Curriculum Retirement & Long-Term Planning

Retirement & Long-Term Planning

What retirement accounts, Social Security, and estate planning actually provide, and how to plan across a full lifetime.

Why Starting Early Matters So Much How compound growth turns a modest early head start into a dramatically larger retirement balance than an even bigger late start. 📄 Read-aloud
Employer-Sponsored Retirement Plans How 401(k)-style plans actually work, and the specific decisions - contribution rate, match, vesting - that determine how well one serves you. 📄 Read-aloud
Traditional vs. Roth: Choosing the Right Account The real tax-timing tradeoff between traditional and Roth retirement accounts, and how to reason about which one fits your situation. 📄 Read-aloud
Social Security: What It Actually Provides How Social Security is actually funded and calculated, and why it was designed as a supplement rather than a full retirement income. 📄 Read-aloud
Pensions vs. Defined Contribution Plans The fundamental shift from employers guaranteeing retirement income to employees managing their own accounts, and why it changed who bears the risk. 📄 Read-aloud
Retirement & Long-Term Planning: Checkpoint 1 Covers why starting early matters, employer plans, traditional vs. Roth accounts, Social Security, and pensions. 5 questions
How Much You'll Actually Need to Retire The common rules of thumb for estimating a retirement number, and why they're a reasonable starting point rather than a precise answer. 📄 Read-aloud
Asset Allocation Across a Lifetime Why a good investment mix at 25 looks very different from a good investment mix at 65, and the logic behind that shift. 📄 Read-aloud
Required Minimum Distributions and Withdrawal Rules Why tax-advantaged accounts eventually require withdrawals, and the penalties for tapping them too early or too slowly. 📄 Read-aloud
Healthcare Costs in Retirement Why healthcare is one of the most underestimated retirement expenses, and the accounts and programs designed specifically to help cover it. 📄 Read-aloud
Estate Planning Basics The core documents that make up a basic estate plan, and why having none of them creates real problems for the people left behind. 📄 Read-aloud
Retirement & Long-Term Planning: Checkpoint 2 Covers how much you'll need to retire, asset allocation over time, required minimum distributions, healthcare costs, and estate planning. 5 questions
Catch-Up Contributions After 50 Extra retirement savings limits available to older workers, and why they exist as a genuine second chance to catch up. 📄 Read-aloud
Sequence of Returns Risk Why the order in which investment returns happen - not just their average - can make or break a retirement, especially in the first few years. 📄 Read-aloud
The Economics of Annuities How turning a lump sum of savings into a guaranteed stream of income actually works, and what it costs to buy that certainty. 📄 Read-aloud
How Fees Quietly Erode Retirement Savings Why a small-looking annual fee can cost a retirement account far more than it appears to, once compounding is factored in. 📄 Read-aloud
The Economics of Retiring Early (FIRE) The math and assumptions behind the FIRE movement's promise of retiring decades earlier than a typical career would allow. 📄 Read-aloud
403(b) and 457 Plans for Nonprofit and Government Workers Employees of nonprofits, schools, and government agencies get their own tax-advantaged retirement accounts, similar to a 401(k) but with distinct rules. 📄 Read-aloud
Inflation Risk in Retirement Even mild inflation compounds over a decades-long retirement, quietly eroding the purchasing power of savings that aren't growing with prices. 📄 Read-aloud
Longevity Risk: Planning for a Long Life Living longer than expected is a genuine financial risk in retirement, since savings calculated for a shorter life can run out while a retiree is still alive. 📄 Read-aloud
Rolling Over a 401(k): What Happens When You Change Jobs Leaving a job doesn't mean losing a 401(k), but what a person does with it next can meaningfully affect fees, taxes, and long-term growth. 📄 Read-aloud
India's National Pension System How India's National Pension System works, its tax benefits and investment choices, and the new Unified Pension Scheme for government employees. 📄 Read-aloud
The Employees' Provident Fund How India's EPF works for salaried workers, how contributions and interest add up, and when members can withdraw. 📄 Read-aloud
Atal Pension Yojana: Pensions for Informal Workers How India's Atal Pension Yojana offers guaranteed pensions to workers without formal retirement plans, and the challenges of reaching them. 📄 Read-aloud
Senior Citizens Savings Scheme and Retirement Income in India How the Senior Citizens Savings Scheme works, its limits and taxes, and how retirees can combine it with other options for steady income. 📄 Read-aloud