Align Your Retirement

Hazel Secco, CFP®, CDFA®
  • 5.0 (4)
  • Investing

Align Your Retirement is the retirement podcast for women in their 40s and 50s who've done a lot right with their money — and know retirement is too important to wing.If you're the CFO of your household — whether you're married, single, divorced, or widowed — you already know the voices:"I'll run the real numbers after Q4.""My 401(k) is fine — I check it.""I'll handle Social Security timing when I'm closer.""The inherited IRA can sit in cash until I figure out the 10-year rule."Every one of those voices is quietly moving your retirement date. Each episode is a direct, specific conversation about one retirement decision that costs more than it needs to when you carry it alone — Social Security timing, Roth conversion windows, sequence-of-returns risk, tax-efficient drawdowns, pension elections, asset location, the inherited IRA, healthcare before Medicare.The decisions. The tradeoffs. The numbers. From a fiduciary who runs these with clients every week.Hosted by Hazel Secco, CFP®, CDFA®, founder of Align Financial Solutions — a fee-only, fiduciary firm built for women in their 40s and 50s. Serving clients virtually across the U.S. from Hoboken, NJ — the mile-square city just across the Hudson from NYC.Two ways to go deeper:📋 Retirement Readiness Assessment — free, self-paced, 5 minutes. Link in every show note.📞 Align Call — 15 minutes with Hazel. One conversation. No pitch. You'll leave knowing where you stand.

  1. 2d ago

    Early Retirement Health Insurance: The MAGI Dial Wealthy Women Don't Know They Have

    Send us Fan Mail The thing that stops more women from retiring early isn't the market. It's health insurance before Medicare. For a woman who wants to leave at 58 or 60, that's a five to seven year gap where she buys her own coverage, and family plans can run well over $2,000 a month. So she looks at the number, decides she can't retire, and works three more years for the benefit. In most of those cases, the decision is built on a misunderstanding: that a seven figure portfolio disqualifies her from any help. It doesn't. Marketplace premium assistance is based on the income you report, not your assets. And in an early retirement year, before Social Security and required withdrawals, that number is one you have real control over. I call it the MAGI dial. In this episode: Why the marketplace looks at your income, not your net worth, and why successful women assume the oppositeWhat changed for 2026: the enhanced subsidies expired and the subsidy cliff is back at 400% of the federal poverty level (roughly $63,000 single, $84,600 for a couple; confirm your exact figures)The repayment trap if you take credits in advance and land over the line at tax timeHow to fund a bridge year from cash, brokerage principal, and Roth money so your reported income stays modest while you live comfortablyThe choices that spike your MAGI: pre-tax 401(k) and IRA withdrawals, large capital gains, early Social Security, and Roth conversionsThe conflict between subsidies and Roth conversions, and why they have to be decided on the same sheet of paper every year of the bridgeA hypothetical composite: a 59 year old executive with $2.3 million who bridges six years to Medicare, keeps premium help, and still converts on a scheduleComment below: subsidy this year, or the Roth conversion? The split usually surprises people. 📝 Free Retirement Readiness Assessment → https://alignfinancialsolutions.com/retirement-readiness-assessment 📞 Book a free Align Call: → https://calendly.com/alignfinancialsolutions/align-call?utm_source=podcast Follow the Conversation: LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/hazel-seccoInstagram: https://instagram.com/alignfinancialsolutionsAbout Hazel Secco, CFP®, CDFA®  Hazel is the founder of Align Financial Solutions. As a fee-only, fiduciary advisor, she specializes in helping independent women navigate career transitions, equity compensation, and building toward a Work Optional life. Disclaimer: All content in this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute individual investment, legal, or tax advice. Investing involves risk. Always consult with a qualified professional regarding your specific situation.

  2. Sep 1

    The Medicare Surcharge That Ambushes You Two Years Late (IRMAA, Explained)

    Send us Fan Mail Episode Description You did everything right. You saved aggressively, earned well, maybe converted to Roth or sold a property. Then two years into retirement, a letter arrives from Social Security: your Medicare premiums are going up, sometimes by thousands of dollars a year, per person. Your income is lower now. So why the surcharge? Because IRMAA, the income-related monthly adjustment amount, isn't looking at your income now. It's looking at your tax return from two years ago. It's a cliff, not a ramp: one dollar over a threshold triggers the full surcharge for an entire year, and it's charged to each spouse separately. In this episode, Hazel Secco, CFP®, CDFA®, fee-only fiduciary and founder of Align Financial Solutions, breaks down why the bill arrives two years late, which of your smartest financial moves are the very things that trigger it, and what you can still do about a number that was set two years ago (including the form most retirees are entitled to file and never do). What You'll Learn What IRMAA is and why the two-year look-back makes it feel like an ambushWhy the surcharge is a cliff, not a ramp, and why a single dollar of income can cost you thousandsThe number Medicare actually watches (MAGI, and yes, your tax-free municipal bond interest counts)This year's approximate threshold lines: ~$109,000 (single) and ~$218,000 (married filing jointly). Always recheck for your own year.The five triggers hiding in your best moves: your last big working years, required withdrawals (RMDs at 73 or 75 depending on birth year), Roth conversions, large one-time sales, and the widow's penaltyThree moves that put you back in control: watching the line before year-end, sizing Roth conversions to fit under the brackets, and appealing with form SSA-44 after a life-changing event like retirement or the death of a spouseTwo extra tools that lower the number: qualified charitable distributions (from age 70½) and choosing which capital gains you realize, and whenChapters 00:00 The Two-Year Ambush01:41 What IRMAA Really Is02:05 The Three Sneaky Features02:55 Thresholds and MAGI Math04:14 Five Common Triggers05:50 Widows and the Penalty06:32 Three Ways to Respond07:16 Conversion and MAGI Tools08:16 Appeal with SSA-4408:44 Key Takeaways and Next StepsThree Things to Write Down The surcharge is set by your tax return from two years ago, steps up in blocks rather than smoothly, and is charged to each spouse separately, so the planning has to happen two years before the bill.The triggers are the things you did right: your last big work years, required withdrawals, Roth conversions, a large one-time sale, and for a widow, the move from joint thresholds to single ones.You have more control than the letter suggests: watch the line before year-end, size conversions to fit under it, and if you've retired or lost a spouse since that tax year, file the SSA-44.Question for You Which of the five triggers did you see yourself in: the last big work years, required withdrawals, Roth conversions, a one-time sale, or the widow's penalty? Tell me in the comments. The fix is slightly different for each one, and your answer tells me what to make next. 📝 Free Retirement Readiness Assessment → https://alignfinancialsolutions.com/retirement-readiness-assessment 📞 Book a free Align Call: → https://calendly.com/alignfinancialsolutions/align-call?utm_source=podcast Follow the Conversation: LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/hazel-seccoInstagram: https://instagram.com/alignfinancialsolutionsAbout Hazel Secco, CFP®, CDFA®  Hazel is the founder of Align Financial Solutions. As a fee-only, fiduciary advisor, she specializes in helping independent women navigate career transitions, equity compensation, and building toward a Work Optional life. Disclaimer: All content in this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute individual investment, legal, or tax advice. Investing involves risk. Always consult with a qualified professional regarding your specific situation.

  3. Aug 25

    Laid Off After 50? Five Clocks Are Already Running

    Send us Fan Mail If a layoff lands after 50, it isn't an income problem. It's a structural one. Severance, equity, health coverage, and your 401(k) all start moving at once on separate deadlines, and several of those decisions are permanent. Hazel Secco, CFP®, CDFA®, walks through the five moves to make before you sign anything, the two moves that quietly cost the most, and the one rule about your 401(k) that most people, and plenty of advisors, have backward. Her division was restructured on a Tuesday. By Friday she'd started rolling her 401(k) into an IRA, because that's what responsible people do. Nobody told her it closed a door she'd need that same year. This episode is the checklist to have before the meeting invite shows up, not the day after you sign. The five moves, in order Don't sign in the first meeting. Sort the papers first, because they don't all carry the same clock. If you're 40 or older, federal law generally gives you 21 days to consider a severance agreement (45 in a group layoff) plus 7 days to revoke. But a "stay or exit" election placed in front of that agreement carries no such protection, and that deadline can be entirely real. Ask in writing which deadlines are required by law and which the company chose.Read the equity plan the same week. Your vested options typically have about 90 days from your termination date. Miss it and options you spent years earning expire worthless. Incentive stock options lose their special tax treatment if exercised more than three months after separation, even when the plan allows longer. Unvested RSUs are usually forfeited, which is exactly why your separation date is a negotiating item.Choose your health bridge deliberately. COBRA runs up to 18 months, but you now pay the full premium plus up to 2% admin, which can clear $2,000 a month for executive family coverage. You have 60 days to elect. Losing job-based coverage also opens a 60-day marketplace window, and subsidies are based on your taxable income, not your assets. The enhanced subsidies expired at the end of 2025, so the income cliff is back.Know the rule of 55 before anyone touches the 401(k). Separate in the calendar year you turn 55 or later and you can generally take penalty-free withdrawals from that employer's plan. Roll it into an IRA and that option is gone. Decide whether you might need the money before 59½ first. Then decide about the rollover.Run the "do I actually need the next job" math. A layoff year is a low-income year, which can swing the Roth conversion window open years earlier than planned. Just coordinate it with move three, because conversions raise the income your health subsidies are measured against.The two things not to do Don't sign anything in the room. The pressure you feel on the severance agreement is largely manufactured.Don't roll the 401(k) into an IRA to "consolidate" before you've answered the rule of 55 question. It is a one-way door.Also covered: why severance is withheld at a flat 22% and what that does to your April, deferred comp payouts that trigger on separation, and a composite example where negotiating one separation date was worth over $100,000. Chapters 00:00  The layoff money clocks 01:56  Why a layoff after 50 hits differently 02:38  Move 1: Severance strategy, don't sign in the room 04:30  Move 2: Equity deadlines start on your termination date 06:36  Move 3: Health coverage and the subsidy cliff 08:19  Move 4: The rule of 55 09:47  Move 5: Do you actually need the next job? 11:32  Wrap up and next steps 📝 Free Retirement Readiness Assessment → https://alignfinancialsolutions.com/retirement-readiness-assessment 📞 Book a free Align Call: → https://calendly.com/alignfinancialsolutions/align-call?utm_source=podcast Follow the Conversation: LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/hazel-seccoInstagram: https://instagram.com/alignfinancialsolutionsAbout Hazel Secco, CFP®, CDFA®  Hazel is the founder of Align Financial Solutions. As a fee-only, fiduciary advisor, she specializes in helping independent women navigate career transitions, equity compensation, and building toward a Work Optional life. Disclaimer: All content in this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute individual investment, legal, or tax advice. Investing involves risk. Always consult with a qualified professional regarding your specific situation.

  4. Aug 12

    The New Roth Catch-Up Rule: Earning $150K+? Your 401(k) Just Changed

    Send us Fan Mail If you're over 50 and earned more than $150,000 last year, a SECURE 2.0 rule that took effect this January changed your 401(k): your catch-up contributions must now go into the Roth side - after tax, no deduction. Most high earners are discovering this through a slightly lighter paycheck and assuming it's a payroll error. It isn't. In this episode, Hazel Secco, CFP®, CDFA® breaks down exactly who the rule catches (it's your wages from one employer, not household income), what it really costs (~$2,800/year at a 35% marginal rate), and why - for women with large pre-tax balances facing future RMDs and Medicare IRMAA surcharges - this "tax hike" may be the forced tax diversification your plan was missing. Plus the three moves to make before December: check your W-2 Box 3 and your plan election, reframe what your Roth dollars are for, and fold it into a mid-year tax plan. 2026 figures referenced: $24,500 employee deferral limit; $8,000 catch-up (50+); $11,250 catch-up (ages 60–63); $150,000 prior-year wage threshold for mandatory Roth catch-ups. 📝 Free Retirement Readiness Assessment → https://alignfinancialsolutions.com/retirement-readiness-assessment 📞 Book a free Align Call: → https://calendly.com/alignfinancialsolutions/align-call?utm_source=podcast Follow the Conversation: LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/hazel-seccoInstagram: https://instagram.com/alignfinancialsolutionsAbout Hazel Secco, CFP®, CDFA®  Hazel is the founder of Align Financial Solutions. As a fee-only, fiduciary advisor, she specializes in helping independent women navigate career transitions, equity compensation, and building toward a Work Optional life. Disclaimer: All content in this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute individual investment, legal, or tax advice. Investing involves risk. Always consult with a qualified professional regarding your specific situation.

  5. Aug 5

    Can You Retire at 55 With $2 Million? (Single, No Pension)

    Send us Fan Mail $2 million sounds like a finish line. At 55, single, with 35 years of retirement ahead of you, it's a starting number — and the distance between those two things is where most plans quietly break. In this episode I walk through what $2 million actually funds: what comes off the top in taxes, what health coverage costs for the decade before Medicare kicks in, and how long the money has to stretch when there's no second Social Security check and no survivor benefit behind you. Then the part that matters more — the four levers genuinely in your control, and how much each one moves the answer. Chapters 00:00 Can $2 million actually fund retirement at 55? 00:58 Your headline number vs. what you can spend 02:43 Taxes: why $2 million isn't $2 million 04:35 Health coverage in the decade before Medicare 06:43 Funding 35+ years with no second income 08:08 The levers that work in your favor 10:31 The four moves, recapped 11:35 What to do next 📝 Free Retirement Readiness Assessment → https://alignfinancialsolutions.com/retirement-readiness-assessment 📞 Book a free Align Call: → https://calendly.com/alignfinancialsolutions/align-call?utm_source=podcast Follow the Conversation: LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/hazel-seccoInstagram: https://instagram.com/alignfinancialsolutionsAbout Hazel Secco, CFP®, CDFA®  Hazel is the founder of Align Financial Solutions. As a fee-only, fiduciary advisor, she specializes in helping independent women navigate career transitions, equity compensation, and building toward a Work Optional life. Disclaimer: All content in this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute individual investment, legal, or tax advice. Investing involves risk. Always consult with a qualified professional regarding your specific situation.

  6. Jul 28

    Why "Just Max Your 401(k)" Stops Being Good Advice in Your 50s

    Send us Fan Mail Maxing your 401(k) was the smartest habit you ever built — and in your 50s, at a $200K+ income, it deserves a second look nobody's ever given it. Every pre-tax dollar buys a deduction now and creates ordinary income later — on top of forced withdrawals, Social Security, and possibly a survivor's single brackets. Hazel breaks down why "you'll be in a lower bracket in retirement" often fails for strong savers, the five-step wrapper decision that replaces blind maxing (same dollars, chosen buckets), a composite tale of two futures from the same savings rate, and the three cases where pre-tax is still exactly right.  Timestamps: 00:00 The habit nobody questions 00:31 The mistake that looks like discipline 01:12 Advice written for a different woman 03:11 The wrapper, not the amount 04:59 The five-step wrapper decision 07:12 Two versions of the same saver 09:23 When pre-tax is still right 10:43 Three things to do this week 11:57 Before you go: the one-sentence test Mentioned in this episode: • Free Executive Women's Retirement Tax Playbook: https://align-financial-solutions.kit.com/78e2c2e896 • Book a 15-minute Align Call: https://alignfinancialsolutions.com/book-a-call/ • Related episodes: When NOT to Do a Roth Conversion Hosted by Hazel Secco, CFP®, CDFA®, founder of Align Financial Solutions — a fee-only fiduciary firm for women in their 40s and 50s with $1.5M+ invested. Serving clients virtually across the U.S. This podcast is for educational purposes only and does not constitute personalized tax or investment advice. Tax rules are current as of recording and subject to change. Any examples are hypothetical composites for illustration and are not representative of any specific client situation. Consult a qualified tax or financial professional about your specific situation.📝 Free Retirement Readiness Assessment → https://alignfinancialsolutions.com/retirement-readiness-assessment 📞 Book a free Align Call: → https://calendly.com/alignfinancialsolutions/align-call?utm_source=podcast Follow the Conversation: LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/hazel-seccoInstagram: https://instagram.com/alignfinancialsolutionsAbout Hazel Secco, CFP®, CDFA®  Hazel is the founder of Align Financial Solutions. As a fee-only, fiduciary advisor, she specializes in helping independent women navigate career transitions, equity compensation, and building toward a Work Optional life. Disclaimer: All content in this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute individual investment, legal, or tax advice. Investing involves risk. Always consult with a qualified professional regarding your specific situation.

  7. Jul 21

    The RSU Tax Trap: Why You'll Owe the IRS Five Figures Next April (and How to Fix It Before December)

    Send us Fan Mail Your RSUs vested. Taxes came out of every vest. And you may still owe the IRS five figures in April — because your employer withholds a flat 22% by IRS default, while your actual bracket is 32, 35, or 37. Nothing went wrong; the system is built this way, and nobody — not HR, not your equity platform, not your CPA in March — is responsible for closing the gap.In this episode, Hazel breaks down the RSU tax trap and the two moves that defuse it while there's still time this year: closing the withholding gap (a new W-4, quarterly estimates, or a supplemental sell-to-cover) and the sell-on-vest rule that stops a concentrated-stock problem from quietly building in the company that also pays your salary. Plus: the 1099-B "zero basis" error that taxes the same money twice, the NIIT thresholds frozen since 2013, and the ten-minute exercise to find the size of your own gap today.Episode scenarios are illustrative composites; this is education, not personalized tax advice — your numbers depend on your situation. Mentioned in this episode: • Free Retirement Tax Playbook: alignfinancialsolutions.com/retirement-tax-playbook/ 📝 Free Retirement Readiness Assessment → https://alignfinancialsolutions.com/retirement-readiness-assessment 📞 Book a free Align Call: → https://calendly.com/alignfinancialsolutions/align-call?utm_source=podcast Follow the Conversation: LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/hazel-seccoInstagram: https://instagram.com/alignfinancialsolutionsAbout Hazel Secco, CFP®, CDFA®  Hazel is the founder of Align Financial Solutions. As a fee-only, fiduciary advisor, she specializes in helping independent women navigate career transitions, equity compensation, and building toward a Work Optional life. Disclaimer: All content in this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute individual investment, legal, or tax advice. Investing involves risk. Always consult with a qualified professional regarding your specific situation.

  8. Jul 17

    The Roth Conversion Window You Can't Get Back: The Cheapest Tax Years of Your Life

    Send us Fan Mail There's a short stretch in early retirement that most high earners walk straight past — the cheapest tax years of your entire life. Your paycheck has stopped, Social Security hasn't started, and required withdrawals haven't begun, so your taxable income drops to the lowest it'll ever be.  That's the Roth conversion window: a chance to move pre-tax money into a Roth at bargain rates so it's never taxed again. And it's genuinely use it or lose it — every year you don't use that low-bracket room, it's gone for good, and once required withdrawals begin, they force your income up permanently. Hazel makes the case for why this window is urgent, why the people most equipped to use it are the ones who miss it, and what it quietly costs a surviving spouse if you let it close on autopilot. In this episode:  Why the years between your last paycheck and your RMD age (73 or 75, depending on your birth year) are the cheapest tax years of your life Why the window is "use it or lose it" — you can't roll the cheap bracket room forward, and you can't get it backThe three reasons high earners miss it: not recognizing the income dip as an opportunity, waiting to "be sure," and letting Social Security slam the window shut by claiming early Why your CPA won't catch it — and who actually should How a missed window compounds into the widow's penalty, raising taxes across two lifetimesWhy it feels wrong to pre-pay tax you don't owe yet — and why that discomfort is the trapHow to tell if you're in the window right now, map your income year by year to 70, and decide before December (conversions can't be undone)Go deeper: For the full mechanics and the math, listen to The Roth Conversion Window: Why Your 50s Are the Most Important Tax Decade. 📝 Free Retirement Readiness Assessment → https://alignfinancialsolutions.com/retirement-readiness-assessment 📞 Book a free Align Call: → https://calendly.com/alignfinancialsolutions/align-call?utm_source=podcast Follow the Conversation: LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/hazel-seccoInstagram: https://instagram.com/alignfinancialsolutionsAbout Hazel Secco, CFP®, CDFA®  Hazel is the founder of Align Financial Solutions. As a fee-only, fiduciary advisor, she specializes in helping independent women navigate career transitions, equity compensation, and building toward a Work Optional life. Disclaimer: All content in this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute individual investment, legal, or tax advice. Investing involves risk. Always consult with a qualified professional regarding your specific situation.

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Align Your Retirement is the retirement podcast for women in their 40s and 50s who've done a lot right with their money — and know retirement is too important to wing.If you're the CFO of your household — whether you're married, single, divorced, or widowed — you already know the voices:"I'll run the real numbers after Q4.""My 401(k) is fine — I check it.""I'll handle Social Security timing when I'm closer.""The inherited IRA can sit in cash until I figure out the 10-year rule."Every one of those voices is quietly moving your retirement date. Each episode is a direct, specific conversation about one retirement decision that costs more than it needs to when you carry it alone — Social Security timing, Roth conversion windows, sequence-of-returns risk, tax-efficient drawdowns, pension elections, asset location, the inherited IRA, healthcare before Medicare.The decisions. The tradeoffs. The numbers. From a fiduciary who runs these with clients every week.Hosted by Hazel Secco, CFP®, CDFA®, founder of Align Financial Solutions — a fee-only, fiduciary firm built for women in their 40s and 50s. Serving clients virtually across the U.S. from Hoboken, NJ — the mile-square city just across the Hudson from NYC.Two ways to go deeper:📋 Retirement Readiness Assessment — free, self-paced, 5 minutes. Link in every show note.📞 Align Call — 15 minutes with Hazel. One conversation. No pitch. You'll leave knowing where you stand.

Information

  • Creator
    Hazel Secco, CFP®, CDFA®
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    30
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Align Your Retirement
  • Show Website
    Align Your Retirement