Retirement Daily with Robert Powell | Ep. 113

• Robert emphasizes having a financial plan with built-in cushions for inflation, rising rates, and falling markets. Retirees with plans in place haven't needed to lower their standard of living.

If you went into this sort of current period without a plan in place, well, I would go back and create a plan.

• Key considerations include: housing costs may be stable or beneficial due to home equity; shorten bond duration or add TIPS; consider I-bonds for emergency funds; use reverse mortgages strategically for sequence of return risk management.

• I-bonds are inflation-linked savings bonds with rates adjusted every six months based on CPI. Current rate (May-September) is approximately 8.5%.

For many people who are looking to park some cash and create an emergency fund... it's a good way. It's an easy way to earn a decent return.

• $10,000 annual purchase limit per person
• Five-year holding period with early withdrawal penalty
• Not designed to fund entire retirement

• Focus on savings rate first: 9-13% of salary in 401k. Use salary-based benchmarks (1x salary by age 30) to track progress. Create a written plan even if retirement is decades away.

You would never get on an airplane if the pilot didn't have a flight plan, right? Why should you depend on your money getting somewhere without a plan?

• Target date funds work well for simple portfolios; more complex situations may benefit from working with a planner. Consider human capital and Social Security (perhaps at 80% of projected benefit) in planning.

• Traditional rule: lower tax bracket now → Roth; higher bracket now → traditional. Michael Kitces' concept of 'tax equilibrium' suggests planning for tax rates across entire retirement, not just first year.

Years from now, when you're about to retire, say, between the ages of 60 and 72, maybe you start thinking about doing Roth conversions so that at least you create an account from which you can pull money tax-free years from now.

• Roth conversions require paying taxes upfront but create tax-free withdrawal options and avoid RMDs.