Plain-spoken retirement math for real decisions.
Retire Sooner with Wes Moss is a question-driven personal finance show built around retirement decisions in the real world. Wes Moss and named conversation partners work through pensions, market volatility, inflation, investment accounts, and the habits that can make retirement feel more secure.
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Retire Sooner with Wes Moss approaches retirement planning as a steady sequence of choices, not a single finish-line number. The show is practical first. It works through the questions people actually ask when money, timing, and uncertainty start to collide: whether to take a pension as a lump sum or monthly income, how much cash or balance to keep, when a mortgage payoff makes sense, and how to think about Roth accounts, taxable accounts, IRAs, and 401(k)s. Wes Moss often turns abstract finance into everyday math. The Rule of 72 becomes a way to picture compounding over time. A pension becomes easier to understand when its annual income is compared with a rough account value. Market risk is discussed in human terms, including whether someone can still sleep at night through a 20%, 25%, or 30% decline. The show does not stay inside spreadsheets. Recent episodes tie retirement planning to inflation, oil prices, market highs, geopolitical conflict, international stocks, AI disruption, and changing labor-force assumptions. That gives the advice a current-event frame without turning the show into a trading desk. Listener questions shape much of the rhythm. Krista DeVias appears as a conversational presence in the excerpts, asking about international stocks, inflation, market highs, savings shortfalls, and planning tools. Mallory Boggs steps in for a question-led episode and keeps the exchange moving. Clark Howard joins Wes Moss for a broader discussion of market volatility, gasoline prices, inflation, and how economic shocks affect both wealthy and everyday people. The show’s register is friendly but direct. It favors simple explanations, rules of thumb, and scenario thinking over dense terminology. It also repeats a core emotional point: retirement planning is partly about confidence and peace of mind, not only account balances. Some answers are opinionated, but they are usually paired with reminders about risk, tax considerations, and the need for personal legal, tax, or investment advice. The strongest fit is for retirement savers who want to compare tradeoffs before making major financial decisions. It is also useful for people who feel behind and need a realistic path forward. The show’s recurring appeal is its combination of current market context, listener-question specificity, and a belief that retirement can still become more flexible with disciplined planning.
Made for: The show is for retirement savers, near-retirees, and financially curious families weighing pensions, investments, taxes, market risk, and long-term income. It especially suits people who want practical tradeoffs explained in everyday language.
What sets it apart: Its strength is turning listener questions and current market anxiety into concrete planning scenarios. Rather than chasing forecasts, it emphasizes compounding, optionality, risk tolerance, tax awareness, and the emotional side of retirement security.
Wes Moss is on a mission: help at least 1 million Americans of any age retire sooner and find joy along the way. A seasoned finance professional, best-selling author, broadcaster, and teacher, Wes has done extensive research on the habits of the happiest retirees. On this podcast, Wes shares key lifestyle and money habits you can implement now to prepare for a secure future while not depriving yourself of happiness in the present. In addition to leveraging his 20+ years of knowledge as an investment advisor, Wes brings in guests and specialists to teach you how to set and work towards your financial and lifestyle objectives. Refreshingly-free of mind-numbing financial jargon and unrealistic…
Based on 4 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Wes Moss and Krista DeVias make retirement choices legible by testing products, projections, and portfolios against real household constraints.
Retire Sooner with Wes Moss turns retirement planning into a series of decisions that can be examined rather than feared. Wes Moss and Krista DeVias move between listener questions and larger forces such as inflation and market highs, then bring the discussion back to portfolio…
Wes Moss asks you to count the 'dry powder' before declaring your retirement portfolio bond-free.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Advisor fees and retirement planning lead into mutual-fund taxes, IRAs and the speaker's case for ETFs.
A happy retirement is the starting point, but the episode soon gets down to advisor fees and investment taxes. The speaker treats an advisor's knowledge of a client's history, along with help planning, as part of what the fee pays for.
Steak night sticker shock leads to a closer look at retirement projections.
Wes Moss opens with a food story he calls "steak night sticker shock" to get at the feeling of rising prices. He also takes up the nerves that can come with a stock market all-time high.
A retirement portfolio question brings existing safer assets and stock risk into focus.
The episode begins with the host asking whether inflation could return. He recalls pandemic supply disruptions and Federal Reserve stimulus, then turns to growth and value stocks. A listener's retirement question gives the discussion a practical focus.
Wes Moss and Krista DeVias weigh Robinhood Gold's IRA match and card rewards against its annual fee and the cost of carrying a balance.
A proposed 50-year mortgage opens this retirement question session, but a listener's Robinhood Gold account gets the fuller discussion. The listener lays out an IRA deposit match, a 3% cash-back card and a $50 annual Gold fee.
Paul Haavardsrud unpacks Canadian money stories, from ski-hill VIP pricing to French butter tariffs.
Real-estate freedom, taught in plain numbers.
Retire Sooner with Wes Moss centers on where a retiree should live, using Joe's search for a 55-plus community near water, golf, airport access, and liquidity.
This episode discusses the risks of speculative investing and the pros and cons of taking a lump sum versus pension payments in retirement.
Clark Howard and Mallory Boggs discuss how retirement is evolving and answer listener financial questions.
Clark Howard and Wes Moss discuss the impact of geopolitical conflict, inflation, and oil prices on both wealthy and everyday people's investments and wallets.
A financial advisor discusses retirement planning amid volatile markets, covering inflation, oil disruptions, and AI's impact on jobs and stock sectors.
Wes Moss and Krista DeVias discuss whether to invest in international vs.
This episode discusses dollar cost averaging, retirement savings strategies like Roth 401(k) and Rule of 55, and offers advice for those behind on savings.
Financial advisor Wes Moss opens with a steak night sticker shock framing, noting ground beef is up nearly 80% since COVID while the S&P 500 is up 90% over the same five years — illustrating why investing protects purchasing power against inflation.
Wes Moss opens with a warning that inflation above 6% has returned within 3 to 5 years almost 90% of the time in large developed economies, using post-pandemic supply shocks, Federal Reserve stimulus, and the 2022 peak near 9% as examples.
A financial advisor critiques a Wall Street Journal op-ed advocating for lump-sum Roth conversions and discusses the problem of uninvested 401k money.
["Wes Moss and Krista DeVias open on the 50-year mortgage, arguing it could help one more buyer build home equity but only trims about $150 to $250 a month on a $415,000 loan.", "Jamie in Nevada asks about claiming Social Security at 62 while living on a pension, and Wes says wage income is what triggers the earnings test, not pension or passive income.", "Jay in Florida asks about Robinhood Gold, the 3% IRA boost, Morningstar tools, and the 3% cash-back card, and Wes says the math works only if the card is paid in full.", "Wes then uses Laura and RJ to show how starting a 401(k) five years earlier can leave Laura with more than $1 million extra by age 65, before he weighs a 1099 CRNA move, a mega backdoor Roth workaround, and a restoration-plan payout schedule."]
Wes Moss and Krista DeBias discuss Social Security timing and target date funds, offering contrasting opinions on retirement planning.