Retirement Lessons Learned: EDU #2614
The Retirement and IRA Show
Jim Saulnier, CFP® & Chris Stein, CFP®
4.3 • 729 Ratings
🗓️ 8 April 2026
⏱️ 89 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Chris’s Summary
Jim and I share retirement lessons learned from a listener’s account of his mother. Her husband’s survivor pension elections, combined with Social Security, left her a unicorn — secure income covering all expenses — yet she died regretting trips never taken despite a $9 million portfolio. The episode also covers why joint account ownership with adult children can create legal exposure, and the importance of funding a living trust while you are still healthy.
Jim’s “Pithy” Summary
Chris and I walk through three retirement lessons learned from a listener whose mother passed at nearly 100 years old — what she did right, what she regretted, and what almost worked but she ran out of time.
Lesson 1: Her husband elected survivor options on his pensions, and combined with Social Security, she had a steady stream of lifetime income long after he was gone. He thought ahead and protected her.
Lesson 2: That income, combined with a modest lifestyle, allowed her to amass millions and become what we call a unicorn — guaranteed income that covered every expense, discretionary and otherwise. But she died with regrets, not because she ran out of money but because she could never bring herself to spend it. Her son urged her repeatedly to spend more on fun, but she was a child of the Depression, and that created a mindset that no amount of counseling could change until it was too late. Her husband, who died at 66 was “the other guy” — he probably expected to live at least into his 80s — so did not get to enjoy the money either. These are exactly the kinds of situations the Fun Number
was built for.
Lesson 3: She did do a great deal right with her estate — POA designations in place and proper beneficiary designations so no assets were subject to probate. She even had a living trust in the works – but she ran out of time to fund it, and that distinction — between having a living trust and actually funding it — is a surprisingly common mistake people make when they set one up.
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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. |
| 0:24.0 | Never make any investment or financial decisions based on information offered on this show |
| 0:27.0 | without first consulting your financial legal or tax advisor. |
| 0:29.9 | Financial planning services offered through Jim Solnior and Associates LLC, a registered investment advisor. |
| 0:47.4 | This is the retirement and IRA show coming to you from beautiful Northern Colorado. |
| 0:53.0 | Join us as certified financial planner Jim Sondier, as well as Colorado State University finance instructor and certified financial planner Chris Stein, teach you about IRAs, |
| 0:58.4 | borrow-in-case, annuities, social security, pension plans, and estate planning in a fun and enjoyable show. |
| 1:05.6 | Whether you are listening live in Colorado or streaming from their website or iTunes podcast, |
| 1:12.4 | Jim and Chris want you to know that they're available to help you plan for your retirement. Just visit their website at |
| 1:17.1 | Jimhelps.com. That's Jim H-E-L-P-S dot com and click the Meet the Team button on the homepage. |
| 1:25.0 | Now here's Jim and Chris with today's show. |
| 1:30.8 | Well, hello everybody and welcome to the Retirement and IRA show, EDU edition. This week, we're going to go in a little |
| 1:36.5 | different direction than we have in the past few weeks or so. We're actually going to have a, |
| 1:42.9 | I guess you could call it a form of a dialogue show. |
| 1:46.0 | Those of you who are longtime listeners know that we oftentimes like to feature feedback from |
| 1:52.8 | listeners, how they, after they describe to us or share with us, how they are kind of planning |
| 2:00.2 | for their own or facilitating their own |
| 2:02.9 | retirement using possibly some of the elements of our philosophy, but maybe other other methods |
| 2:10.9 | and strategies they learn elsewhere or come up with on their own. And we like to kind of pass it along |
| 2:16.6 | a lot of what this show does at least i think |
| 2:19.8 | one of the one of the uh beneficial aspects of what we do here in my personal opinion is pass |
| 2:28.1 | on what we learn right and there's a the academic learning and the experiential learning that |
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