Vanguard Research put out a paper called "The Emotional and Time Value of Advice” (June 2025).

It claims that there are "emotional benefits and time-saving value that paid professional financial advice provides to clients."

In other words: The benefit isn't the portfolio or financial advice, but the emotional and time-saving value getting paid professional advice can provide.

Then for our listener question: Gary wants to know how his Health Savings Account (HSA) interacts with Medicare. Can you pay Medicare premiums from an HSA at a later date like you can with qualified medical expenses paid out of pocket? Great question!

Resource:
Vanguard Study: "The Emotional and Time Value of Advice" paper

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Only about 4% of retirees actually wait until age 70 to claim Social Security, despite the financial benefits of delaying them.

This comes from an article by Derek Tharp at Kitces.com titled “The Flaws In Using A 0% Discount Rate To Justify Delaying Social Security”. It takes a hard look at why the common advice to “wait until 70” might not always hold up in the real world.

Tharp argues that the assumptions baked into much of the research—especially the idea that a future Social Security dollar is worth the same as a dollar today—can tilt the math toward delay, while ignoring very real risks like mortality, sequence of returns, policy changes, and even health-span.

I'll share the points and give my commentary on the topic. Thanks for hitting the Play button!

Then in our listener question segment: We’ll talk about whether it ever makes sense to use a SPIA to bridge the gap until Social Security. What are the pros and cons, and would I ever recommend one?

Resource:
Article from Derek Tharp on Kitces.com: Why Delaying Social Security Benefits Isn’t Always The Best Decision

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Our retirement headline is from a ThinkAdvisor article titled "Ed Slott: Roth Conversions Are Trickier Under New Tax Law" by Melanie Waddell.

“With the extended tax cuts under President Trump’s recently passed tax and spending law, ‘Roth conversions should be accelerated to take advantage of more years of low tax rates,’ according to Ed Slott of Ed Slott & Co.

‘You never want to leave a low tax bracket unfilled,’ he said. ‘Low tax brackets need to be maximized each year, but how much to convert each year can be trickier now since many of the new tax breaks have income caps.’”

That’s the crux of it — Roth conversions still make sense, but now they’re bumping up against some new income cliffs. I take the first few minutes to share a few key numbers.

Then our listener question is actually one I asked myself after seeing a post about company financials being reported less frequently than quarterly. I go through the pros and cons of making this change.

Resources:

Article by Melanie Waddell, courtesy of ThinkAdvisor.com: Ed Slott: Roth Conversions Are Trickier Under New Tax Law

Article on Reuters by Johann M Cherian, Lewis Krauskopf and Douglas Gillison: Trump renews calls for ending quarterly reports for companies

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Retirement Starts Today: Your Non-financial Guide to an Even Better Retirement