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Align Your Retirement

Align Your Retirement

Di: Hazel Secco CFP® CDFA®
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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.



© 2026 Align Your Retirement Economia Finanza personale
Episodi
  • Delaying Social Security to 70 Cost This Couple $137,000. One Change Made It Worth $1.5 Million.

    Delaying Social Security to 70 Cost This Couple $137,000. One Change Made It Worth $1.5 Million.
    Oct 20 2026

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    Delay Social Security to 70. It's the most repeated retirement advice on the internet, and the check really does get bigger. What almost nobody shows you is what happens to the rest of your money while you wait.

    In this episode, I take a hypothetical couple, Claire (56) and Dan (58), with a little over $3 million saved, 88% of it pre-tax, and run the famous advice through planning software three ways. Delaying to 70 on its own nudged their odds of success from 58% to 60% but left them about $137,000 less at the end of the plan. Roth conversions on their own barely moved anything. Put the two together, and their odds rose to 65% and the money projected to be left at the end grew by about $1.5 million.

    In this episode:

    • The two numbers every retirement projection gives you, and why one decision can move them in opposite directions
    • Why delaying Social Security works like insurance, and who it protects most (often the surviving spouse)
    • How a survivor's check can be $47,000 a year larger when both spouses delay to 70
    • How delaying creates your lowest-income tax years, and why those years are the cheapest time to convert pre-tax money to Roth
    • What the conversions cost up front, including higher taxes and possibly higher Medicare premiums for a few years
    • How pairing the delay with conversions shrinks the widow's penalty later
    • Three things to write down, and one step to take this week

    Claire and Dan are a hypothetical composite. Figures are illustrative projections based on stated assumptions about returns, inflation, and tax law, not guarantees.

    Related episodes:

    • When to Claim Social Security: Why the Math Is Different for Women → https://alignyourretirement.buzzsprout.com/2591501/episodes/19196128
    • The Cheapest Tax Years of Your Life: Roth Conversions Before Social Security Starts → https://alignyourretirement.buzzsprout.com/2591501/episodes/19509570
    • The Widow's Penalty: Why Taxes Rise After a Spouse Dies and How Roth Conversions Can Help → https://alignyourretirement.buzzsprout.com/2591501/episodes/19458008

    Mentioned in this episode:

    • The Executive Woman's Tax Playbook (free guide) → https://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-secco
    • Instagram: https://instagram.com/alignfinancialsolutions

    About Hazel Secco, CFP®, CDFA®

    Hazel Secco, CFP®, CDFA®, is the founder of Align Financial Solutions, a fee-only fiduciary firm in Hoboken, New Jersey, that helps high-net-worth women bring retirement, equity compensation, tax, and estate planning into one plan.

    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.
    The above case study is hypothetical and does not involve an actual Align Financial Solutions client. No portion of the content should be construed by a client or prospective client as a guarantee that he/she will experience the same or certain level of results or satisfaction if A...
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    16 min
  • Retiring Before 65? Why Your 401(k) Could Cost You $9,500 a Year in Health Insurance

    Retiring Before 65? Why Your 401(k) Could Cost You $9,500 a Year in Health Insurance
    Oct 14 2026
    Send us Fan MailA lot of women run the retirement math, know they could stop at 60, then price health insurance for the years before Medicare and decide to keep working. What most of them haven’t been told is that the price isn’t fixed. When you buy coverage through the marketplace, the help you get with your premium is based on your income for that year, not on how much you’ve saved. And once the paycheck stops, your income mostly comes down to which account you spend from.In this episode, I walk through Diane, a hypothetical 60-year-old single woman who needs $100,000 a year and has 5 years until Medicare. If she takes it all from her 401(k), she pays full price for her plan, about $1,300 a month. If she spends the same $100,000 but takes $60,000 from her 401(k) and $40,000 from savings, the same plan costs about $500 a month. That’s about $9,500 a year, and close to $50,000 before she reaches Medicare.In this episode:Why help with marketplace premiums depends on your income and not your savingsWhich withdrawals count as income and which don’t, from your 401(k) to your savings, Roth, and brokerage accountThe income line for 2027 coverage ($63,840 for a single person in most states) and why $1 over it ends the helpWhy there’s no longer a cap on paying back extra premium help, starting with 2026 tax returnsHow one late-year withdrawal can turn $9,500 of help into a $9,500 bill3 steps to take if you’re a few years from retiring before 65When staying under the line isn’t the right call, including the tradeoff with Roth conversionsOpen enrollment for 2027 coverage (HealthCare.gov):November 1, 2026: open enrollment opensDecember 15, 2026: choose a plan by this date for coverage starting January 1, 2027January 15, 2027: open enrollment ends, and plans chosen after December 15 start February 1States that run their own marketplace can have different dates, so check yours.Your tasks before open enrollment:Add up what you have outside your pre-tax accounts, like cash, a brokerage account, and Roth.Count the years between your retirement date and 65, and estimate how much you’d need from those accounts each year to keep your income under the line.If you come up short, use the working years you have left to fill the gap, and run the numbers for your tax bracket before you change where your savings go.Related episodes:Early Retirement Health Insurance: The MAGI Dial Wealthy Women Don’t Know They Have → https://alignyourretirement.buzzsprout.com/2591501/episodes/19765577-early-retirement-health-insurance-the-magi-dial-wealthy-women-don-t-know-they-haveThe Roth Conversion Window You Can’t Get Back: The Cheapest Tax Years of Your Life → https://alignyourretirement.buzzsprout.com/2591501/episodes/19509570-the-roth-conversion-window-you-can-t-get-back-the-cheapest-tax-years-of-your-lifeWhy “Just Max Your 401(k)” Stops Being Good Advice in Your 50s → https://alignyourretirement.buzzsprout.com/2591501/episodes/19566073-why-just-max-your-401-k-stops-being-good-advice-in-your-50sResources mentioned:The Executive Women’s Retirement Tax Playbook (free guide) → https://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=podcastFollow 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.The above case study is hypothetical and does not involve an actual Align Financial Solutions client. No portion of the content should be construed by a client or prospective client as a guarantee that he/she will experience the same or certain level of results or satisfaction if Align Fina...
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    10 min
  • I Tested 4 Roth Conversion Strategies on a $2M IRA for a Single Woman

    I Tested 4 Roth Conversion Strategies on a $2M IRA for a Single Woman
    Oct 7 2026

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    Much of the Roth conversion guidance out there is built on married couple numbers. If you're single, or expect to be, those numbers can be off by about half.

    In this episode, I model four Roth conversion strategies on a $2 million IRA for Joanne, a hypothetical 65-year-old single woman: convert everything, convert nothing, convert half, and a banded approach that converts up to the Medicare line each year. The aggressive strategy came out $605,000 behind doing nothing. The banded strategy came out ahead by about $51,000. Then I changed one assumption, who inherits the IRA, and the result swung by roughly $129,000.

    In this episode:

    • Why single filers get about half the room couples get under the Medicare surcharge, the 22% bracket, and the senior deduction phase-out
    • How the $6,000 senior deduction phase-out raises the real tax rate on conversions
    • Why selling brokerage shares to pay conversion taxes can give up a valuable step-up in basis
    • How RMDs starting at 75 can push a single filer over the Medicare threshold year after year
    • Why your heirs' tax bracket may matter more than your own when deciding whether to convert
    • How portfolio growth changes the value of converting
    • Three things you can do this week without hiring anyone

    Episodes mentioned:

    • Inheriting an IRA? The 10-Year Rule That Can Quietly Cost Your Kids Six Figures → https://alignyourretirement.buzzsprout.com/2591501/episodes/19391630-inheriting-an-ira-the-10-year-rule-that-can-quietly-cost-your-kids-six-figures
    • The Widow's Penalty: Why Taxes Rise After a Spouse Dies and How Roth Conversions Can Help → https://alignyourretirement.buzzsprout.com/2591501/episodes/19458008-the-widow-s-penalty-why-taxes-rise-after-a-spouse-dies-and-how-roth-conversions-can-help

    Resources mentioned:

    • The Executive Woman's Tax Playbook (free guide): https://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-secco
    • Instagram: https://instagram.com/alignfinancialsolutions

    About 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.
    The above case study is hypothetical and does not involve an actual Align Financial Solutions client. No portion of the content should be construed by a client or prospective client as a guarantee that he/she will experience the same or certain level of results or satisfaction if Align Fina...
    Mostra di più Mostra meno
    22 min
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