https://www.woodwealthgroup.com/

Robin Faulkner-Harrison, Financial Advisor - Wood Wealth Group, 404 N Street Ste 304, Rock Springs, WY (2026)

08/27/2026

Retirement isn’t the end of the road. A lot of people consider retirement as their final financial goal. Planning- done. Tax work- done. Everything- done.

Really, retirement is a pivot point where you stop working for earned income, and begin living off of the money you have earned through those working years.
Several life stages happen WITHIN retirement that should be considered as ongoing financial and planning needs.

There is that initial freedom where you no longer must devote your time to earning money.

There is that point in time where you or your partner’s health starts to decline.

There is taking care of loved ones who are in advanced age.

Grand babies. Dream vacations. Having a second home. Writing that book. Preparing the next generation to lead the family after you are gone.

…and then there are the wrenches that life throws in.
Divorce
Remarriage
A disabled dependent
Sickness
Simply being forced into early retirement by your employer or your own health.

The fact is, life doesn’t end at retirement. Average mortality rates just mean that roughly half of you will outlive them.

You could very well be here for another 30-40 years.

It is a pivot point, and determining best practices for your money during these next life stages is determining what you need your money to do.

08/27/2026

What does your retirement look like?

08/25/2026

Tax deferral is cool, but the only federal income tax-free money you will get to receive in your lifetime outside of a death benefit from a life insurance policy or interest from a municipal bond are the EARNINGS on a Roth IRA.

But really, it’s all important.

The goal of tax deferral into a retirement account is to incentivize you saving for retirement. Pay less in taxes now; have money when you are older and no longer working. Ideally, you also pay taxes at a smaller rate in retirement compared to your highest earning accumulation years (late in your career).

The Roth IRA comes in so you have a source of money that is not taxable as income so not every dollar you draw in retirement has to be taxable.
…and then there is the taxable account. Which, despite its name, is simply an account that is NOT earmarked for retirement, that you can draw from BEFORE and DURING retirement, and can also play a part in lessening the impacts of income tax. (These can still kick out income, but much of the earnings inside a taxable brokerage account are dividend income and capital gain. This is usually treated more favorably by the IRS).

All together, you can have a decent mix that can help lessen your lifetime tax burden while also benefitting your provisional income (used to determine what percent of your social security is taxable) and your MAGI (used to determine if you’re going to pay more in Medicare premiums, in addition to your federal tax burden).

08/19/2026

There are actually five life stages that happen during retirement and in the years leading up to it. Not just one.
Meaning, once you’ve made your money, you’re not done planning.

Give me a call and we can discuss how to prepare for what is next. 307-448-0956

07/07/2026

I have been told by clients that a big reason they didn’t come in sooner is because they were afraid.

The two biggest and most common fears I have come across in people I have worked with are:

• The fear of judgment

• The fear of scarcity

The fear of judgment is enough to stop someone from taking necessary steps to improve their life or quality of life. Being afraid to see a financial planner is cut from the same cloth as being afraid to go to the gym because of your weight. It’s not that you don’t think it would help. Instead, you worry that the price you’d pay for that help is to have everything you think you may have done wrong thrown back at you. You’re afraid you might hear that your situation in particular is hopeless unless you change some character flaw. The solution is there but the cost is to be shamed down to your core beliefs before help is given.

The fear of scarcity is a powerful driver too. You just started making better money, or you just paid off a big debt. Now you want to enjoy your money at least a little before you start tightening your belt again. In your case, the idea of any kind of saving or investment plan feels like it would be struggling to make it all over again. You see your neighbor’s boat. Your friends and family post their vacations on social media. You know you need to start planning for a day where you will no longer earn an income, but you WANT those SAME nice things RIGHT NOW that you have money coming in to pay for them.

If you fear judgment, the vulnerability is that you might never satisfy your own standards well enough to seek guidance.

If you fear scarcity, your vulnerability is lifestyle creep creating a drag on your income.

Your biggest strength, in either case, is your very real desire for financial security now and later.

The biggest asset you have isn’t your income. It’s not your house. It’s not even hope. It’s time. A retirement that is thirty years down the road will be twenty years down the road the next time you think about it. A couple life events later and there are ten years left. Then five.

Every year you wait to present yourself better, or to keep up with the Joneses just one more time is another year without certainty on how much you need to retire. It’s another year without a savings plan. It’s a year lost on exponential growth. It turns into just one more thing you’d like to do before you make that call.

At my office, we don’t gate-keep advice for the price of your pride. Doing a financial plan with me is forward-looking, whether you have five, ten, twenty, or thirty years left at work. The cost of getting a plan isn’t shame. It starts at $499 plus a serious, will-do attitude.

I also don’t set you up on something so restrictive that you can’t enjoy your life. It may not be as immediate as having everything you want instantly, but most of my clients find that we have been able to strike a balance between working toward a secure future for themselves and enjoying the money they earn now while being more intentional. Those lifestyle purchases become more meaningful because they become a reward for the work you do, without the uncertainty of whether you are costing your future self your ability to retire.

…and the more time you have on your side, the less you absolutely have to commit to your future self, so the easier it is to include in your current lifestyle in your estimated expenses.

Time, your biggest asset, waits for no one. Putting it off today could mean you don’t think of it again for another year or five.

Let’s get started on your financial plan, and help you take pride and control in your financial decisions moving forward. 307-448-0956

07/01/2026

If you make $120,000+ per year, do me a favor and go look at your bank.

If you showed up at work tomorrow and were told there is nothing more for you there, how far would your savings stretch?

Consider your mortgage, auto loans, grocery bills, utilities, phone bills, and any family health concerns that require continued care.

How many months would you be able to pay your expenses before you’re pulling from your retirement and paying substantial tax penalties to bridge the gap? Would any recurring healthcare expenses convert to out of pocket costs without insurance? Would your family be able to keep their home?

The vulnerability with six figure incomes isn’t that you don’t have enough to meet basic expenses month by month. It’s lifestyle creep coupled with inflation. And $120,000 isn’t what it was even 10 years ago.

You work hard, you provide for your family, and you deserve to enjoy your money now.
You also deserve to have a realistic savings plan outside of retirement to help you get to a point where you can weather a storm.

We can come up with a contingency for what steps you will take to secure as much continuity as possible while you look for the next opportunity.

We can:
• look specifically at your situation and determine how many months of expenses you need set aside, and what that balance is
• determine a realistic savings plan to help you accumulate that amount
• if you had to take another job that isn’t exactly what you want, what is the minimum dollar amount you would need to slow the pull on your savings while you wait for the next opportunity that best supports you and your family’s trajectory.

We can also do this in a way that budgets in non-negotiable things you enjoy. If a savings plan is too rigid, it doesn’t work as well because it’s hard to stick to.

Let’s strike that balance. I can help you triage a job loss, but the best time to do this type of planning is when you feel that your income is secure.

06/09/2026

Some financial vulnerabilities that look like strengths:

• Having a high income

• Being promised a substantial inheritance

• Reading media online about how far behind (or ahead) you are

• Deciding where to put your money based on the opinion of an article.

Here’s why-

• A high income means that money is always coming in. You can burn through a paycheck, and it feels okay because the next one is right around the corner.
The vulnerability is relying entirely on an income that isn’t guaranteed. A household’s income can be lost suddenly due to the worker being fired, laid off, furloughed, injured, or dying unexpectedly.
Many families don’t have a contingency plan to cover these possibilities.

• Expecting a large inheritance is great, especially if you get one.
The vulnerability is in delaying retirement savings based on the fact you expect to receive money. Your loved one could wind up needing to use it all to cover long term care costs, final expenses, or it could be that they never detailed beneficiaries so their estate plan might not be solid.

• Reading opinions online about how behind or ahead you are is a good sign that you’re ready to take action to work toward financial security. You’re trying to learn what you need to do to meet your goals.
The vulnerability is that these don’t always accurately reflect the cost of living in your particular area. If you read that you’re behind, it can be disheartening, and there is very little guidance on how to fix it other than “save money.” If it appears that you’re ahead, you may assume there’s nothing else you can do to enhance your situation.

• Opinions about where to put your money are often based on the author’s experience…but not your particular situation.
The vulnerability is that you may be told to have so much money in the bank, put most of attention on bank savings, and be exposed to purchasing power risk (the money your money is earning doesn’t keep up with inflation). Instead, you may read something that says you should max out your retirement. This ignores the need for a more flexible, immediately liquid source of funds if you need them sooner than retirement age.

The benefit to using a financial planner is that we can help you address all of these vulnerabilities and others not mentioned. It’s not just generic advice, it’s tailored to your needs, and helps you know how to make the most of your financial strengths and addressing the vulnerabilities that come along with them.

05/27/2026

Running a company is no small job. In fact, you have multiple jobs. Providing competitive group benefits to keep talent being one that can be extremely time consuming.

You could spend a lot of time calling the health insurance company to make updates and get new quotes, then dealing with compliance on a 401k, right before you call a third company to make changes on the group disability policy.

…but what if all of your group benefits had the same point of contact?

Wood Wealth Group and Alkali State Insurance Agency together now offer a full suite of group benefits including a retirement plan that fits the needs of your company, and several options for group insurance.

Let’s take one job off of your plate so you have more time to focus on the business you love.

Let’s work together to make your life easier, starting today!

04/21/2026

Whenever the news is freaking you out about the stock market…grab your phone, open the “stocks” app, pull up the S&P 500, and then set the chart to “all”.

It looks like this. I went ahead and circled the 2008 recession, covid, (which felt like the end of days) and the interest rate shock of 2022 (which felt very flat, but with groceries getting more expensive).

Liberation day and then the Iran war don’t even show up that well on it yet.

When financial advisors say we’re looking at the bigger picture, this is what we mean.

04/21/2026

Lately I have been having more discussions with several young people about a very tricky, unseen financial vulnerability. It’s enough to blow up the assumptions you’ve made about your future, and what you think you’ll accomplish.

This vulnerability is experienced predominantly by people who earn north of $150,000 each year in their household and put into retirement accounts.

The income is great. Saving for retirement is splendid.

The danger in it is that you are comfortable with the way things are.
You always have money to afford the things you need without too much thought because you always have money coming in.

You go ahead and buy more house than you had intended because the bank, looking at your current income and your debt to income ratio, says you can. Need new tires? Done. Without a thought. New carpet? Done. Spontaneous vacation? Possibly.

You’re earning enough money to cover everything you need and want; not accruing revolving debt. So what’s the problem?

It boils down to the fact that you’re still living paycheck to paycheck. By the time you get paid, you’ve already spent most of what you made last pay period.

It’s a nice problem to have because you’re not experiencing strain month to month because you can easily get what you need (and want).

Here’s the part where it breaks down:

• If something happens to your job, you immediately have no money. There is no (or very little) emergency savings in the bank.

• You likely have a bigger mortgage payment than what you’d have on a smaller income.

• You would likely lose your health insurance, and that could be expensive to replace.

• It probably feels like most of your money is going to bills, but you may not know exactly how much is going to bills. At $150,000, it’s not uncommon to see roughly $75,000+ just being spent, but not accounted for.

• You’re likely going to pull out of your retirement account to make ends meet, drawing down the balance of that account, its future growth, and accruing a massive tax penalty while increasing your overall tax liability.

And the big one:
• It is really difficult to alter human behavior at the drop of a hat. You’re used to your lifestyle. It’s going to really burn to attempt to dial back what you normally spend when something unexpected removes an income source.

The good news is: there are ways to save, invest, and grow your wealth in addition to your retirement plan, but without the restrictive nature of a retirement plan.

More good news:
• You may not be able to save as aggressively as you think.
• You have flexibility so that you can get to your money quickly if there is something you need to buy.
• You can be more ready if something does happen to one of your income sources so that you can cover expenses and protect some of your lifestyle while you look for similar opportunities.

It’s about adding a plan, not taking away the things you love.

Robin Faulkner-Harrison, Financial Advisor - Wood Wealth Group

08/27/2026

08/27/2026

08/25/2026

08/19/2026

07/07/2026

07/01/2026

06/09/2026

05/27/2026

04/21/2026

04/21/2026

Address

Website

Alerts

Contact The Business

Shortcuts

Share

Category

Listing takedown request