Mainstreet Financial Education
Guides to the money decisions that come up around retirement, written in plain English. Read what you need, and take it to whichever advisor you trust.
Your savings have to become a paycheck. How Social Security, a pension, and withdrawals fit together, and why the order you draw them changes what you owe. Start here for the income guides.
Read the guideWhat your money sits in should follow from when you need it and how much of a drop you can watch without selling.
Read the guideMost tax savings come from what you do in the years before the bill, not in April.
Read the guideWhere your assets go when you are gone, and how much of the handoff gets eaten by tax and probate.
Read the guideOne bad event can undo a good plan. What to insure, and what you can afford to absorb.
Read the guideRetirees qualify for breaks most people never claim. Ranked by what they save, with a note on where each one collides with Social Security taxability or Medicare premiums.
Read the guideBetween your last paycheck and your first RMD you have more control over your tax bill than you ever will again. Here is how people waste it.
Read the guideGains sit on top of your other income. That is why the same sale can be taxed at nothing one year and 15% the next.
Read the guideWhere the 15.3% comes from, what it costs on real numbers, and the deduction that takes some of it back.
Read the guideAt 73 the IRS starts pulling taxable income out of your accounts whether you want it or not. The penalty for missing one is steep, but the timing and the source are still yours to choose.
Read the guideTwo households with identical income can owe very different tax. What usually decides it is which accounts the money came out of.
Read the guideClaiming at 62 instead of 70 is a bet on how long you live. The break-even is closer than most people expect, and it is rarely the only thing that should decide it.
Read the guideOne task a month, starting with beneficiary forms in January and ending with a net worth snapshot in December.
Read the guideSome choices around your last paycheck cannot be walked back. Medicare's two-year income lookback is the one that catches people.
Read the guideOriginal Medicare comes in two parts. Here is what each one covers and what it costs in 2026.
Read the guideOriginal Medicare leaves gaps. Supplement plans fill them, but the window to buy one without medical underwriting closes faster than most people realize.
Read the guideSome enrollment windows open once. Miss one and the late penalty follows you for the rest of your life.
Read the guideMedicare does pay for skilled nursing, but only under conditions most families never hear about until they are standing in a hospital hallway.
Read the guideMedicare does not cover custodial care. Families end up paying for it four ways, and this walks through each one with 2026 costs.
Read the guideBy 70 the traditional insurance window has mostly closed. That leaves a shorter list, and this covers the conservative end of it.
Read the guideThese three decisions keep landing on the same dollars. Deciding them one at a time is how plans get tangled.
Read the guideMedicare pays for recovery. Medicaid pays for care. The 2026 Georgia limits, what the at-home spouse keeps, and why the five-year look-back makes early planning the whole game.
Read the guideFive printable pages on what Medicare will not cover and how families pay for it, with questions to bring to a conversation with your parents.
Download the PDFPrice care where you live, then work out how the bill would get paid: a policy, a hybrid, or your own assets. Ends with the family questions most people skip.
Download the worksheetStart with the jobs the money would need to do, count what you already own, and see whether there is a gap before anyone mentions a product.
Download the worksheetWhat to gather, what your contract actually says, and the questions to ask before you sign one. For people who own an annuity and people considering one.
Download the worksheetDepreciation, the 1031 exchange, the home-sale exclusion, and opportunity zones let money that would have gone to the IRS stay invested. Each one has a bill attached later, and this shows both halves.
Read the guideA rental can send a check every month and a tax loss every April. How that happens, the passive loss rules that decide who can use the loss, and whether you want to be a landlord at 78.
Read the guideA loan on your home is a cost of living. A loan on a rental is a cost of doing business. How tax rules, risk, and your stage of life sort out which loan goes where, including paying the house off in retirement.
Read the guideThe 529 does most of the work and the 2025 tax law made it more flexible. How it compares with the other accounts, what Georgia adds, and how grandparents can help without hurting financial aid.
Read the guideBeing married does not give you the right to manage your spouse's IRA. The four documents that do, the account settings most couples never turn on, and what to do in the first weeks if it has already happened.
Read the guideAn inheritance left the ordinary way can cut off SSI and Medicaid. How a special needs trust and an ABLE account keep the benefits intact, and what federal families need to know about survivor benefits and FEHB.
Read the guideSome FERS retirees get a bridge payment until 62. It is easy to lose to the earnings test if you take a job after retiring, and nobody warns you first.
Read the guideThe pension, the TSP, FEHB, and Social Security all move when you change your retirement date. This is how they move together.
Read the guideThe election can cut self-employment tax. It can also raise your payroll cost and shrink your Social Security record, which is why the salary number matters more than the election does.
Read the guideEntity structure, contracts, insurance, and how the assets are titled all have to hold. A gap in any one of them undoes the rest.
Read the guideMost of your net worth sits in something that does not pay you monthly. Here are the ways owners turn it into income.
Read the guideYou can be profitable on paper and still miss payroll. The gap is almost always timing.
Read the guideAsk these before you sign anything, mine included. I have written down the answers worth listening for.
Read the guideTen questions to take into any first meeting, with room to write down what each advisor said. Use it on us first.
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I teach these same topics in person and online around metro Atlanta. Nobody sells you anything in the room.
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