My Story
I spent more than 30 years in financial services. Investment banks, broker dealers, insurance firms. I held FINRA Series 7 and Series 66 securities licenses, a NASDAQ trading license, and worked across virtually every corner of the financial markets. For most of that career I was all in on accumulation, chasing returns and maximizing growth.
It worked. Until it didn't.
I lost more than 25% of my retirement savings during the Dot Com collapse between 2000 and 2002. Then I watched it happen again during the Great Financial Crisis in 2007 and 2008. Two major gut punches that most people only read about in headlines. I lived them and I felt every one of them.
Those experiences changed how I think about money in retirement completely.
As retirement got closer I stopped asking how much I could make and started asking how much income I could create. My wife, Aleece, and I made a decision together. We traded a portion of our retirement savings for a guaranteed income stream. Not all of it. Just enough to cover our essential living expenses every month, guaranteed, regardless of what markets do.
That decision changed everything. It took pressure off our portfolio and stress off our lives. And it is the same decision I now help other Texans think through every day.
My Retirement Philosophy
During your working years income is simple. You earn a paycheck. You spend it. You save what is left.
But retirement changes that completely. The paycheck stops and now your income must be created from everything you have built.
Many retirement strategies rely heavily on withdrawals from an investment portfolio. The 4% rule sounds reasonable on the surface. But a significant portion of that 4% depends on market growth, not guaranteed income. In fact, the average dividend yield of the S&P 500 has been approximately 1.84% over the last 25 years, meaning more than half of that 4% withdrawal has to come from market appreciation rather than actual income.
You are relying on markets to cooperate. And markets do not always cooperate, especially when you need them to.
My philosophy is straightforward. Take market timing out of the equation for the income you cannot afford to lose. Use a portion of your retirement savings to create a dependable income stream that covers your essential expenses. Not all of your assets. Just enough.
Once your essential expenses are covered by dependable income something important happens. Your portfolio no longer has to carry the full burden of your lifestyle. It can stay invested. It can recover from downturns. It can be positioned for long term growth.
Cover what must be covered. Let the rest of your portfolio do what it does best.
Source: S&P Dow Jones Indices, multpl.com
My Background and Credentials
I was born in New York, raised in Florida, and spent years living across the country before settling in Texas. And home it has been for 30 years.
My career has always been rooted in financial services and sales. Over three decades I worked at investment banks, broker dealers, and insurance firms, holding securities licenses that gave me an inside view of some of the most complex corners of the financial markets.
Those licenses are now inactive because my focus is no longer on managing portfolios or chasing returns. It is on one thing: helping people create guaranteed lifetime income.
I hold an active Texas Life and Health Insurance license, which is the credential that matters for the work I do today. I also hold a Texas real estate sales license and help friends and family in the DFW area when the opportunity arises.
What I bring to every client conversation is not just credentials. It is 30 years of watching financial markets from the inside, and the personal experience of navigating two major market collapses on my own retirement savings.
Beyond the Office
Aleece and I met at the University of Alabama and we have been passionate Crimson Tide fans ever since. Football, basketball, baseball and softball, if Alabama is playing we are watching. Roll Tide.
We have been blessed with three grown children and five grandchildren who keep life full and remind us exactly why retirement income planning matters. Knowing the income is there every month means more time focused on the people and experiences that make retirement worth it.
When we are not cheering on the Tide you will find us traveling, enjoying a good bottle of wine, or out on the golf course. Aleece is the real golfer in the family. I prefer to get my exercise on a Marin flat-bar road bike, though I have been known to claim that counts as cross training.
We have called Texas home for more than 30 years and there is nowhere else we would rather be. The DFW area is a remarkable place to live, work, and raise a family, and helping fellow Texans build financial clarity for retirement is work I am genuinely proud to do.
One more thing. If you ever want to talk coffee ice cream recommendations, I am your guy.
Aleece and John at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Roll Tide.