x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

Ready For Retirement

James Conole, CFP®

Ready For Retirement is the podcast dedicated to helping you learn the tips and strategies that will help you achieve your retirement goals. When it comes to retirement planning, it can quickly become overwhelming and easy to not take action. I designed this podcast because I want you to have the knowledge and confidence to create your secure retirement. My ultimate goal for all of my clients (and listeners) is to create peace of mind and that starts with having a strategy. I want you to spend more

business investing

All Episodes

17:42

Why $5 Million is the Tax "Danger Zone"

Ready For Retirement ·

2026/02/08

Once your portfolio crosses $5 million, the game changes. Growing your money is no longer the hard part... protecting it is. Tax mistakes that used to feel like small inefficiencies can quietly turn into six-figure problems that compound throughout retirement. This episode breaks down the tax strategies that actually matter once you’re in high-net-worth territory. With multiple account types, portfolio income pushing you into higher brackets, and large pre-tax balances creating future RMD an...

en-us

18:53

Work at SpaceX? Watch This Before your IPO

Ready For Retirement ·

2026/02/01

If you work at SpaceX, you’re likely holding one of the most valuable (and complicated) assets in the world. With a potential IPO on the horizon, the decisions you make with your SpaceX stock, RSUs, and equity compensation could determine whether that wealth creates freedom or long-term stress. Instead of starting with “What should I do with my stock?”, James explains why the first question has to be “What do I want my life to look like?” Without that clarity, selling, holding, or diversifyi...

en-us

15:09

You Need to Retire Early - Here's Why

Ready For Retirement ·

2026/01/25

There’s really only one way to reach the level of success most people say they want, and it’s not about working until 65. It’s about having a plan to retire early. Not as a finish line, but as a mindset. Early retirement means your money is working for you, giving you the ability to choose how you spend your time instead of waiting for an arbitrary age when you’re “supposed” to stop working. In this video, James walks through a real case study to show how this mindset changes everything — fr...

en-us

11:12

You Can Retire… But You Might Not Like the Life You...

Ready For Retirement ·

2026/01/18

Many people retire with enough money — and still feel lost. James explains why financial readiness alone doesn’t guarantee a fulfilling retirement, and why some of the most financially prepared retirees struggle once work ends. Through a real-life example, he shows how retirement can solve a money problem while leaving a life problem untouched. The episode explores the hidden challenges that often surprise retirees: losing identity, too much unstructured time, and strained relationshi...

en-us

17:39

I’ve Never Seen So Many Retirees Make This Same Mistake

Ready For Retirement ·

2026/01/11

Most retirees who make this mistake aren’t reckless. They’re careful. They’re doing what they believe is responsible, and that’s what makes it so painful to see when it backfires. James explains why the same portfolio mistake is showing up more than ever, whether someone has managed their own investments for decades or relied on professional advice. Different paths, same outcome: a portfolio that isn’t built around how money is actually used in retirement. With people living longer, retiring ...

en-us

14:48

This Is What a $10M Retirement Actually Looks Like

Ready For Retirement ·

2026/01/04

A $10 million retirement is often imagined as the finish line — complete freedom, unlimited spending, and no financial stress. The reality is more complex. James walks through what an eight-figure retirement actually looks like by examining a real planning scenario for a couple entering retirement with roughly $10 million in assets. Rather than focusing on luxury or excess, the conversation centers on how income, taxes, investment structure, and lifestyle decisions evolve once work stops and ...

en-us

17:00

Retiring After 65? The Rules Change (Hint: You Can...

Ready For Retirement ·

2025/12/28

Retiring after age 65 changes the math and the priorities. You have fewer high-energy years, shorter tax planning windows, and RMDs much closer than most people realize. But you also often have higher Social Security, clearer spending needs, and more flexibility if the plan is built the right way. This episode breaks down how retirement strategy shifts when you retire later. Traditional withdrawal rules are built for 30–40 year retirements. If your timeline is closer to 10–20 years, bl...

en-us

36:26

18 Months Into Retirement, This is What Surprised Me...

Ready For Retirement ·

2025/12/24

Christian thought he was ready for retirement. He just didn’t realize how heavy the weight had been until he finally set it down. After more than 30 years in a high-stress, always-on role at a global chemical company, Christian retired and discovered something he didn’t expect: the stress didn’t disappear all at once. It slowly melted away, like taking off a 30-pound jacket he didn’t even realize he’d been wearing. In this episode of Retirement Reality, Christian shares what the first...

en-us

12:05

Here's the Most Unethical Thing Advisors Do

Ready For Retirement ·

2025/12/21

Some of the most damaging financial advice doesn’t look shady at all. It looks responsible. It looks optimized. And it looks great on a spreadsheet. This episode breaks down one of the most unethical practices James sees in financial planning, not selling high-fee products, but using projections and tax strategies to justify an advisor’s fee while ignoring the life those numbers are supposed to support. The problem starts when advisors lead with “value creation” instead of purpose. Ta...

en-us

39:36

The Hardest Year of Retirement: What No One Warned Me...

Ready For Retirement ·

2025/12/17

Retirement doesn’t always arrive on your schedule. Sometimes it shows up early, uninvited, and forces you to rethink everything you thought you knew. For Jim, that moment came at 5, four years before the retirement date he’d carefully planned for. One unexpected layoff, and suddenly the identity he’d built over decades in big tech was shaking underneath him. In this episode of Retirement Reality, James shares the stress, the fear, and the sense of disorientation that came with having the ru...

en-us

10:24

The Hidden Cost of Roth Conversions: Avoiding...

Ready For Retirement ·

2025/12/14

Roth conversions can save thousands in taxes, but they can also trigger Medicare IRMAA surcharges that quietly add up to more than $5,000 a year. Most retirees never see it coming, because the rules for Medicare premiums don’t line up with the tax brackets everyone focuses on. In this video, James breaks down how Roth conversions interact with Medicare Part B and Part D premiums, why modified adjusted gross income matters more than taxable income, and how crossing a threshold by even one dol...

en-us

38:05

Freedom at 60 Why He Left a Job He Loved (and Doesn’t...

Ready For Retirement ·

2025/12/10

Steve spent more than two decades building video games, working with a team that felt more like family than coworkers. By all measures, he loved his work. But a heart attack in 2021 changed everything, and it became the moment that pushed him to rethink the one thing he’d always said he wanted someday: an early retirement. In this episode, Steve sits down with James Conole, CFP®, to share how a health scare, a divorce, and years of slowly learning how to budget and invest turned into the fre...

en-us

12:54

Most Retirement Advice Fails Singles (Here’s What to...

Ready For Retirement ·

2025/12/07

Most retirement advice quietly assumes you have a partner: two incomes, two Social Security checks, someone to split expenses with, someone to catch the slack if something goes wrong. But for singles, the margins are tighter and the freedom can be much greater. Planning alone means every decision carries more weight, but it also means you have full control over the life you want to build. This video centers on Tina, a 62-year-old single woman with roughly $2.2 million across investment accou...

en-us

38:22

Retired at 50 Freedom, Guilt… and What No One Tells...

Ready For Retirement ·

2025/12/03

Retiring at 50 sounds bold, almost unthinkable for most people, but for Kent, it was the only decision that made sense once life, loss, and perspective pushed everything into focus. In this conversation, he sits down with James Conole, CFP®, to share the honest story behind leaving work two decades earlier than expected. Kent talks about saving from age 18, building a plan long before he knew what retirement would look like, and the complicated mix of discipline, luck, and family legacy that...

en-us

8:57

Don’t Wait Until 70 for Social Security Unless You...

Ready For Retirement ·

2025/11/30

Think waiting until 70 is the gold standard for Social Security? We dig into the real math behind delayed retirement credits and the hidden trade-offs that rarely make it into the headlines. Drawing on years of planning experience and two vivid case studies, we show how the “bigger check later” can either amplify your lifetime income or quietly drain the resources you need to feel secure. We start with the promise of delayed credits and then zoom out to the full picture: how bridging years a...

en-us

11:33

Retiring With a Pension? Here’s How It Changes...

Ready For Retirement ·

2025/11/23

Retiring with a pension changes everything about your retirement math. Most people think about retirement in terms of net worth—how close they are to a million, two million, or more. But if you have a pension, that old framework can send you down the wrong path. In this episode, James explains why retirees with pensions need to think in terms of cash flow, not balances on a statement. James begins with a simple shift: a pension that pays $60,000 a year acts like the income from a $1.5 millio...

en-us

15:48

When Saving Becomes a Habit You Can’t Turn Off | Root...

Ready For Retirement ·

2025/11/20

Some retirees have more money than they ever imagined… and still feel guilty buying the $5 M&Ms. This episode is for the lifelong savers who nailed the retirement planning side—maxed out accounts, invested consistently, hit their “number”—but feel stuck when it’s time to actually spend. James and Ari share real client stories of multimillionaires who still walk past convenience to save a few dollars, not because they need to… but because the “always save” habit is so deeply wired in. In t...

en-us

32:01

The Wake-Up Call That Made Him Retire 10 Years Early...

Ready For Retirement ·

2025/11/19

A cancer diagnosis changed everything. When Michael’s wife began chemo, time took on a new meaning. The long-term financial plan suddenly felt secondary to the years they still had together. That wake-up call led Michael, then 57, to retire a full decade earlier than planned, trading more income for more life. In this conversation with James, Michael shares the mindset shift that made him walk away from a thriving career and a team he loved leading. He opens up about the guilt of leaving, th...

en-us

14:28

The Secret Cost of Claiming Social Security Too Early...

Ready For Retirement ·

2025/11/16

Forget the race for the biggest Social Security check. The real question isn’t how high your benefit can go, it’s how well it fits your life, taxes, and long-term plan. In this episode, James breaks down how the timing of your claim shapes everything: portfolio resilience, tax efficiency, survivor benefits, and the freedom to retire when you want, not when the system says you should. Starting with the foundation (your 35 highest earning years) we unpack what really happens when you claim earl...

en-us

30:59

Retiring at 54: Why Darren Says It Feels Surreal |...

Ready For Retirement ·

2025/11/12

In this episode of Retirement Reality, Darren shares what it’s really like to walk away from work at 54 and why it still feels surreal. After decades of saving, hitting his number, and paying off the house, a company reorg gave him the push he needed to finally make the leap. He talks about how it feels to go from structure to freedom overnight, what surprised him about early retirement, and why he refuses to see it as a “forever” decision. For Darren, this season isn’t about stopping life —...

en-us

355 results

Similar Podcasts

TaxTalent.com The Golden Rule Podcast

Adam Golden

TaxTalent.com Podcast

Tony Santiago

Handelsblatt Crime - spannende Streitfälle der deutschen Wirtschaft

Ina Karabasz, Solveig Gode, Sönke Iwersen

Deffner und Zschäpitz – Der Wirtschafts-Talk von WELT

WELT

Black Box - La scatola nera della finanza

Guido Brera e Gian Luca Comandini -...