Luminary Financial Advisors

Luminary Financial Advisors Luminary Financial Advisors is a fee only firm that strives to light your way forward to achieving your financial best life.

Let us help you understand your family's goals, construct a financial plan, and work with you to implement our suggestions.

09/25/2026

Title: 3 Signs You're Exposed to Sequence-of-Returns Risk

Description: Is your retirement plan built for bad timing? 📉

A market drop hits very differently depending on when it happens. Early in retirement, it can cause lasting damage that the same drop a decade later simply wouldn't.

That's sequence-of-returns risk — and most people don't know they're exposed to it until they're already living it.

Here are 3 signs your plan may be more vulnerable than you think:

1️⃣ The bulk of your savings is in pre-tax accounts like a traditional 401(k) or IRA. Every withdrawal is taxable, so covering a $5,000 expense could mean selling $6,500 or more in shares — from a portfolio that's already down.

2️⃣ You're within five years of retiring or five years into it. Morningstar calls this the "retirement red zone" — the window where timing risk is at its peak.

3️⃣ You have no cash or bond cushion outside your stock portfolio. Without one, every withdrawal pulls directly from wherever the market is that day.

The market will have rough patches. The question is whether your strategy accounts for when those patches arrive.

Which of these three resonates with your current situation? Drop it in the comments. 👇

Warren Burger is a financial advisor.

09/24/2026

"Safe" cash in retirement has a hidden cost 👀

When markets feel unpredictable, moving into cash seems like the obvious move. Stable, visible, and calm.

But over a 25- or 30-year retirement, that sense of safety can quietly unravel.

Inflation, currently around 3.4% per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, steadily reduces what your dollars can actually buy. A large cash reserve that feels protective today can represent a significant purchasing power loss a decade from now.

The real goal of a retirement income strategy isn't to avoid equities. It's to structure your assets so you never have to sell them at the wrong time.

Near-term cash handles immediate spending. Bonds provide a middle-layer buffer. And equities get the time they need to recover without being touched.

Cash protects the portfolio. It was never designed to be the portfolio.

That one shift in framing can change how you approach retirement income decisions entirely.

Warren Burger is a financial advisor.

09/23/2026

Miss this window and it may not open again. 🪟

Most people approach Roth conversions as a math exercise. But there's a timing element that can make or break the strategy, and it's tied to three specific life milestones.

The first involves a gap in your income timeline that shows up after you stop working but before the IRS requires you to start withdrawing. For many people, it's the most tax-favorable period of their entire financial life.

The second is a window created by temporary drops in household income: a job change, a slower business year, a partner stepping back from work. These moments are often overlooked as planning opportunities.

The third is the one that surprises people most. A Medicare surcharge tied to income from two years prior can quietly undo the benefit of a conversion if the timing is off.

The right conversion at the right time can be one of the most powerful moves in a retirement plan. The wrong one can create costs you didn't see coming.

Warren Burger is a financial advisor. This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute personalized investment, tax, or financial advice. Please consult a qualified professional before making any financial decisions.

Warren Burger is a financial advisor.

09/18/2026

After 50, these 3 moves actually get better 👀

Most people assume their financial strategy is basically set by their 50s. But this decade might actually be the most powerful window you have left before retirement.

First, the IRS gives you expanded contribution limits once you turn 50. We're talking thousands of dollars in additional room across your 401(k) and IRA. Compounded over 10 years, that difference is anything but small.

Second, when did you last look at your life insurance? The policy you picked up in your 30s was built for a different life: a bigger mortgage, younger kids, a smaller net worth. That picture has changed, and so should the coverage. The longer you wait, the more expensive it gets to adjust.

Third, and most importantly: do you know how much of your retirement savings is sitting in pre-tax accounts right now? Because once Social Security and required minimum distributions start, you'll have a forced income floor. The time to rebalance your tax exposure is before that happens, not after.

The window to make these moves on your own terms is closing a little every year.

Warren Burger is a financial advisor.

09/17/2026

Is your retirement number already behind? 📊

Most people land on a savings target and treat it like a done deal. But a number built on old assumptions can look perfectly fine on paper and still leave you short when it matters most.

Here are 4 signs it might be time to revisit yours:

Inflation has moved past your original spending assumptions. Healthcare, housing, and travel costs may be well ahead of what you planned for years ago.

Your life expectancy estimate was more of a guess than a real calculation. A target built to last to 85 is a very different number than one designed to reach 92.

Something in your income picture has changed. A pension, a spouse's income, or an expected inheritance that's now uncertain can quietly pull the rug out from under your original plan.

Early retirement costs more than most flat projections show. Travel, hobbies, and helping adult children tend to peak in the first decade, not gradually taper off.

Your retirement number isn't a score you check off and move on from. It's worth a fresh look well before you're close enough that the math can't catch up.

If any of this applies to your situation, follow along for more. 👇

Warren Burger is a financial advisor.

09/16/2026

Title: Why Sequence of Returns Risk Is Worse Than You Think
Description: Same returns, same withdrawals, one goes broke. 📉

This is sequence of returns risk, and it's one of the most underestimated dangers in retirement planning.

A Schwab study compared two retirees with identical average returns and identical withdrawals. The only difference was when their losses hit. One ran out of money by year 18. The other still had roughly $400,000 left.

When markets drop early in retirement, you're still pulling income to cover real expenses that don't wait for a recovery. You sell shares at low prices, those shares are gone, and the compounding they would have generated disappears with them.

Morningstar research puts roughly 77% of your long-term retirement outcome on the first ten years. The early years aren't just important, they're almost the whole game.

There are two structural moves that can protect against this, and neither requires predicting the market or overhauling your lifestyle. I break them both down in this video.

If you're within a decade of retirement, this is worth watching before you need it.


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09/11/2026

Title: Adding a Tech ETF When You Already Own VTI Isn't the Move It Looks Like

Description: Your "diversified" portfolio might not be 🤨

A lot of investors add a tech sector ETF to their total market fund thinking they're getting more growth exposure across new companies.

But here's what's actually happening:

Total market funds are built on market-cap weighting, so they automatically put more money into the biggest companies. Right now, those happen to be tech giants, and they make up roughly a third of the fund's total value.

When you stack a tech ETF on top of that, the top holdings in that ETF are largely the same mega-caps already anchoring your total market fund. You're not adding new ground. You're adding more weight to positions you already hold heavily.

Before adding any sector fund, it's worth pulling the top 10 holdings of what you already own and comparing them to the top 10 of what you're considering. If the overlap is significant, the diversification you're expecting simply isn't there.

More of the same isn't the same as more of the right things.

Have you ever compared the underlying holdings of two funds you own? Tell me what you found in the comments.

This video is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as specific investment, financial, or tax advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

Warren Burger is a financial advisor.

09/10/2026

Title: Is Your Retirement Ready for a 2-Year Market Slump?

Description: A 35% drop for 18 months. Is your plan ready? 📉

Most people benchmark their retirement resilience against 2020: a steep but short-lived crash. The downturns that actually derail retirement plans look very different.

Historically, returning to the prior market peak after a bear market has taken around 3 years on average. The 2000-2002 and 2007-2009 cycles both pushed well past that.

What makes those extended periods so damaging for retirees isn't just the declining values. It's the withdrawals made along the way. Every dollar pulled from a falling portfolio permanently reduces the shares available to recover when markets eventually rebound. The math works against you in two directions at once.

That compounding effect is what sequence-of-returns risk actually looks like in practice, and it's why the timing of a downturn matters more than the size of it.

Ask yourself this: if markets fell 35% tomorrow and stayed there for 18 months, which account would you draw from, and how long would it hold before you were forced to sell equities at a loss? (This is a hypothetical example for illustration purposes.)

If you're within 5 years of retirement and don't have a clear answer, that's the conversation worth having now.

Schedule a call through the link in my bio to work through it together.

Warren Burger is a financial advisor.

09/09/2026

Title: The 2027 Social Security Estimate Is Out — The Number That Actually Matters Isn't the One Making Headlines

Description: Congress may quietly shrink your Social Security raises. 👀

The first 2027 COLA estimate just landed at around 3.4%, based on the latest inflation data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For a $2,000 monthly benefit, that's roughly $68 more per month before Medicare Part B adjustments. (Hypothetical example for illustration only.)

The official number won't be confirmed until October, but there's a conversation happening in Congress right now that deserves more attention than the COLA estimate itself.

Lawmakers are debating whether to switch the COLA formula from the current CPI-W to a version called chained CPI-W. The chained version assumes retirees swap to cheaper alternatives when prices rise, so it tends to grow more slowly over time.

Analysts estimate the difference could average around 0.3 percentage points per year. That sounds like a small gap, but compounded across a 20- or 30-year retirement, it represents a meaningful reduction in lifetime income.

None of this is final yet. But if it passes, retirees who aren't accounting for it in their planning could find the numbers drifting further from expectations with each passing year.

Social Security is one piece of the picture. The withdrawal strategy and tax plan built around it are where the real planning work happens.

Warren Burger is a registered investment advisor. This content is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as specific investment, financial, or tax advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

Warren Burger is a financial advisor.

09/04/2026

Title: 4 Signs Your Retirement Portfolio Is Set Up to Fail

Description: Most retirees don't see this coming until it's too late 👀

Building wealth and living off wealth require completely different strategies, but most portfolios never make that transition.

According to Morningstar's 2025 research, nearly 70% of retirement plan failures trace back to losses in the very first years of retirement. That's not just bad timing. That's a structural gap.

There are four warning signs that a portfolio is built for the wrong phase of life:

Relying on your brokerage account as your only cash reserve means a bad market year can force you to sell at exactly the wrong time.

Having every dollar in pre-tax accounts removes your ability to manage your tax bracket or sidestep Medicare surcharges down the road.

Carrying a large concentration of your employer's stock means your paycheck and your retirement savings are exposed to the same single risk.

Having no written plan for which account to draw from first means each year's spending decision is essentially a guess.

A solid balance sheet doesn't automatically produce safe retirement income. How the portfolio is structured matters just as much as how much is in it.

Warren Burger is a financial advisor.

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1980 N. Atlantic Avenue Suit 411
Cocoa Beach, FL
32931

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