Luminary Financial Advisors

Luminary Financial Advisors Luminary Financial Advisors is a fee only firm that strives to light your way forward to achieving your financial best life.

Let us help you understand your family's goals, construct a financial plan, and work with you to implement our suggestions.

08/28/2026

The 4% rule is missing a critical piece 👀

Most retirees treat this number like a guaranteed safe zone. But the original research modeled a very specific scenario, and recent Morningstar data suggests the evidence-backed starting rate is now closer to 3.9% for a 30-year retirement.

That small difference compounds in ways that aren't obvious at first glance.

And the percentage itself isn't even the biggest risk.

Two retirees can start with identical portfolios and identical withdrawal rates. If one retires into a down market and the other doesn't, their balances can look dramatically different within a decade. Early losses force you to sell more shares to cover withdrawals, and those shares don't come back when the market recovers.

A fixed withdrawal rate never asks the question that actually matters most: how much of your spending is truly non-negotiable?

The answer to that question, not the percentage, is what gives a retirement income plan real staying power.

Hit follow for more retirement income breakdowns like this one.

08/27/2026

Most owners won't know what their business is worth until it's too late. 👀

The majority of business owners plan to exit within the next decade. But planning to exit someday and actually being prepared are two very different things.

Three factors quietly determine how much you walk away with:

📌 Revenue concentration: When a small number of clients drive a large portion of your revenue, buyers treat that as risk, not value.

📌 Owner dependency: A business that can't operate without you for six months is a business that loses negotiating leverage at the table.

📌 Financial clarity: Organized records and predictable margins signal certainty to buyers. And buyers pay a premium for certainty.

Here's a simple diagnostic: If you had to close or sell in 90 days, what would you actually net? Now compare that to what a deliberate, multi-year exit runway could produce.

That difference is the real cost of not having a plan.

If you're a business owner within ten years of an exit, drop a comment: do you have a written plan, or is it still in your head?

08/26/2026

Most retirees ask the wrong question entirely. 🤔

If you're heading into retirement with around $2M saved, you're probably focused on what return you need to make it last.

But that's not the right question.

The real question is: what structure survives the years when returns don't cooperate?

A portfolio designed for a 30-year retirement has to do three things at once: generate income now, outpace inflation over decades, and hold up through multiple serious market downturns without forcing you to sell at the worst possible time.

That means separating your money by job. Near-term spending needs stay in lower-volatility instruments. The growth portion runs long. That separation gives you runway during a downturn so you're not raiding the growth bucket when it's down 30%.

There's also a question most people skip entirely: how much of your annual spending is truly fixed versus flexible? That flexible portion is your real buffer against sequence-of-returns risk, the danger that poor early returns do permanent damage even if the long-run average looks fine.

Recent research puts a sustainable starting withdrawal at around 3.9% for a 30-year horizon, which works out to roughly $78,000 a year on $2M.

The math isn't the hard part. The structure is.

Follow along for more on how these plans actually get built. 👇

08/21/2026

75% plan to work in retirement. Only 31% do. 👀

There's a version of retirement most people never consider, and it might be the one that actually fits your life.

It's not about stopping completely or grinding until the wheels fall off. It's about asking one honest question: if the financial pressure were off the table entirely, would you still show up to work?

If the answer is yes, that's not a failure to retire. It's a completely different way to think about what comes next.

The real gap between the 75% who plan to keep working and the 31% who actually do? It usually comes down to never clearly deciding what they wanted retirement to look like before making the leap.

A solid plan doesn't just protect your money. It protects your options.

Comment RETIRE below for a free guide on building a retirement income plan that keeps you in control. 👇

08/20/2026

Most retirees miss this tax window entirely 👀

Right after your paycheck stops, and before Social Security or required minimum distributions begin, your taxable income can fall to its lowest point in decades.

That gap isn't something to just wait through. For people with significant savings in traditional IRAs or 401(k)s, it could be one of the most valuable planning windows of their financial life.

The catch: there are three specific numbers you need to know before converting anything. Get them right, and you can move money into Roth at lower tax rates than you'll likely see again. Ignore one of them, and you could trigger Medicare premium surcharges that quietly erase a big chunk of what you saved.

Once required minimum distributions begin, the IRS controls the timing and the amounts. Conversions are voluntary. RMDs are not.

This video breaks down exactly how to think through the window before it closes.

This content is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute personalized financial, tax, or investment advice. Consult a qualified professional before making financial decisions.

Warren Burger is a financial advisor.

08/19/2026

Big home sale tax break coming? 🏡 Not so fast.

If you bought your home years ago and the value has climbed significantly, you may already be above the exclusion limits that haven't been updated since 1997.

New proposals in Congress could dramatically raise those thresholds, and one bill specifically targets homeowners 65 and older with an even larger exclusion.

But here's the honest reality: none of this has passed yet.

Deciding to wait for legislation that may never come is still a decision. Depending on your timeline and your gain, that wait could cost you more than you expect.

The math on selling vs. staying just got more complicated, and the answer depends entirely on your situation.

If you're thinking about a home sale in the next few years, hit follow and I'll keep breaking down how shifts in tax law affect the retirement moves you're actually planning.

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1980 N. Atlantic Avenue Suit 411
Cocoa Beach, FL
32931

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