Good morning, Retirement Starts Today Community! Welcome to Every Day is Saturday, the newsletter reminding us that in retirement, every day is Saturday (including Thursday mornings).

​Click here to view a video from my YouTube channel about 401k vs Social Security vs Pension: Which Should You Claim First?

​Click here to work with us!

Episode Breakdown:

• 00:00 Welcome & intro
• 01:57 Retirement Headlines
• 10:40 Listener question

​Listen on Spotify | Listen on Apple​

Retirement Headline

“Roth Conversions Got Trickier Under New Tax Law”

This week’s headline comes from ThinkAdvisor Magazine, reporting on Ed Slott’s latest take on Roth conversions under the newly passed tax law.

Ed Slott, often called the “tax guru to financial advisors,” reminds us that Roth conversions are still one of the most powerful long-term tax strategies retirees have. His advice? Never leave a low tax bracket unfilled.

But here’s the catch: new income-based cliffs—like the Senior Bonus Deduction and the expanded-but-phasing-out SALT deduction cap—make conversion sizing more complicated than in years past.

The big picture hasn’t changed: Roth conversions remain a tool to pay less tax over your lifetime by paying some tax now. What has changed is the need for more precision. Run multiple scenarios, weigh deduction tradeoffs, and be tactical rather than one-and-done.

Bottom line: The Roth promise is still alive and well—you just need a sharper pencil to capture the benefits under the new rules.

Listener Question

"The administration floated letting companies switch from quarterly to semi-annual earnings reports. Good? Bad? Does it affect retirees?"

Pros: lower compliance cost (especially for smaller firms), less short-termism, closer to UK/EU norms, optional flexibility.
​Cons: fewer checkpoints, risk of bigger surprises, possible hit to the U.S. “gold-standard” transparency premium.

What matters for you:​
Whether earnings hit our feeds 2× or 4× a year, our playbook doesn’t change:

• Own broadly, hold long, and keep costs low.
• Rebalance ~twice a year.
• Guardrails: small, rules-based income trims after big drops = durability without panic.
• Retirement runway: pre-fund 3–10 years of withdrawals in cash/bonds (aka the bond ladder). With that runway, reporting cadence ≈ noise.

​

Resources Mentioned

• ​Click here to view my YouTube channel, Even Better Retirement
• ​Click here to order my book, Retirement Starts Today: Your non-financial guide to an even better retirement
• ​Click here to read Ed Slott: Roth Conversions Are Trickier Under New Tax Law

I need your help...

I will be starting a new segment on my podcast: Retire TO something, not FROM something.

The segment will be brief at the end of the show and will share a fun retirement idea, along with links to learn more. Volunteer work and part-time “fun” jobs will be a common theme.

​Click here to share your ideas!

That's it for our three hundred and ninety-ninth installment of "Every Day is Saturday." As always, I read (and usually reply to) every listener email. Got a question? Hit reply—you just might hear your name on the show.

Enjoy your “Saturday,”
​Benjamin Brandt

​