Once you are 70.5 you can issue donations to charity from your IRA tax free. That's called QCD (qualified charitable deduction).

If you'd like you can always reach out and we'd love to see if there's ways we can help. This isn't a hobby for us!

And yes the money needs to be sent payable to the charity from the custodian. You can't receive the money and then forward it…you can't ever touch the money.

IRMAA adjustments was indeed a primary thing that I wasn't prepared for but it didn't really have anything to do with investment approach or sequence or ira withdrawals. It had to do with making too much earned income in the years before retirement.

It will settle down a few years after my retirement date in and then will ramp right back up after I have to start taking RMD's.

I was guilty of not doing my research on IRMAA and I never got a word of warning from anyone about it. I put it in the category of "you simply don't know what you don't know". It's cost me $ 500 per month + for the past 16 mos and will continue to for the next 8. It's not really something I could have done anything about except for maybe doing Roth instead of traditional IRA's to the degree I could have but it would have been good to have known about and planned for it.

I do have a friend that retired from full time work and has worked part time for the past few yrs . He got burned by his advisor who sold some tax paid assets triggering significant capital gains earnings and also converting traditional Ira's to Roth's which also counts as taxable earnings. He's in the same IRMAA boat as me but for different reasons and it also killed him on his 2025 taxes.

I read my first personal finance books in 1992-1993 (Making the Most of Your Money, etc) before I graduated from A&M. Went on to get a ChFC certification in 1994 and did everything myself from then until last year.

In the best way possible, my personal finance situation got really complicated in 2018. All kinds of different accounts, future cash flows, tax structures/considerations and some new life ambitions. I was doing fine until I started to get really perplexed with simply not screwing something up akin to some of the previous posts about a 'massive tax mistake from a transaction' or something similar. I hired an FA for the first time about a year ago to compliment my use of ProjectionLab. They (an entire team) really help me with cash flow planning, tax *strategy* and tax planning (2 different things), positioning the right holdings in the right accounts, and maybe most importantly when to move things from one place to another given all of the variables I've inherited in the last 8 years.

And 'variables' is how I think of how my FA (and their team) really provide value. It's as if I went from a 2 variable algebra problem (taxable/tax-advantaged) to something like a 20-variable equation to solve. Furthermore, those 20 variables are seemingly in constant motion requiring frequent and multi-disciplinary approaches to address. And not just once, but really until I'm gone. I was kind of oblivious to many of these until a couple of years ago and once I started to peel the onion back, that's when I knew I needed to hire someone/a team. I've since learned there are a lot of people out there in similar positions, which was really surprising.

As some say, YMMV. But in my case there is absolutely a good reason for me to have an FA.

Last two posts cover very well why we started using an FA. Situation just got complicated.

I love the example of going from a 2 variable problem to a 20 variable problem.

I've listened to enough Fidelity Webinars to know they don't issue tax advice. As such, we recently engaged with an attorney who also has a masters in tax. We're doing estate planning as well so I'm looking forward to what he shares.

You may want to explore a smaller, independent RIA if you're looking for that level of service.

Big shops like Fidelity and Edward Jones serve millions of households through advisors carrying 200-500+ relationships each. Personalized tax planning doesn't scale at that ratio. It requires deep familiarity with each client's full picture (income sources, basis, state, entity structures, charitable strategy, etc.). Their compliance departments also restrict advisors from giving specific tax advice because tax planning is technically the domain of CPAs and EAs, and the firms don't want the malpractice exposure if an unlicensed advisor gives wrong guidance. So they default to "consult your tax advisor."

Independent RIAs flip the math. Smaller books (often 50-100 clients), higher revenue per relationship, and the ability to either employ in-house CPAs or work tightly with one. The economics actually support spending real time on withdrawal sequencing, tax-loss harvesting, Roth conversion ladders, charitable bunching, etc. And without sitting under a giant BD's compliance umbrella, the firm can define its scope of services more flexibly, provided properly credentialed staff are involved.

Ag00Ag said:

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Baby Billy said:

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Proposition Joe said:

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If it's a better return on your money, data says over time they are unlikely to do better than you just investing in market index funds..

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Unlikely to beat the indexes. Highly likely to beat the average investor buying those indexes

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Actually, as stated before, highly unlikely to beat individual investors buying index funds/etfs.

See "The little book of common sense investing "-Jack Boogle, "The psychology of money "-Morgan Housal, and "A random walk down Wall Street "- Burton Malkiel, if you need proof.

An individual investor buying index funds /etfs, will do better than 85% of financial managers, and that's before fees!

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Do you know what the management fees are on VGT?

How much diligence and disclosure do you get on those private investments? Theoretically it should be considerably more than a public investment since there are no Reg D concerns, but I could also see them taking the position that you're lucky to get anything my at all so buy it or don't.

I'm a CFA charterholder who has spent a good portion of my career leading capital markets work for public companies, and I'm currently trying to figure out the right time to bring an expert in. I don't know that it will add much for me personally, but if something happens to me my wife will be lost.

jh0400 said:

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I'm a CFA charterholder who has spent a good portion of my career leading capital markets work for public companies, and I'm currently trying to figure out the right time to bring an expert in. I don't know that it will add much for me personally, but if something happens to me my wife will be lost.

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Sounds like now is the right time.

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You may want to explore a smaller, independent RIA if you're looking for that level of service.

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I get what you're saying, but for now, I manage our investments and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. FWIW, I've been very pleased with Fidelity. As big as they are, and as many clients that they maintain, they've been incredibly nimble.

Back to my original thought...I don't think Certified Financial Planners are capable of navigating the intricacies of today's tax laws (that's just my opinion). As such, we've retained an attorney with a Masters in Tax to execute our Estate Plan.

Ironically, as much as I love Trump, he screwed our heirs with his changes to Inherited IRA's during his first term. Both my wife and I have Inherited IRA's where we take our Required Minimum Distributions based on our longevity. Not so today. Our heirs will only have ten years to liquidate...which screams massive tax hits.

I do my own wealth management; I enjoy it and have done great. But most investors shouldn't do it themselves; it takes too much time, effort, knowledge, and self-control.

Basically about 80% of investors should pay for wealth management. If you are asking the question, you are in the 80%.