The Fragile Decade

5 Decisions That Can Impact Your Retirement Paycheck

Here is what’s inside:

  • The tax window most retirees never use — and why the years between your last paycheck and RMDs may be the most valuable repositioning opportunity you'll ever have. Page 3.

  • Why Social Security "break-even" calculators can mislead you — and the cascading effect your claiming decision has on taxes, withdrawals, and Medicare premiums that most calculators ignore. Page 4.

  • The sequence-of-returns problem no one explains clearly — and a straightforward way to think about early retirement withdrawals so a bad market doesn't permanently reduce your income. Page 5.

  • How to build a paycheck from a portfolio — including why the "4% rule" is a starting point, not a plan, and what to consider about which accounts to draw from and when. Page 6.

  • The coordination problem that quietly undermines retirement plans — why optimizing any single decision without accounting for the other four can make your overall outcome worse. Page 7.

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