Topic Archive
Retirement income planning is where taxes, withdrawals, Social Security, pensions, and late-career decisions finally meet. This page collects the articles that fit that broader income-modeling problem.
A lot of retirees treat RMDs like an administrative nuisance. They are not. A badly timed RMD can stack on top of Social Security, pensions, capital gains, and Roth conversions to create a surprisingly expensive tax year.
Read articleFederal retirement planning is more than entering a pension. The harder problem is modeling FERS supplement timing, bridge income, pension COLA, taxes, Social Security, and withdrawals year by year inside the full plan.
Read articleA lot of retirement software treats government benefits like a flat pension plus Social Security. That misses the real planning problem. Fatboy now models bridge income, FERS supplements, pension COLA, later pension offsets, and governmental 457(b) accounts with much more realism.
Read articleCompare Fixed SWR, Constant Percentage, Guardrails, and Floor-Ceiling spending to find the retirement withdrawal strategy that matches your income needs and risk tolerance.
Read articleDelay Social Security until 70 and get 24% more per month! Sounds great - until you realize you gave up $156,000 in early benefits to get that raise. Will you live long enough to break even?
Read articleYou're 65. Your income hits $103,001. Congratulations - you just triggered an extra $1,678/year in Medicare premiums. And because it's based on 2-year-old income, you might not even realize it until you get the bill.
Read articleYou retire with $1M. Withdraw 4% ($40k) per year, adjusted for inflation. You'll never run out of money. Except when you do - which is about 25-30% of the time in modern simulations.
Read articleTest spending, claiming ages, withdrawal strategies, taxes, and scenario changes inside one planner.