MoneyRx for CRNAs and NPs

How This Nursing Couple Retired with $2.5M and Still Underspent for 3 Years

Brett Fellows, CFP® Season 1 Episode 85

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0:00 | 15:25

If you retired with $2.5 million and were still afraid to spend it, you would not be alone. Many CRNAs and nurse practitioners have worked so hard for so long, but nobody ever taught them how to switch gears.

In this episode, Brett walks through a sample client household, Chris and Heather, a CRNA and NP couple who retired with $2.5 million in pre-tax accounts and were only spending $6,800 a month when their plan could safely support $10,500. Brett names the three reasons that happened, and the three-part retirement spending blueprint he built to fix it, including a Roth conversion strategy on track to save them over $180,000 in lifetime taxes.

Brett Covers:

  • Why retirees spend 80% of their guaranteed income but only 50% of their portfolio assets
  • The psychology behind treating savings as untouchable
  • How underspending creates a compounding future tax problem
  • The three-bucket retirement spending blueprint
  • How to build a monthly "retirement paycheck" from your portfolio
  • Long-term care: the real data on who actually needs it
  • How to use the Roth conversion window before RMDs kick in
  • Why IRMAA surcharges cost some couples $18,740 a year in Medicare alone

#CRNAs #NursePractitioners #RetirementPlanning #FinancialPlanning #MoneyRx


Key Timestamps:

(0:18) Challenges transitioning from saving to spending money

(1:20) Comprehensive financial planning services for high-earning nurses

(2:54) Potential tax liabilities of underspending in retirement

(4:44) Psychological differences between monthly income and portfolio assets

(6:36) Statistical data regarding long-term care cost risks

(8:06) Benefits of using the Roth conversion window after retirement

(9:08) Medicare surcharges and their relationship to required distributions

(10:39) Three components of the retirement spending blueprint

(12:33) Executing a Roth conversion strategy to minimize taxes

(14:18) Summary takeaways and link to free retirement assessment 


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