Patrick Ritter, Certified Financial Planner

08/26/2026

Retirement plans don't have be to all-or-nothing. Phased work options can be a part of your plan too.

Three-day weeks — the same work at 60% intensity.
Consulting — expertise without the org chart.
Encore careers — the thing that never paid enough to do at 30, which doesn't have to now.

The financial side of this is real and worth modeling: partial income changes Social Security timing, healthcare bridging, and how hard your portfolio has to work in the first decade. Those are solvable problems. They're just easier to solve before you've turned in your badge.

https://www.corepln.com/patrick-ritter

08/24/2026

A weekend away. A dinner with the people who helped you get there. The trip you kept postponing.

Celebrating milestones turns an achievement into a memory — and memories last far longer than purchases can.

What's the last milestone you properly celebrated?
https://www.corepln.com/patrick-ritter

08/22/2026

Vitality is one of four pillars I use with clients — Connection, Vitality, Purpose, Experience — and it's the one where small, steady, boring spending compounds the hardest. You don't buy vitality at 65. You buy it in $80 increments starting now.

Look at your last three months of spending. What did you cut that you maybe shouldn't have?

https://www.corepln.com/patrick-ritter

08/20/2026

Ask a family who needed it. They won't describe a policy. They'll describe the year they didn't have to sell the house, pull the kids out of school, or start over.

Life and disability coverage aren't products. They're promises that the people at your table stay okay.

08/18/2026

How many people quietly want a version of their life that looks nothing like the one they're funding. Here's a solution I'd suggest first: test drive the dream before you fund the dream.

Want to snowbird in Arizona? Rent there for a month before you put money down on a property. Thinking about a second act as a guide, a teacher, a builder? Take the class before you restructure the plan around it.

https://www.corepln.com/patrick-ritter

08/16/2026

Maxing out your qualified plan isn't the whole job. How you get there matters.

Two savers each maxed out their 401(k) at $24,500. One walked away with $3,500 less in employer match — because he front-loaded into a plan that calculates the match every pay period and has no true-up.

Check your Summary Plan Description for "true-up." If it isn't there, consider spreading your contributions across every paycheck.
https://www.corepln.com/patrick-ritter

08/14/2026

Research on happiness and income (Kahneman, Killingsworth & Mellers, 2023) points to a sense of control as a key driver of wellbeing.

A Freedom Fund isn't for spending — it's for walking away from the wrong job, the wrong client, the wrong obligation. Not because you're being reckless — because you can afford to walk.

You don't need millions. You need enough runway — three months, six months, a year — that "no" becomes a real option instead of a fantasy.

https://www.corepln.com/patrick-ritter

08/14/2026

Grateful to be recently quoted in U.S. News & World Report.

As inflation squeezes pet spending, these seven stocks show how companies are navigating a slower-growth industry.

08/12/2026

Every financial plan assumes you'll be well enough to use what you've built. Your investment strategy delivers value when you can travel, play with grandkids, take on a new hobby, or simply get out of bed without pain. Health isn't separate from your financial plan. It's the mechanism that makes the rest of the plan usable.

Want a plan that treats health as the foundation it is? Let's talk:
https://calendly.com/patrick-ritter-corepln/30min

08/10/2026

Every hour you outsource is an hour you can spend with someone.

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1706541114