Smarter Strategies for Retirement, Wealth Building, and Taxes with Michael Kitces

All the Hacks: Money, Points & Life

Chris Hutchins

Business, Education, Investing, Society & Culture, Places & Travel, Self-improvement

4.7 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 27 August 2025

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

#243: Discover smarter strategies to grow your wealth and create financial flexibility. We dive into when it makes sense to invest beyond retirement accounts, how to access savings early through Roth conversions and 72(t) distributions, ways to reduce taxes with HSAs, tax-advantaged accounts, and charity, and so much more. Michael Kitces is the Head of Planning Strategy at Focus Partners Wealth, co-founder of XYPN and publisher of a continuing education blog for financial planners, Nerd’s Eye View. Link to Full Show Notes: https://chrishutchins.com/smarter-savings-retirement-michael-kitces Partner Deals Mercury: Help your business grow with simplified finances Oceans: Best proactive global talent to level up your work and life OpenPhone: 20% off the first 6 months of your own business phone system DeleteMe: 20% off removing your personal info from the web Gelt: Skip the waitlist on personalized tax guidance to maximize your wealth For all the deals, discounts and promo codes from our partners, go to: chrishutchins.com/deals Resources Mentioned Michael Kitces: Website | Focus Partners Wealth | XYPN Blog Posts The Four Phases Of Saving And Investing For Retirement 3 Types Of Retirement And Their Very Different Savings Strategies Supplemental Saving In An HSA For Retiree Medical Expenses IRA Aggregation Rule And Pro-Rata IRA Taxation Effective Backdoor Roth Strategy: Rules, IRS Form 8606 Strategies For Maximizing (Or Minimizing!) Rule 72(t) Early Distribution Payments Systematic Partial Roth Conversions & Recharacterizations 72t Distribution Calculator ATH Podcast Submit questions for AMA Leave a review: Apple Podcasts | Spotify Email for questions, hacks, deals, and feedback: [email protected] Full Show Notes (00:00) Introduction (00:53) Should You Max Out Your Retirement Accounts? (05:08) Investing in Your Career as a High-Return Strategy (09:55) Saving in a Taxable Account vs. Retirement Account (13:40) Tax Advantages of a Retirement Account vs. Brokerage Account (16:19) How to Think About Emergency Savings (18:06) Choosing the Best Retirement Accounts (24:21) Reimbursing Medical Expenses via HSA (27:02) Evaluating the Core Retirement Accounts (29:19) Nuances of the Backdoor Roth IRA (30:53) Traditional vs. Roth IRA (32:12) Why the Majority Shouldn’t Worry About Tax Brackets (37:08) Roth Conversions in Low-Income Years (Sabbaticals) (40:02) Consolidating and Managing Old 401(k)s (42:15) Can You Access Retirement Funds via Roth Conversions? (42:54) Why Michael Doesn’t Practice Roth Conversions Before Retirement (45:46) The Rules for 72(t) Distributions (48:45) Tackling the Account Sequencing Problem (52:26) Leveraging Charity for Tax Deductions (54:08) What Happens When You Leave Money to Your Kids (1:00:53) Where to Find Michael, His Work and Services Connect with Chris Newsletter | Membership | X | Instagram | LinkedIn Editor’s Note: The content on this page is accurate as of the posting date; however, some of our partner offers may have expired. Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Everyone says to max out your retirement accounts, but is that always the best move?
0:04.0	Today I sit down with financial planning expert Michael Kitses to challenge the traditional advice
0:09.0	and explore why your savings strategy might be holding you back.
0:12.0	We cover smarter ways to grow your wealth, how to think more intentionally about where your money's going,
0:17.0	how to access your retirement accounts early, how to avoid unnecessary taxes, and what people
0:21.8	miss when planning for flexibility or even early retirement. I'm Chris Hutchins. If you enjoy this
0:26.7	episode and want to keep upgrading your life, money, and travel, click follow or subscribe.
0:31.5	I'm gearing up to record an AMA episode next week, so if you have any questions about life, travel,
0:38.4	money, credit cards, seriously, it could be anything. Just go you have any questions about life, travel, money, credit cards,
0:44.6	seriously, it could be anything. Just go to all the hacks.com slash AMA for Ask Me Anything and submit your questions there. I really look forward to answering them soon. Again,
0:49.5	allthehacks.com slash AMA.
0:54.0	Michael, everyone says to max out your retirement accounts, but do you think that could actually
0:58.5	be bad advice sometimes?
1:00.1	I tend to start from like one step back, which is to say, not just where am I saving the
1:07.5	money, but effectively, what is the opportunity cost of the money?
1:11.1	What else can I do with the money? It's like, okay, I can save in my retirement account.
1:15.4	I can put the money aside for potential to start a new business someday. Because if I actually go
1:22.0	and launch a business someday, that is successful. That is very challenging. A lot of people fail.
1:26.5	It helps to have a little bit of a
1:27.6	financial cushion to fail. But a lot of wealth building comes from successfully creating a business,
1:32.7	which I ain't ever going to do unless I have dollars available to do it, which is difficult to draw
1:38.7	out of a retirement account. Or I can do this to go get some class training, certification,
	...

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