Retirement Basics: What Every Spouse Should Know
Retirement Answer Man
Roger Whitney, CFP®, CIMA®, RMA, CPWA®
4.7 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 2 April 2025
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
💬 Show Notes
In this episode, we kick off a month-long series on retirement basics, emphasizing the crucial role of partnership in planning for retirement. We discuss why it's vital for both spouses to be actively engaged in financial conversations, ensuring that neither partner feels overwhelmed or excluded. Plus, we hear inspiring stories from a couple of listeners who are thriving in their retirement journeys! Don't miss this episode!
OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF RETIREMENT ANSWER MAN
- (00:38) We're starting a month-long series on retirement basics.
- (00:56) Today we are going to talk about what every spouse should know about their retirement plan.
- (01:45) It's important for each spouse to delegate responsibilities when planning for retirement.
- (03:00) Roger talks about the pressure of being the retirement planner in a couple and the risks of being the non-planner.
- (05:00) Audio clip from our paraplanner Erin about a recent experience volunteering for Tax Aide.
- (07:40) What spousal participation should there be in retirement planner meetings? And what meetings need to happen?
- (08:07) Roger goes through the four initial meetings of building a retirement plan of record.
- (15:19) At least twice a year, the non-planner spouse should participate in a planner meeting to refresh all of these things.
- (15:30) What should the planner spouse do to help create a productive meeting?
- (17:45) What are the risks as the financial manager spouse?
- (19:29) What should non-financial manager spouses do?
- (22:50) Roger talks about what the non-financial manager spouses should know.
- (25:30) What should your advisor do if you are working with one?
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT RELATED TO SOCIAL SECURITY
- (27:50) WEP and GPO changes are causing confusion with Social Security recipients.
ROCKING RETIREMENT IN THE WILD
- (29:56) Listener shares about the challenges of decumulation and overcoming a lifetime of frugal habits.
- (32:28) Listener Kathleen talks about dog-sitting in retirement.
SMART SPRINT
- (33:53) In the next seven days, review the time sensitive action items that may apply to you when it comes to the month of April.
BONUS
- (35:19) Roger reads an excerpt from his grandfather's WWII journal.
REFERENCES
- Retirement Answer Man
- Sign up for The Noodle (previously known as Six Shot Saturday)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | One of the many magical things of having a partner is that you can delegate the responsibilities of running a household. |
| 0:07.1 | And there's so much to do. |
| 0:08.5 | There's cleaning. |
| 0:09.5 | There's upkeep. |
| 0:10.4 | There's paying the bills. |
| 0:11.8 | There's parenting. |
| 0:13.5 | There is retirement planning. |
| 0:16.0 | Delegation is a wonderful thing. |
| 0:17.9 | But in an equal partnership, if you abdicate, there could be danger ahead. |
| 0:25.5 | Welcome to the show dedicated to helping you not just survive retirement, but to have the |
| 0:29.5 | confidence because you're doing the work, to lean in and rock it losing my breath up here |
| 0:35.7 | at 7,000 feet. |
| 0:42.9 | Today on the show, we're starting a series, a month-long series on retirement basics. |
| 0:48.6 | We're going to cover asset allocation, building energy, fixed annuities, and structured notes, |
| 0:52.6 | just to build some basic knowledge on various things I'm getting questions about. |
| 0:54.5 | Today we're going to talk about what every spouse should know about the retirement plan. This is actually a refresher from a |
| 1:01.5 | month-long series we did back in 2021, episodes 393 to 397 on non-planters. We're going to have links to that episode in our weekly email, |
| 1:14.0 | The Noodle, which shares a recap of the show and resources and other things that we're |
| 1:19.4 | noodling on. If you want to get access to these resources and links, go to theneudle.m.e |
| 1:26.3 | and make sure you're signed up for our weekly email. In addition to that, |
| 1:30.7 | we're going to have some in the wild stories, people rocking retirement in the wild. And we're |
| 1:35.4 | trying to get to some of your questions as well. So let's get this party started. |
... |
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