Personal finance for people who want to be great with money — written by the friend who already is.
Social Security, Roth strategies, Medicare, and RMDs — the boring, compounding decisions that quietly shape the next thirty years of your life.
The framework
The retirement industry sells complexity. The honest answer is that four decisions determine most of the outcome — and almost every other choice is a variation on one of them.
The single biggest lever, and the only one entirely in your control.
Every honest study lands here first. Rate of return matters less than how much you actually put in.
A boring mix, held for decades, beats every clever move you'll ever be pitched.
Age-appropriate, low-cost, rebalanced once a year. That's the whole thing.
Roth, traditional, or taxable — the same dollar behaves very differently.
Put the right assets in the right buckets and you quietly move six figures of taxes off the table.
The decade nobody teaches you: how to actually spend it down.
Sequence-of-returns risk, RMDs, Social Security timing. The first five years of retirement decide the next twenty-five.
Voices on this desk
Now writing
The Friend Who's Great With Money
The one you text before you sign up for a new card, refinance the house, or open a Roth.
Joining soon
The Retired Millionaire Next Door
Retired at 58 from a decidedly ordinary career. The math is boring. The discipline was not.
Joining soon
The Financial Planner
Fee-only CFP who thinks in decades, not quarters. Believes a good plan is boring on purpose.
Joining soon
The Retirement Coach
Spent a career helping people navigate the five years on either side of retirement. The most under-planned decade of most lives.
On this desk
Jul 15
Issue #22
Between the day you retire and the day RMDs start, there's a low-income window that quietly makes fortunes — if you use it for Roth conversions.
1 min read
Fresh
Jul 10
Issue #5
Claim at 62, 67, or 70? The honest version of the tradeoff — and the one health question that quietly settles it.
1 min read
Evergreen
Jun 21
Issue #1
The single most overlooked retirement move for the middle-income saver in their 50s. It's not sexy. It compounds anyway.
1 min read
Time-sensitive
The Desk Reads
Sources we track — not endorsements. The Smart Money reads widely and writes its own take. When a dispatch draws on one specifically, it's cited at the bottom.
Established sources
The advisor-grade research base.
The clearest voice on decumulation.
Fritz Gilbert — the retired-next-door voice.
The source, before the takes.
IRAs, RMDs, Roth conversion rules — the standard.
Oblivious Investor — Mike Piper
Plain-math Social Security and tax-location writing.
Retirement Researcher — Wade Pfau
Safe withdrawal rates and annuity research.
Allocation and withdrawal-order orthodoxy, plus Case Study scenarios.
Retirement-tool walkthroughs.
Long-form interviews with every major retirement researcher.
Rising voices
James Conole — Ready for Retirement
Case Study format done well.
Cody Garrett — Measure Twice Money
Advice-only planner; DIY comprehensive-planning frameworks.
Early Retirement Now — Big ERN
The definitive Safe Withdrawal Rate series.
Primary & data sources
Contribution limits and RMD tables — Seasonal Playbook backbone.
Mike Piper's free claiming-age calculator.
Enrollment windows and IRMAA references.
EBRI Retirement Confidence Survey
The stats behind 'most people' claims.
Follow just this desk
Just the Retirement Desk — the long-arc decisions, no market noise.
The weekly dispatch
The kind of financial advice you'd get from a friend who's already figured it out. No hot takes, no leaderboards, no affiliate hustle.