Keen On Retirement™

Here are three strategies for weathering this bout of volatility that I hope you'll think about and discuss with your financial advisor.

Headline writers love superlatives: the "biggest" drop, the "highest" inflation rate, the "most" pessimism, and so on. Those words might generate clicks and keep you glued to cable news. But they don't tell the full story of where our economy has been, where it is right now, and where it's probably headed.

As we discuss on today's episode, this year's report, released on June 2nd, is a bit more optimistic. But the ongoing social, political, and economic challenges that will affect your benefits in retirement mean it's critical that folks understand how these funds work, maintain realistic expectations, and work with an advisor to plan ahead.

To help me explore these important intersections, I'm thrilled to welcome Dr. Megan McCoy to today's episode. Dr. McCoy is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and a Certified Financial Therapist-I. At Kansas State University, she's a Professor of Practice and Director of the Financial Planning Masters Program and key faculty in the Financial Therapy Certificate Program. Dr. McCoy is also an Executive Board member for the Financial Therapy Association and the Associate Editor of the Journal of Financial Therapy.

"Wealthy" is another category that's a lot more relative than people may realize. Sure, we talk about "the 1%" a lot in our society. Others might point to the IRS' tax brackets to gauge wealth. But Charles Schwab's Modern Wealth Survey 2022 shows that people want more from their money than just wealth -- they want to be able to live a life that aligns with what's most important to them.

On today's show, we (briefly) debate the pros and cons of leaving our clocks alone before digging into the details of SECURE Act 2.0 that could affect retirement if this new bill is passed.