Planning for Taxes in Retirement: EDU #2537

The Retirement and IRA Show

Jim Saulnier, CFP® & Chris Stein, CFP®

Business, Investing

4.3 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 10 September 2025

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If you would like to skip over Chris and Jake chatting about Jake’s recent trip to Ireland you can go to 7:00.

Chris’s Summary
I am joined by Jake today, while Jim is traveling, to examine taxes in retirement. We look at why not all taxes belong in the Minimum Dignity Floor. We also consider the trade-offs between Roth conversions and IRMAA, and the role of a cash reserve during the delay period in protecting both essential and discretionary spending when markets move against you.

Jim’s “Pithy” Summary
While I’m traveling, Chris and Jake dig into taxes in retirement. The Minimum Dignity Floor comes up, and a lot of folks get part of this wrong. It’s about protecting the basics with secure income. Start dragging every tax expense into it and that’s when you end up purchasing annuities you don’t need.

Roth conversions and IRMAA can trip people up too. Skip the conversions and you dodge the tax bill for now—but that just means bigger RMDs and bigger taxes later. Convert more today and you feel the hit right away, sometimes with IRMAA stacked on top. There’s no move that makes it painless, and with larger portfolios IRMAA simply becomes part of life.

The delay period brings up that old 3% safe withdrawal. The problem is what it puts at risk when markets stumble. It’s not the basics that get cut first—it’s the Fun Number. That’s why Chris and Jake talk about keeping a moat. A pool of safe assets would give you the security and confidence to keep enjoying retirement even if the markets dip.

The post Planning for Taxes in Retirement: EDU #2537 appeared first on The Retirement and IRA Show.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The retirement and IRA show represents the words and views of the show hosts exclusively and should not be construed as investment legal or tax advice. All information is believed to be from reliable sources. However, we make no representation as to its completeness or accuracy. All economic and performance information is historical in nature and is not indicative of any future results. Any indices mentioned on the show are unmanaged and cannot be invested indirectly. Diversification and asset allocation strategies do not assure profit or protect against loss.
0:23.8	Never make any investment or financial decisions based on information offered on this show
0:26.9	without first consulting your financial legal or tax advisor.
0:29.7	Financial planning services offered through Jim Solnior and Associates LLC, a registered investment advisor.
0:47.2	This is the retirement and IRA show coming to you from beautiful Northern Colorado.
0:52.8	Join us as certified financial planner Jim Solnier, as well as Colorado State University Finance Instructor and Certified Financial
0:55.2	Planner Chris Stein teach you about IRAs, borrow-en-case, annuities, Social Security, pension
1:01.4	plans, and estate planning in a fun and enjoyable show. Whether you are listening live in Colorado
1:07.4	or streaming from their website or iTunes podcast, Jim and Chris want you to know that
1:12.4	they're available to help you plan for your retirement.
1:15.4	Just visit their website at JimHelps.com.
1:18.5	That's Jim H-E-L-P-S dot com and click the Meet the Team button on the homepage.
1:24.8	Now here's Jim and Chris with today's show.
1:30.5	Hello, everybody. button on the homepage. Now here's Jim and Chris with today's show. Well, hello everybody and welcome to the Retirement and IRA show, EDU edition. So a little
1:36.7	change up today. It's not going to be Jim and Chris on the show today. It's going to be Jake
1:42.0	and Chris. So I'm Chris. I'll get Jake in here in just a
1:45.6	moment. But Jim, as he mentioned on previous shows, is preparing to head off back to Ohio for a while.
1:55.7	And he's frantically packing up to make that happen. He's either leaving later today or tomorrow.
2:01.7	And so he handed it off to us.
2:05.3	So what he asked us to do, and we're going to do our best to fulfill his wishes, is talk a
2:12.6	little bit about our process and our approach, kind of triggered by several listener questions.
2:22.3	So this is going to feel a little bit like a Q&A show, but it is focused really on our
	...

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