40% of marriages today create a blended family, which involve children from previous relationships or marriages. I'm very excited for these next two episodes with Tim and Alexis Woodward from the Blend Wealth team! Financial issues are a hot topic within families. And when you add additional parties, it can Read More

The financial markets are well known to cause some stress and anxiety, but this escalates even more during a Presidential election. Especially this one which is likely to bring out emotions from both sides. As a result, I felt called to do this episode to provide some facts about how Read More

First and foremost, it's been a whirlwind for the Lao family in March. My financial planning firm just went through its first audit, woohoo! In the midst of all of the heavy lifting preparing for said audit, my wife gets the worst food poisoning of her life. Needless to say, Read More

The SECURE Act of 2019 was the first major overhaul of retirement plans, specifically 401ks. However, many people are still curious about what the changes are and how they impact these group 401k plans. I had the pleasure of being joined by Alex Jenkins, the Chief Revenue Officer @ Nest Read More

Have you heard of the 4% rule?! It's the most recognized benchmark for safe withdrawal rates in retirement. However, it lacks flexibility and often leaves retirees "under-spending," particularly in their prime retirement years. Think Advisor put out this article (link below) that touched on three alternatives to the 4% rule Read More

According to the Vanguard "Advisor's Alpha" study, asset location can add up to 60 bps in returns on an annual basis! The larger your taxable brokerage account balance, the more you need to pay attention to what investments you own in that bucket! Conventional wisdom says that the taxable accounts Read More

Housing wealth is one of the largest, if not the largest, assets on the balance sheet for retirees today. However, many retirees simply pay off their mortgage and let their housing equity sit idle. There's nothing inherently wrong with this line of thinking because being debt-free is often a goal Read More

Welcome to another episode of The Planning for Retirement Podcast. I'm your host, Kevin Lao! 2020-2023 brought about legitimate market volatility, the first we've experienced since The Great Recession of 2008. I thought I would share some common mistakes I've personally seen retirees make over the last few years to Read More

2023 was an amazing year, and I just wanted to spend some time sharing my sincere gratitude for my listeners, clients, and most importantly my wife, Jessica, for supporting me on this journey. I also wanted to share a few tax planning observations as we close out 2023. Here are Read More

I decided to record this episode as a follow-up to Ep. 30 given how many questions and discussions I've heard from listeners. If you have not listened to Ep. 30 (link here), you should go back and listen as Cody Garrett joined me to talk about the challenge of psychologically Read More

I'm excited to have Brady Slack, the proud owner of High Country Finance based in Utah, join for this fascinating topic. At first, I was planning to steer Brady in two directions with regards to tax planning opportunities for business owners and W2 employees. But, we ended up mainly focusing Read More

I've known Cody for almost 3 years now, and this man is a true student of his craft. Cody is an advice-only financial planner passionate about helping DIY investors on the path to financial independence and through early retirement. He is a CFP practitioner and proud owner of the Measure Read More

For decades, the 60/40 portfolio has been the most popular asset allocation for retirees and institutional investors. It provides enough exposure to the equity markets to hedge inflation, but also plenty of "safe money" to offset dips in the stock market. And then, 2022 - 2023 comes along when interest Read More

Opposites attract, and this bleeds into the world of personal finance. There is a reason why the #1 cause for marital issues is related to personal finances. Well, when planning for retirement, this is no different. There's oftentimes a "CFO" of the household, and a "Non-CFO." It varies, depending on Read More

In episode 26, we addressed 7 reasons why you may want to own permanent life insurance during retirement. In this episode, we will discuss the different types of permanent life insurance (whole and universal), as well as the different flavors of each type. I hope you find this to be Read More

We've all heard the sales pitches! "Permanent life insurance solves all of your problems!" For those of you who have followed me for a period of time know I don't believe this to be true. But at the same time, there is a large % of the financial advisor (and Read More

I hope you enjoy this one! I am not going to give it away in the description but here are the most common responses I hear from people (until they listen to this episode of course): - Tax planning - Peace of mind - Investment management - Income distribution planning Read More

Most people go into retirement without Long-term Care Insurance. Meaning, they plan to "self-fund" Long-term Care expenses. But really, what ends up happening is that a family member, or family members, will end up providing the care. In fact, 70% of care provided is done by unpaid caregivers (aka family Read More

This is part 2 of 3 in our series, "How to pay for Long-term care costs in retirement." Rodney Mogen and Peter Ciravalo from BC Brokerage are my guests again today and they bring a ton of knowledge on this topic! There is a reason Hybrid Long-term Care policies now Read More

One commonly shared concern for all retirees and pre-retirees I've spoken to over the years: "Never be a burden on your loved ones." As we all go through the aging process, the potential need for extended care is more and more at the forefront. However, many pre-retirees and retirees fail Read More