Talley Wealth

11/04/2026

Taxes are on the list, and they are rarely the whole reason. What people actually weigh when they move here.

11/03/2026

I just put up a new article: I just inherited money. What do I do first?

Most people freeze, and the freeze usually lasts a year. Here's the order I'd work through it: whose rules each account follows, what the cash has to cover, and why the money you inherited is genuinely yours to decide about.

Most people freeze, and the freeze usually lasts a year. Here's the order I'd work through it: whose rules each account follows, what the cash has to cover, and why the money you inherited is genuinely yours to decide about.

11/03/2026

I see this all the time. A couple in their 60s has a big traditional 401k and they don't need much to live on. That account keeps growing, and required distributions later can push a surviving spouse into a much smaller set of tax brackets. It's worth looking at Roth conversions before that happens.

11/02/2026

How do you keep taking income when the market drops? I use what I call silos, some people call them buckets. Silo one holds a couple years of money that's safe and steady, think money market, CD, bond ladder. It just holds steady, maybe keeping pace with inflation. Most market downturns don't last more than three years, so that cash acts like a bridge across it.

10/31/2026

People ask me if Social Security is going away. I think this is opinion more than fact. About half of retired Americans live on Social Security alone. Cutting it is a fast way for a politician to lose their next election, and our country tends to keep spending money it doesn't have.

10/30/2026

I just put up a new article: When should I take Social Security if I retire at 62?

Retiring at 62 and claiming at 62 are two different decisions, and most people make them as one. Here is what actually sets the date, and why the years before the check starts are usually the most valuable ones you will get.

Retiring at 62 and claiming at 62 are two different decisions, and most people make them as one. Here is what actually sets the date, and why the years before the check starts are usually the most valuable ones you will get.

10/30/2026

Tax planning that only looks at next April misses the decisions that matter most. The horizon for a conversion is the rest of your life.

10/29/2026

I think about retirement money in three silos. The first is 2 or 3 years of cash alternatives, things that won't go backwards but won't outpace inflation either. The second holds 5 to 10 years and can fluctuate some. The third is 15 years and beyond, and there's never been a stretch that long where the market stayed down. That's the part where you get to invest like you're 45 again.

10/28/2026

Where you live shapes the tax side of a retirement plan in more ways than the income tax line.

10/27/2026

A pension decision gets made one time, and it sticks. In my experience, what trips people up is a choice that didn't fit their whole situation, because taking it limits some of the other choices they have in life. That's the part worth slowing down for.