Episode Details

Don opens with a spirited defense of AI as a creative tool—especially when it makes ideas possible that would otherwise be too expensive or time-consuming. Technology changes the jobs around us, but learning to direct it responsibly can expand what one person can make.

Then it’s on to listener questions: how charitable giving from a retirement account might work better through an IRA and qualified charitable distributions, whether dividends and bond interest should be reinvested, and why money generally belongs at work instead of waiting in cash.

Finally, Don weighs a COLA-adjusted pension against a lump sum, considers a low-cost new 401(k) versus an IRA, gives a hard no to illiquid Why Refi promissory notes, and compares simple flexible retirement withdrawals with advisor-managed guardrails.

03:40 — AI as a creative tool
07:01 — Charitable giving, IRAs, and QCDs
09:55 — Reinvesting dividends and bond interest
11:37 — Pension or lump sum? Plus the next 401(k)
14:52 — Why Refi and the danger of “magical” returns
17:56 — Flexible withdrawals versus guardrails

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