Retirement Talk with Dr. Wade Pfau

Retirement Answer Man

Roger Whitney, CFP®, CIMA®, RMA, CPWA®

Education, Investmentmanagement, Saving, Self-improvement, Careerplanning, Retirement, Business, Lifeplanning, Investing, Retirementplanning, Financialplanning, Retirementpodcast

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 March 2026

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

💬 Show Notes

Wade Pfau, author of The Retirement Planning Guidebook and creator of the Retirement Income Style Awareness (RISA®) assessment joins Roger for a wide-ranging conversation on the big questions of retirement income planning. Wade breaks down why the RISA is a better fit for retirement than a traditional risk tolerance questionnaire, how to think about real estate and reverse mortgages as retirement tools, and what the research actually says about annuities — including when to buy, whether to add inflation protection, and how fixed index annuities with living benefits really work. This podcast is a replay of a recent Rock Retirement Club meetup where members were able to join live and ask questions.

Outline Of This Episode Of The Retirement Answer Man

(00:00) Roger previews the episode and invites listeners to register for Noodle Live — a Saturday morning Zoom on March 28 at livewithroger.com

CONVERSATION WITH DR. WADE PFAU

(02:00) Roger introduces Wade Pfau, author of The Retirement Planning Guidebook
(04:15) RISA vs. risk tolerance questionnaires
(10:45) How to use The Retirement Planning Guidebook
(12:00) AI in retirement research
(14:30) RRC Member Question: How does real estate fit into retirement planning?
(17:00) Reverse mortgages as a retirement tool — usage trends, how the HECM line of credit works, upfront cost hurdles, and why adoption remains low
(21:30) RRC Member Question: What is an effective marginal tax rate (EMR) and how does it affect Roth conversion strategy?
(25:00) Navigating ACA subsidy cliffs before Medicare
(28:00) RRC Member Question: Fixed vs. inflation-adjusted annuities
(33:00) Annuity timing
(37:00) RRC Member Question: Should we explore intentionally breaking the ACA cliff every few years?
(48:00) Fixed index annuities with living benefits vs. income annuities
(53:00) RRC Member Question: Is there an optimal age window for buying an annuity if it's a "nice to have" rather than a must?
(57:00) Interpreting retirement planning software

SMART SPRINT

(59:00) Pick up the latest edition of The Retirement Planning Guidebook. Use it as an approachable reference guide, or read it straight through if you're really into retirement planning.

REFERENCES

livewithroger.com — Register for Noodle Live on March 28!
The Retirement Planning Guidebook, 3rd Edition — Wade Pfau / retirementresearcher.com
Take the RISA® assessment.
Submit a Question for Roger.
Sign up for The Noodle.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Today we're going to have a wide-ranging conversation with Wade Fowl from retirement researcher
0:04.4	on annuities and Risa style assessments, reverse mortgages, tax optimization, and so much more.
0:14.3	Hey there, welcome to the show. My name is Roger Whitney. So glad to be here with you today. So we're
0:20.7	going to chat with Wade Fowell.
0:21.8	He recently came into the club for a private session with club members.
0:25.9	So you're going to hear some, well, retirees a lot like you asking questions and interacting
0:29.9	with Wade on a whole host of topics.
0:32.8	So I'm excited to get to that.
0:34.9	Before we do, however, I want to invite you to join me on March 28th, Saturday
0:40.9	morning to bring the noodle live. On Saturday morning on March 28th, we're going to go live on
0:49.7	Zoom, have a cup of coffee, and hang out and just debrief the month of topics that we've covered in
0:55.1	the show, have just a great interaction and Q&A on retirement planning in general.
1:00.7	Good way to spend a Saturday morning with a little cup of coffee.
1:03.8	So you can register for that and find out more at Live With roger.com.
1:09.1	And if you get the noodle every week, we'll have a link in the noodle.
1:13.6	But that said, let's get started with this retirement chat with Wade Fow.
1:23.9	Wade Fow, author of the retirement planning guidebook. I have the previous edition. I have
1:29.1	the newest version yet, Wade. And this is going to be an open discussion session about
1:34.5	retirement topics. Wade is a prolific researcher and thinker on this topic and creator of
1:39.6	the RISA, which we have integrated into the master class. I'm having an active debate, Wade, internally,
1:45.9	because we're refreshing our process and our planning firm
1:49.2	of using the RISA and have someone that is still attached to the old school risk tolerance
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Roger Whitney, CFP®, CIMA®, RMA, CPWA®, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Roger Whitney, CFP®, CIMA®, RMA, CPWA® and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.