Income Over Wealth

Medicare sets your premium from the tax return you filed two years earlier, so the taxable profit on a home sale can follow you into your first year of coverage. That makes 63 the year that decides your premium at 65, while a sale at 62 lands on a year Medicare never charges you for. This episode covers who actually gets caught, what the surcharge costs in 2026, and what to do before you sell.

Most of the money taken from Americans over 60 is taken by someone they already know. That changes what money boundaries with your own family are actually for. This episode walks through six specific things worth keeping to yourself after 60, the mechanism behind why each one backfires, and what to do instead in every case. The point is keeping your retirement under your own control so you can help your kids from a position of strength.

The idea that retirement starts a clock is one of the most repeated fears people carry into it. The studies built to test that idea find no spike in death risk on the day you retire, and the first year looks closer to a honeymoon. What the research does point to is a slower danger, and it shows up for people who leave a job for an empty calendar.

If you've ever paid a mortgage, you already understand half of this. Someone on the other end held a piece of paper and got paid every month, with the house standing behind it. This episode walks through how that works when the person holding the paper is an individual instead of a bank, and how to evaluate a note deal yourself before a dollar moves.

The purchases that drain a retirement plan are rarely the obvious splurges. This episode walks through seven of them, from the oversized house and the new luxury car to the vacation home, the timeshare, and the remodel right before you retire. You get the real math on each one, plus the honest exceptions worth making.

Losing a job before retirement can leave you better off than walking away on your own terms. Severance and unemployment only show up when the company ends it, and a single line on your exit paperwork decides whether you collect either one. This episode covers what that paperwork has to say, what to keep quiet about while the package is still in play, and how to turn a funded runway into a bigger retirement.

Most families learn how nursing home costs work too late, usually in a hospital hallway. This episode breaks down the two parts of the trap: the Medicare coverage gap and Medicaid estate recovery. It also covers what the healthy spouse gets to keep and why one popular move, gifting the house to the kids, usually backfires.

This is the plain-English walkthrough of how a self-directed IRA actually works: what it can hold, what it really costs, and the prohibited-transaction rules that keep you safe. You'll see why operating a rental inside one is usually the wrong move, and why secured mortgage notes fit those same rules so well.

Retiring overseas gets sold as the move that makes a smaller nest egg work. This episode walks through the costs that don't show up on the cost-of-living blogs: healthcare, US taxes that follow you for life, currency swings, account access, visas and property, and the price of coming home, with the real numbers on each.

The day your earned income stops, a whole stack of things disappears at once. Some you can rebuild in a year. A few close permanently, and the only time to deal with them is while you still have a paycheck coming in. This episode sorts twelve of them into what you can rebuild and what's gone for good.

At a dealership, announcing cash can make you the least profitable customer in the room, which means less movement on the price. This episode breaks down where dealers actually make their money, the finance-then-prepay move that captures the discount without the debt, and the real opportunity cost of draining your capital to pay cash once you're retired.

There are actually three crossovers worth knowing about. The first happens when portfolio growth exceeds your contributions. The second when it exceeds your earned income. The third, the original 1992 Vicki Robin definition, when income from your assets covers your monthly expenses. That last one is the only crossover that survives a flat market year.

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Elder fraud cost Americans $81.5 billion in 2024, and a huge portion of it started with something someone said out loud. This episode walks through the eight disclosures that quietly expose you to financial risk after 55, from your retirement timeline to your Social Security amount to the one almost nobody talks about: your "big money" window.

Take the free Retirement Income Roadmap (7 questions, about 30 seconds): incomeoverwealth...

Most people think they're one tier above or below where they actually are. This episode walks through the Federal Reserve's retirement wealth breakdown and shows you what monthly income, daily stress, and real lifestyle look like from the bottom tier to the top 1%.

Take the free Retirement Income Roadmap (7 questions, about 30 seconds): incomeoverwealth.com/map

Watch this episode on YouTube: https...

If you have a pension, the usual advice on claiming Social Security, taking a lump sum, or planning survivor benefits was written for people without one. This episode walks through what changed in 2025, the 6% rule for lump sum decisions, and the inflation gap most pensions quietly carry.

Take the free Retirement Income Roadmap (7 questions, about 30 seconds): incomeoverwealth.com/map

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube...

The mid-50s are where most retirement plans start going sideways, not from a single big mistake but from a pattern of small ones. Chasing a perfect portfolio number. Staying in a job one year too long. Supporting adult children beyond what your plan can absorb. This episode walks through all nine and how to spot each one in your own plan.