Retirement Planning Education, with Andy Panko

Listener Q&A where Andy talks about: 
Whether to use money in a 457b to pay down a mortgage or to pay taxes on Roth conversions ( 7:56 )
How Social Security survivor benefits work, and the optimal ages for spouses to each claim their own Social Security ( 18:54 )
His thoughts on why the Social Security trust fund hasn't been allowed to invest in equities ( 25:36 )
Creating spreadsheets to replace financial planning software, and using it to help your ongoing retirement planning and projections ( 30:40 )
His thoughts on whether someone should try to convert ALL of their pre-tax money to Roth ( 36:56 )
Transferring/rolling money from an IRA to an HSA (Health Savings Account) ( 46:05 )
Whether you have to start Medicare Part A if you start Social Security but are still covered by a spouse's employer's health insurance ( 49:18 )
Updating beneficiaries on investment accounts after one of the beneficiaries passes ( 53:17 )
His thoughts on whether comparing a portfolio's investment returns to those of the S&P 500 is appropriate, and whether it's okay to hold bonds as investments ( 58:22 )

To send Andy questions to be addressed on future Q&A episodes, email andy@andypanko.com
Andy's LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andypanko/

Links in this episode:
Tenon Financial's March 2026 newsletter - Gifting, annual gift exclusions, gift taxes and gift tax returns (IRS Form 709)
Tenon Financial's March 2024 newsletter - Don't compare your portfolio's returns to those of the S&P 500
Tenon Financial monthly newsletter/blog - Retirement Planning Insights
YouTube channel - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Retirement Planning Demystified)
Retirement Planning Education website - www.RetirementPlanningEducation.com

Andy chats with a real person (not an advisor) doing their own retirement planning. In this episode, Andy talks with Mark. They talk about a wide array of retirement planning topics such as when he started getting serious about planning for retirement, how he got comfortable going from accumulation to decumulation mode, how he and his wife are navigating health insurance prior to Medicare eligibility, why he randomly showed up in Andy's office one day, and more!

 
 Links in this episode:

Tenon Financial monthly e-newsletter - Retirement Planning Insights
YouTube channel - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Retirement Planning Demystified)
Retirement Planning Education website - www.RetirementPlanningEducation.com

To send Andy questions to be addressed on future Q&A episodes, email andy@andypanko.com

Andy's LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andypanko/

Listener Q&A where Andy talks about: 
How to sell and rebalance positions in a brokerage account when they have unrealized gains and you're trying to be tax-efficient about it ( 7:06 )
His thoughts on a few different variable portfolio withdrawal strategies, namely Amortization Based Withdrawals ("ABW"), Total Portfolio Allocation Withdrawals ("TPAW") and Big ERN's CAPE-based approach ( 14:10 )
Converting to a Roth IRA money you plan on spending in the near-term, instead of outright distributing it to your bank or brokerage account to be spent from there ( 23:18 )
Whether doing Roth conversions or backdoor Roth contributions are ultimately the same thing from a tax planning perspective ( 28:02 )
His thoughts on deciding which type of advisor and/or advisory fee model might make the most sense for you when considering the potential fees to be paid to an advisor over a lifetime ( 33:41 )
At what point should you just take out unused 529 funds and pay tax and penalty on the gains, assuming you have no expectation they'll eventually get to be used for qualified education expenses ( 40:15 )
Potential ideas for small or solo advisory firms to establish a succession plan in the event of the death or incapacitation of the advisor ( 45:26 )
What to look for in an advisory relationship to help minimize the risk of the advisory committing fraud with your money ( 50:50 )
Whether to live off cash for multiple years - assuming you have saved that much cash - or instead pull from your investment accounts ( 56:53 )
His thoughts on Securities Backed Lines of Credit, or SBLOCs, from brokerage firms ( 1:00:35 )

To send Andy questions to be addressed on future Q&A episodes, email andy@andypanko.com

Andy's LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andypanko/

Links in this episode:

Tenon Financial monthly newsletter/blog - Retirement Planning Insights
YouTube channel - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Retirement Planning Demystified)
Retirement Planning Education website - www.RetirementPlanningEducation.com

Andy discusses the ins and outs of Trump accounts:
Legislative background
How to open them
How to fund them
Investing inside them
How to distribute from them
Reporting around them
Taxation of them
The two potential worthwhile use cases I see for them

Links in this episode:
My in-depth write-up of Trump accounts, including all of the links I referenced in the show - Trump accounts: what they are, how they work, and use cases

Tenon Financial monthly e-newsletter - Retirement Planning Insights
YouTube channel - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Retirement Planning Demystified)
Retirement Planning Education website - www.RetirementPlanningEducation.com

To send Andy questions to be addressed on future Q&A episodes, email andy@andypanko.com

To follow Andy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andypanko/

Andy summarizes the recent 2026 annual Social Security trustees report, including what it would actually mean if the system's trust fund were to deplete, and what changes can be made to ensure that doesn't happen

Links in this episode:
The full 2026 Social Security trustees report - here
Summary of the recently proposed PROMISE Act - here
The recent episode of Inspired Money with me, Wade Pfau and Mary Beth Franklin discussing all things Social Security - here

Tenon Financial monthly e-newsletter - Retirement Planning Insights
YouTube channel - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Retirement Planning Demystified)
Retirement Planning Education website - www.RetirementPlanningEducation.com

To send Andy questions to be addressed on future Q&A episodes, email andy@andypanko.com

Andy's LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andypanko/