Posted: 12/12/2025 2:02:29 AM EDT
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Newbie here. Posted message a few weeks ago asking about retirement planning software. Based on feedback, bought Boldin software. Its been great!! Looking for recommendations on YouTube channels on retirement planning and investing. I'm 60 and will retire next year. Wife is 51 and will retire at 55'ish when I go on Medicare. Goal is for me to learn more about savvy investing. We are aware of potential Roth conversions after she retires and taxable income drops to next go nothing, etc. Any advice would be appreciated. We will never advance to playing the market with puts and options, etc. We have no interest in that. |
Behave Yourself
Moderate-Length Barrel Evangelist
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Ben Felix on Youtube. He’s Canadian, so you’ll have to get tax info elsewhere. Otherwise, great info. He does work at an investment firm, but you can’t buy his products on our side of the border and he doesn’t try to sell them to you. No scams, no politics, no flashy exciting bullshit, no unbelievable returns, no stock picks, just boring, solid info supported by understandable math and history from a guy that knows what he’s talking about. He’s got some videos that are specifically useful at your age demystifying sequence of returns and rate of withdrawal, share sales vs income/dividend funds, etc. Check out the bogleheads forum, also. |
No nonsense been there done that actual financial advice from someone living it and learning from his mistakes: How I fill my 3 Buckets of Retirement Money I’m not retired but he’s the main one I watch as we’re learning from his wins/losses for the future. It’s certainly changed our perspective on things. |
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My daily is Talking Real Money. Some of their content is on YouTube. I listen to them on Apple Podcasts pretty much daily. They also host an annual meeting called Retiremeet. Those videos are on YouTube as well. They give honest, straight-forward advice and, most importantly, don't try to sell you anything. |
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I found “Erin talks money” to have some good videos about retiring early and the psychological aspects of money in retirement. Also do the math on the Roth conversions while the wife is working instead of only after she also quits working. Irmaa and a larger fraction of your SS being taxed are the downsides of waiting. |
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I have been listening to the retirement answer man podcasts for several years. I find it entertaining and educational. He covers a wide range of technical topics, such as taxes, investing, withdrawal strategies, medical insurance plus the soft topics of health and how your life changes after work ends. |
RIP:LTC D.Cabrera/SGT C.Newman-29OCT11-OEF
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 Fed Policy Triggers Precious Metals Super Cycle and a Crack-Up Boom. I have been following this guy for six years abd he provides reasonable advice on retirment and investing when it comes to metals. |
"Everybody gotta die sometime Red."
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As mentioned above. Ben Felix. Very detailed data driven channel. I watch all of his but since he is Canadian he doesn’t cover many things applicable to an American. Several good ones out there but the one channel that will have a video to cover every retirement related question you might have is Merit Financial Services. I can’t think of a topic the host has not covered. Every topic will have the math to show why with the references to back it up. Be aware the firm that started it changed from Safeguard to Merit recently but the content quality is just as good and really unmatched. |
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Thanks for all the great recommendations. Ive been checking them out amd learning. I really need to bone up on Roth conversions. The Boldin software is recommending aggressive conversions beginning this month, including pulling from wife's 401K. Seems counterintuitive, since we are both working and in 34% tax bracket. She's also only 51, so sbject to penalty. After some research, it seems that the logi is tax penalties up fron at 51 are overcome by long term growth. We are gonna sit together for now and learn more before moving money. |
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Originally Posted By Utahshooting: The Boldin software is recommending aggressive conversions beginning this month, including pulling from wife's 401K. Seems counterintuitive, since we are both working and in 34% tax bracket. She's also only 51, so sbject to penalty. After some research, it seems that the logi is tax penalties up fron at 51 are overcome by long term growth. That's sus. 
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Originally Posted By Utahshooting: The Boldin software is recommending aggressive conversions beginning this month, including pulling from wife's 401K. Seems counterintuitive, since we are both working and in 34% tax bracket. She's also only 51, so sbject to penalty. Additionally there is no 34% bracket, there is 32 and then 35. Tax minimization is your goal and figuring out how to do that requires knowing a lot more details than you have shared. |
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Originally Posted By Utahshooting: Seems counterintuitive, since we are both working and in 34% tax bracket. She's also only 51, so sbject to penalty. A Roth conversion at 51 only triggers a penalty if you are withdrawing extra to cover the taxes. Even then, the 10% penalty is only applied to the amount that was used to pay the taxes. No penalty on converted amount. It seems something in the software is not setup properly. |
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Originally Posted By MtnWest: A Roth conversion at 51 only triggers a penalty if you are withdrawing extra to cover the taxes. Even then, the 10% penalty is only applied to the amount that was used to pay the taxes. No penalty on converted amount. It seems something in the software is not setup properly. I didn't know that. Also..., I made a mistake. The Boldin software wasn't recommending ROTH conversions from her 401K. It was from my Fidelity IRA and her Shwab IRA. My bad. Software is solid. Confusion was my ignorance in using it. Still learning.... |
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When you do the ROTH Conversion Simulations you have to be careful which one you select. I recommend having a 'Base' file and then running various simulations from that and comparing the different results. Saving taxes can be misleading. As assets grow, the resulting paid tax increases. This can encourage people to use a higher tax rate early (when the total amount is smaller) to reduce the overall amount of taxes paid, but you should really focus on the tax rates paid. This includes projecting tax rate once the first person passes and tax rates go up for the single person. You don't want to reduce the total taxes paid per say, you want to maximize the end amount while avoiding IRMAA and such. Run different models and see what the results suggest. |
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Originally Posted By Morgan321: hope you didn’t pay for that software because that’s some terrible advice. Additionally there is no 34% bracket, there is 32 and then 35. Tax minimization is your goal and figuring out how to do that requires knowing a lot more details than you have shared. I started using Boldin a couple of months ago and really like it for $144 a year. In regard to their Roth conversion tool. You are asked if you want to minimize taxes or max the value of your estate. I get different recommendations depending on how I run the tool. |
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Originally Posted By Morgan321: I found “Erin talks money” to have some good videos about retiring early and the psychological aspects of money in retirement. Also do the math on the Roth conversions while the wife is working instead of only after she also quits working. Irmaa and a larger fraction of your SS being taxed are the downsides of waiting. I like Erin's videos as well. She does a great job presenting the subject matter in a way a 10th grader could understand. |