Retirement Planning Guidebook Chapters 10 - 13

Chapters 10, 11, and 12 deal with Tax Planning, Legacy and Incapacity Planning and Non-Financial Aspects of Retirement. Chapter 13 is a summation of all previous chapters, gathering all of the action steps that were at the end of each chapter in one place for reference. 

Chapter 10 notes on Tax Planning:

I already knew most of the things in regards to taxes and retirement plans, but learned a lot about the "Social Security Tax Torpedo" and will need to model how that will affect my retirement spending and distribution. It's a bit of tricky math. Because your "combined income" that the IRS looks at to tax Social Security is linear, it feels like the Social Security tax should be roughly linear, but extra income could reclassify a dollar of Social Security that was subject to 0% or 50% tax now 85% tax just by increasing $1 in income. And because it doesn't change with inflation, it's been affecting middle income retirees more than the wealthy. This was such a meaty chapter, it ended up being nearly 1/4th of the book!

Chapter 11 notes on Legacy and Incapacity Planning:

I sure have a ways to go here in regards to considering Wills, Estates, Trusts, Power of Attorney and other things. It was an informative chapter that I will visit as I go through the retirement accumulation stage and slowly get things ready to consider how I end my retirement as well as start.

Chapter 12 notes on Non-Financial Aspects of Retirement:

I think this chapter and chapter 4 I've had the most 'review' materials. I already knew that it's imperative to have a network of people outside of the workplace, have hobbies that you can do while less mobile, and hobbies that encourage you to stay mobile.

Chapter 13 notes on Putting It All Together:

This was a great book of definitions and understanding of all aspects of retirement. He has a lot of suggested further reading for more of a deep dive on certain topics that require more research, like the chapter on Incapacity Planning. I appreciate all the action steps that I'll refer to and start checking off as I get closer to retirement. While it was a meaty book and took me a while to read, I'm glad I did it!