How to Retire at 50 While Supporting Aging Parents, with Frank Vasquez

Afford Anything

Paula Pant | Cumulus Podcast Network

Entrepreneurship, Business, Investing

4.6 • 3.4K Ratings

🗓️ 20 June 2025

⏱️ 81 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

DOWNLOAD the RISK PARITY PORTFOLIO CHEAT SHEET at affordanything.com/riskparity ______________ #618: Frank Vasquez watched his parents, ages 91 and 96, struggle financially in retirement. They were immigrants. His dad was a physician. They raised five kids. They retired in the early 1990’s. But by 2009, they ran out of money. When Frank was 45, in 2009, his parents would call asking for money to help make ends meet. This reality hit Frank hard and sparked a decade-long quest to crack the code on sustainable retirement withdrawals. At age 45, Frank set an ambitious goal: retire in his early 50’s while still supporting his parents financially. The problem? Most financial experts simply told people to spend less rather than optimize their portfolios for higher withdrawal rates. Frank wasn't satisfied with that answer. You'll hear how Frank discovered that many retirees leave money on the table by holding too much cash or following overly conservative allocation models. Through extensive research, he found a sweet spot for stock allocation that maximizes safe withdrawal rates — something most traditional advisors miss entirely. Frank walks us through his approach to portfolio construction, explaining why he believes in balancing growth and value stocks while keeping bonds limited to US treasuries for recession protection. He breaks down the math behind safe withdrawal rates and reveals why property taxes pose a hidden threat to retirement security as home values climb. You'll learn about risk parity strategies, macro allocation principles, and why diversification across uncorrelated assets creates more stability than traditional 60/40 portfolios. The conversation covers Frank's Golden Ratio Portfolio, a structured approach to asset allocation designed specifically for the retirement drawdown phase. Frank figured out how to fix what went wrong with his parents' retirement. His approach could help you avoid the same mistakes. Timestamps: Note: Timestamps will vary on individual listening devices based on dynamic advertising run times. The provided timestamps are approximate and may be several minutes off due to changing ad lengths. (00:00) Introduction (01:04) Frank's parents' financial struggles (05:21) Finding a sustainable retirement portfolio (10:19) Learning from market crashes (13:25) Different types of investments (25:10) Building the perfect portfolio (32:25) Frank's real-world example (39:24) Property taxes and retirement goals (44:21) Safe withdrawal rate basics (45:22) How much to put in stocks (51:03) Why bonds matter (54:23) Adding alternative investments (1:00:14) The Golden Ratio Portfolio (1:12:11) Investment strategies for retirement (1:15:44) Taking money out of your portfolio (1:18:31) Taxes on withdrawals (1:21:14) Where to put your investments (1:23:35) Keeping it simple (1:26:07) How much cash to hold (1:28:20) Market timing risks (1:34:38) Giving back in retirement Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	There's a lot of information about how to invest while you're growing your portfolio.
0:04.7	How should you invest when it's time for you to start making withdrawals from your portfolio?
0:09.9	Joining us today to discuss that question is former attorney Frank Vasquez.
0:14.8	He's the host of Risk Parity Radio, and he has dedicated a significant portion of his retirement to unpacking a smarter
0:24.2	drawdown strategy. Welcome to the Afford Anything podcast, the show that knows you can afford
0:30.4	anything, not everything. This show covers five pillars, financial psychology, increasing your
0:35.5	income, investing, real estate, and entrepreneurship.
0:37.9	It's double-eye fire. I'm your host, Paula Pant. I trained in economic reporting at Columbia,
0:42.5	and we are about to embark on a fairly advanced conversation. So if you're a beginner, if you're
0:49.5	new to this, I wouldn't recommend this episode, but if you're on the verge of retirement, or on the verge of starting to draw down your portfolio, or if you know someone who is, this following conversation is for you.
1:04.3	Frank, welcome to the show.
1:06.2	Thank you. It's good to be here, Paula.
1:08.7	It's great to have you here. Frank, your mom is 91 and your dad is 96.
1:13.7	Tell me about their retirement. Okay. My father was an immigrant and it was a physician and they
1:20.6	raised five of us and they retired in the early 1990s. Now, none of their parents lived beyond age 80, and I don't think they thought
1:31.0	they were going to live that long. So it came around the year 2009 that I was informed that they
1:39.9	were running out of money. And my mother would call and say, do you think you could give us a little bit
1:44.9	for this, a little bit for this? And I was, Mom, what's going on here? Also around that time, I was about
1:49.5	45 years old. I'm an attorney with a big law firm, so the kind of 80-hour week kind of work weeks.
1:56.0	And I was thinking that I probably wanted to be able to retire by age 50 and retire some time in my 50s
2:03.6	was the thought process there. At the same time, my parents were having these financial problems.
2:09.3	And so I talked to my wife and we were in the best position to solve these. So the solution we
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 20 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Paula Pant | Cumulus Podcast Network, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Paula Pant | Cumulus Podcast Network and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.