3 Steps to Build Your Retirement Paycheck

Where will your paycheck come from once you stop working, and which account do you pull from first? You saved well, maxed out your 403(b), and built a $2 million portfolio, but haven’t found clear answers to your retirement questions. 

In this episode, Brett Fellows talks through the three hidden issues that were quietly setting up a CRNA named Janie for $80,000 to $150,000 in taxes she did not have to pay, and the three-act retirement paycheck framework that changed her outcome.

Brett covers:

• Why the 4% rule understates your real take-home by design when every dollar is pre-tax
• The age 73 collision: what happens when a $2 million 403(b), Social Security, and forced RMDs all hit in the same year
• Why the window between retirement and RMDs is the highest-leverage tax planning period of a CRNA's entire financial life (and why most people waste it)
• How Roth conversions done at $75,000 per year from age 62 to 70 reduced Janie's 20-year federal tax bill by $170,000
• The three-act retirement paycheck framework: the bridge, the window, and the forced years
• What Janie's monthly paycheck looked like at age 70 after stopping work at 62 with a structured, tax-efficient sequence

If your numbers raise more questions than they answer, get your retirement pre-op assessment: https://oakcapitaladvisor.com/schedule-a-call/  

Click here to download the Free Retirement Checklist https://oakcapitaladvisor.com/retirement-checklist/

#CRNAs #RetirementPlanning #RothConversion #TaxStrategy #RetirementPaycheck

Key Timestamps:

(0:18) Why retirement feels unclear with $2M

(2:44) Janie: CRNA case study at age 58

(4:10) The 4% rule and the age 73 collision

(6:51) IRMAA and the conversion window

(9:30) Filling your tax brackets on purpose

(11:57) The three act retirement paycheck framework

(13:06) Act 1: Funding the bridge years

(15:15) Final results: Janie's $170,000 savings 

For more information and resources related to this episode, please visit the show notes.