The Pete the Planner® Show

Your house has gone up in value. Your checking account hasn’t. Now a company is offering you cash from your home equity—with no monthly payments. Home Equity Investments promise access to housing wealth without another monthly bill. But what do you surrender in exchange, and where will the money come from when it’s time to settle up? Pete, Dame, and Kristen examine how these agreements work, what the numbers can look like, and whether turning home equity into spending money solves a financial p

Traditional retirement advice has encouraged investors to gradually reduce risk as they approach retirement. But with retirements potentially lasting 30 years or longer, inflation threatening purchasing power, and retirees increasingly responsible for generating their own income, is that advice still appropriate?

“We’ll pay for college” is easy to say when your kid is wearing diapers. What happens when they pick a private school, change majors, or need a fifth year? This week, we tackle three listener questions about how much to save, where parents can draw the line, and what to do when a college promise threatens retirement.

A 53-year-old newly divorced man earns $168,000, kept the family home, and believes his best earning years are ahead of him. From the outside, he appears financially secure. But he has only $315,000 left for retirement, spends more than his monthly paycheck, carries 22% credit-card debt, and depends on an annual bonus that hasn’t arrived yet. His plan is to maintain his lifestyle, keep the oversized house, and catch up later. Is this merely a four-year financial squeeze—or has a high income di

After 26 years of marriage, a 51-year-old listener is learning how to manage money on her own. She has a solid income, retirement savings, home-equity proceeds, temporary spousal support—and a persistent fear that one wrong decision could ruin everything. Should she buy another house? Pay off her car? Invest the divorce settlement? Keep helping her adult children? And is retiring at 65 still realistic? In this episode, we separate the financial damage of divorce from the emotional disruption o

Millennials are expected to inherit approximately $46 trillion over the next 25 years, making them the largest beneficiaries of the so-called Great Wealth Transfer. But that enormous number hides an uncomfortable reality: much of the money belongs to a very small number of families, many inheritances won’t arrive until recipients are nearing retirement, and millions of millennials will receive little or nothing. Pete explains where the trillions are actually going, why inheritance may widen Amer