Retirement Success Blueprint With Michael Stewart

When Is It “Safe” For You To Retire?

We get a lot of questions from listeners wanting to know how they can determine when it will be “safe” for them to retire. Let’s look at some of the key factors that help a person define what “safe” means and when they can indeed pull that retirement lever.

The 5 Most Common “Pain Points” In Your Financial Life

When it comes to financial planning, everybody has some kind of pain point. Those pain points are different for each person, but everyone has something that bothers them. Michael tells us about some times where he's helped clients through these frustrating areas.

The 6 Things Wasting Away In Your Financial Junk Drawer

Most people have a junk drawer at home. It usually contains things like rubber bands, clothespins, highlighters, glue sticks, a tape measure, a label maker, and a pair of scissors. But most people have a financial junk drawer too. Let’s talk about some of the things that end up there and how they might be put to better use…

Episode #27: Retirement Planning: When DIY Works (And When It Doesn’t)

In many areas of our culture, the do-it-yourself mentality is really popular. There’s even a DIY Network where you can watch shows about home renovation, landscaping, or interior design, and how to do those things without professional help. Let’s talk about what the DIY mentality looks like in retirement planning.

Episode #26: The Pros And Cons Of Being An Informed Consumer

You want to feel informed about your options when it comes to making financial decisions. So, you probably turn to a lot of different sources to gather that information. Let’s look at some of the most popular areas from which you’re getting your financial education and evaluate whether these are wise areas from which to grow your financial knowledge.

Episode #25: Little Missed Details

Let’s talk about some of the details that people often fail to consider when they’re planning their retirement.

Episode #24: 50 Shades Of Gray Area

Not everything in financial planning is black and white. In fact, most things aren’t black and white—there’s usually a lot of gray area. Let’s identify some of the issues that usually require a nuanced discussion…

Episode #23: How To Spot A Bad Advisor

How do you know if your financial advisor is a bad fit for you? What about an advisor that you’re thinking about working with? How can you tell the good ones from the bad ones?

Episode #22: Risk Tolerance

Any advisor worth his or her salt is going to have a conversation with you about risk. But what in the world is “risk tolerance”? It’s a buzzword that gets used a lot in meetings with financial advisors, but we’ve found that a lot of people don’t have a great understanding of how their risk tolerance truly impacts their financial and retirement plans. Let’s fix that and give you the 411 on risk tolerance.

Episode #21: Real Financial Advising Is Solving Problems

Most people think that a financial advisor’s primary job is picking investments. That’s only a small part of it. The reality is that the primary job is solving problems. Let’s look at some situations that have happened over the years where the financial planning became less about picking investments and more about solving problems.