At 63, David has $4 million saved.

Two advisors have told him he's ready to retire, and every Monte Carlo simulation agrees... but he still can't bring himself to do it.

"I'm no longer being smart," he admits. "I'm just scared to pull the trigger."

The uncomfortable part is that no number may fix this, because what's holding David back was never on the spreadsheet.

In this episode, I'm joined by Daniel Crosby, Ph.D. — a psychologist and behavioral finance expert — to answer listener questions about the part of retirement the math can't solve.

You'll learn:

→ How to spend in retirement so the enjoyment doesn't wear off so fast

→ A 3-part framework for putting your money where it creates the most happiness

→ When changing your plan is wise, and when it's just reacting to noise

→ The 2 questions to ask when you're financially ready but still can't pull the trigger

→ What actually moves the 40% of your happiness that's within your control

By the end, you'll have a clearer way to separate a plan that works on paper from a retirement you actually feel ready to live.

***

📆 BOOK A CALL WITH OUR TEAM:

Your retirement involves complex, interconnected decisions—taxes, income, healthcare, estate planning, investments.

See how they fit together in one coordinated strategy built around your numbers.

👉 Learn More and Book a Call

***

EPISODE RESOURCES:

→ Grab the Episode Show Notes

→ Join the Stay Wealthy Retirement Newsletter

→ Learn About the Total Retirement System™

Imagine I hand you two mutual funds and ask how you'd split your money.

Same holdings. Same cost. Line by line, they're the exact same fund.

The only difference?

One has a name you recognize and the the other is generic.

Financially, there's no reason to prefer one over the other.

But when researchers ran this experiment, investors didn't split their money evenly.

In this episode, I break down new research on the hidden cost of making investment decisions based on familiarity.

Here's what you'll learn:

→ Why a familiar fund name changes how investors judge risk, return, and safety

→ What the "trust premium" reveals about how investors value familiarity

→ How famous fund families have performed against their benchmarks

→ The questions to ask before choosing a fund or accepting an advisor's recommendation

By the end, you'll have a more disciplined and informed way to judge whether confidence is being earned or merely assumed.

***

📆 BOOK A CALL WITH OUR TEAM:

Your retirement involves complex, interconnected decisions—taxes, income, healthcare, estate planning, investments.

See how they fit together in one coordinated strategy built around your numbers.

👉 Learn More and Book a Call

***

EPISODE RESOURCES:

→ Grab the Episode Show Notes

→ Join the Stay Wealthy Retirement Newsletter

→ Learn About the Total Retirement System™

You spend 30 or 40 years protecting your future self.

Then you finally retire... and the person you were saving for never quite arrives.

There's always an older version down the road who still feels like they need protecting.

So you keep saving for tomorrow while postponing the life you could enjoy today.

But more money for "future you" isn't what makes retirement better.

In this episode, Hal Hershfield, Ph.D. — a UCLA professor of Behavioral Decision Making and author of Your Future Self — joins me to explain why.

Here's what you'll learn:

→ Why your brain treats your future self like a stranger (and how that shapes every money decision)

→ How "projection bias" distorts irreversible choices like when to retire or claim Social Security

→ The "denominator problem" that stops retirees from spending + a simple reframe to help

The distance we feel from our future selves is real and well-documented.

It is also, with the right perspective, something we can learn to close.

***

📆 BOOK A CALL WITH OUR TEAM:

Your retirement involves complex, interconnected decisions—taxes, income, healthcare, estate planning, investments.

See how they fit together in one coordinated strategy built around your numbers.

👉 Learn More and Book a Call

***

EPISODE RESOURCES:

→ Grab the Episode Show Notes

→ Join the Stay Wealthy Retirement Newsletter

→ Learn About the Total Retirement System™