask me…

• Your 12 Good Years

And here’s another from Nick Lincoln:

• Of Strimmers And Strife

I’m curious to hear what you think about these 2 articles, so hit reply or leave a comment and let me know.

Thank you for reading!

If you have a question or would like my advice, simply reply to this email with your questions and I’ll be happy to respond with my thoughts…

Until next Wednesday,

Russ

Retirement Planning for Women

Disclosures

A few people have asked me recently about SpaceX.

Elon Musk’s rocket company is preparing to offer its shares to the public via an IPO, and the excitement is real.

People want in.

They want to catch the next big thing before it takes off.

I understand the impulse. I really do.

But here’s what I’ve learned after more than 30 years in this business: the desire to find the right stock at the right time — to find the needle in the haystack — is one of the most costly instincts in investing.

And the research backs this up in a striking way.

A finance professor named Hendrik Bessembinder has spent years studying the long-term performance of individual U.S. stocks.

He published a well-known paper in 2018, and just this month he released an updated study covering a full century of data — from 1926 through 2025.

What he found is worth sitting with for a moment.

The U.S. stock market created $91 trillion in wealth over that 100-year period.

That’s a remarkable number.

And yet just 46 companies account for half of it.

Apple and Nvidia alone were responsible for more than 10% of all that wealth creation.

But here’s the other side of that coin.

The median stock — the one right in the middle of all stocks ever traded — actually lost ground compared to simple Treasury bills.

More than half of all companies that have ever traded on U.S. markets destroyed wealth rather than created it.

The average return across all stocks over this century? 30,621%.

The median return? Negative.

That gap — between the average and the median — is the whole story.

Simple statistics refresher: Here’s a quick way to think about the difference between an average and a median: if you line up all the stocks by their lifetime returns from worst to best, the median is simply the one in the middle. The average, on the other hand, gets pulled way up by a small number of extraordinary performers at the top of that line.

And that distinction matters a lot here.

A very small number of companies did something extraordinary.

Most did not.

And nobody, not even the sharpest investors in the world, reliably knows in advance which companies will be which.

So what does this mean practically?

It means the goal isn’t to find the needle.

It’s to own the entire haystack.

When you hold a broadly diversified, low-cost portfolio — one that reflects the entire market — you don’t have to pick the winners.

You own them all.

If SpaceX goes public and becomes the next Apple or Nvidia, you’ll already have exposure.

You don’t need to chase the IPO.

You don’t need to get in on the ground floor.

Patient, diversified ownership puts you in the game for whatever comes next.

This isn’t a passive or defeatist strategy.

It’s a deliberate one, grounded in a century of evidence.

A few things worth thinking about:

• Does your current portfolio reflect a broadly diversified approach, or is it concentrated in a handful of companies or sectors?

• Are you — or someone advising you — making active bets on individual stocks? If so, what’s the evidence that approach will work over time?

• When you feel the temptation to chase a hot stock or a buzzy IPO, ask yourself: what exactly am I betting on?

• Low cost matters as much as broad diversification. High fees quietly erode the very returns you’re trying to capture.

• You don’t need a perfect portfolio. You need a sound one — and the patience to let it work over time.

The temptation to chase the next big thing never fully goes away.

SpaceX today, something else tomorrow.

What keeps you grounded is a clear investment philosophy, one built on evidence rather than excitement.

Take a few minutes to revisit yours.

Ask yourself whether the approach you’re following — or the one being followed on your behalf — is one you’d still choose if you removed all the noise.

If you have questions or want to talk through your situation, I’m always glad to hear from you.

Just reach out through my website or reply to this email.

Links and things

A few weeks back, I wrote about “planning” with inspiration from a Jason Fried podcast.

To kick off that piece, I mentioned my friend and colleague Brian, and I’d like to once again ask you to read another of Brian’s articles that was inspired by that same podcast episode:

• Your only competition

I was planning to write about this very concept, but Brian beat me to it and did a wonderful job framing the idea for your consideration.

Thank you for reading!

If you have a question or would like my advice, simply reply to this email with your questions and I’ll be happy to respond with my thoughts…

Until next Wednesday,

Russ

Retirement Planning for Women

Disclosures

If you’re new — or if you’ve been here a while and want a map — this is where to begin.

I’ve been writing this newsletter since 2008. There are almost 500 articles in the archive. That’s a lot of ground to cover, and I don’t expect you to read all of it.

So here’s a shortcut: the articles I’d point you to first, organized by the topics that matter most to women in or near retirement.

Social Security

This is one of the biggest decisions you’ll make — and one of the most misunderstood.

• When should I take Social Security? — Why claiming age depends on your full picture, not a break-even calculator.

• Social Security planning for women — A foundational overview of how the system works, including spousal and survivor benefits.

• What widows need to know about Social Security — Survivor benefits, timing, and the mistakes I see most often.

• Can you collect spousal benefits if you remarry? — The rules around ex-spouse benefits are more flexible than most people realize.

If you want to go deeper on Social Security, I’ve written a full guide on my website: Social Security planning for women.

Tax planning

Retirement planning is tax planning. The two are inseparable.

• Retirement planning is tax planning — How Social Security taxation, IRMAA, and RMDs make taxes the center of your plan.

• Out of order — How tax-deferred, taxable, and tax-free accounts work together.

• The 2025 sunset — Tax law changes and what they mean for your planning decisions.

• How to turn healthcare expenses into tax savings — HSA strategies and medical expense deductions.

Healthcare and Medicare

One of the largest — and most unpredictable — expenses in retirement.

• A guide to help you sign up for Medicare — Step-by-step walkthrough of Parts A, B, C, and D.

• Health insurance between retirement and Medicare — What to do if you retire before 65.

• No more donut hole: how Medicare Part D works — Prescription drug coverage explained in plain English.

For a broader look at how I help clients with healthcare planning, see Health insurance planning in retirement on my website.

Retirement income and spending

The shift from saving to spending is harder than most people expect.

• Creating a paycheck in retirement — How to build a reliable income stream when there’s no longer a paycheck.

• A retirement income planning case study — A real-world example of how income sources, tax brackets, and withdrawals work together.

• How much can I spend if I retire early? — Sustainable spending when retiring before 65.

• When an annuity makes sense — The narrow circumstances where annuities can be useful — and the far more common cases where they aren’t.

Women and retirement

Women face a different set of challenges. These articles address them directly.

• 5 things every woman needs in a financial advisor — What to look for in an advisor relationship.

• Beyond the portfolio — Why investment management alone isn’t financial planning.

• Financial planning for single women — Longevity, long-term care, beneficiary planning, and building a support team.

• Retirement planning for women over 50 — Age-specific guidance from your 50s through your 70s and beyond.

My website has a comprehensive guide that ties all of this together: Retirement planning for women.

Widows and divorce

Two of the most difficult financial transitions a woman can face.

• Financial planning tips for widows — What to do immediately, what can wait, and how to avoid costly mistakes.

• How women can protect their retirement after divorce — Asset division, retirement account splits, and rebuilding your plan.

• Money mistakes during divorce — Common financial errors and how to avoid them.

• Advice for the suddenly single — Practical guidance for navigating finances alone for the first time.

Estate planning

It’s not just about what happens after you’re gone. It’s about protecting your plan now.

• 3 biggest estate planning myths — Common misconceptions about wills, trusts, and beneficiaries.

• Per stirpes vs. per capita beneficiaries — A small choice on a form that can make a big difference.

Investing

I keep this simple. On purpose.

• Sit still and build wealth — Why patience is usually the best investment strategy.

• Alternative investments: read this before investing — Why “exclusive” investments are usually just expensive.

• My advice, distilled — 30+ years of financial planning principles, stripped to their essentials.

Philosophy and perspective

These are the pieces that get the most replies. They’re less about money and more about what money is for.

• What I believe — My core beliefs about money, planning, and what matters most.

• The good enough financial plan — Why a plan that’s 80% right and actually followed beats a perfect plan in a drawer.

• FOMU: fear of messing up — How fear of the wrong decision leads to no decision — which is usually the worst one.

• Am I going to be OK? — The question behind every retirement conversation.

About me and my practice

I’m Russ Thornton — a fee-only, fiduciary financial advisor with more than 30 years of experience. I work exclusively with women in or near retirement, typically with $2 million or more in investment assets.

My practice is small by design. I current work with 65 clients, and I like it that way. It means I know you, I reach out regularly, and I’m available when something comes up.

If you’d like to learn more:

• About me

• How we work together

• Who I work with

• Client reviews

And if you’re curious whether we’d be a good fit, the first conversation is free and there’s no obligation: Let’s see if we’re a fit.

I publish every Wednesday. Thanks for reading.

Disclosures