August 2026

A Roth conversion ladder is a series of partial conversions done across multiple years instead of one large conversion. The term describes two different strategies with different goals, and most articles blur them together. John Shedenhelm builds the second version for nearly every client, and it’s the one that saves the most tax. The Two […]

A Roth conversion strategy makes sense when you can pay the tax today at a lower rate than you’d pay on the same dollars later. That’s the whole test. John Shedenhelm runs five questions before recommending one, and three of them regularly stop the conversation before any money moves. What a Roth Conversion Actually Does

The most tax-efficient way to save for retirement is to fill accounts in a specific order: capture the full employer match, max the HSA, then split the rest between Roth and pre-tax based on your current bracket versus your expected bracket at 73. John Shedenhelm uses that build order on every plan, and the step

Tax-efficient retirement withdrawal strategies determine which account you tap first, and the standard advice gets it wrong for most households. The common rule says spend taxable accounts, then tax-deferred, then Roth. John Shedenhelm rarely follows that order, because it wastes the lowest-tax years a retiree will ever have. The Standard Order and Why It Fails

Guaranteed retirement income is money that arrives every month regardless of what markets do. Social Security, pensions, and annuities are the three main sources. John Shedenhelm sizes the gap between guaranteed income and fixed expenses before looking at a single product, and that order is why most annuity conversations in our office end without a

Retirement income planning is the work of turning a pile of savings into a paycheck that survives 30 or more years of inflation, taxes, and bad markets. The plan starts with a stress test, not a product. Here’s the test John Shedenhelm runs before recommending anything, and what it usually turns up. What Retirement Income