Linda Brightcom

I taught in Ohio public schools for most of my working life, and like a lot of people I paid into retirement plans for thirty years without ever really understanding them. When I got serious about retiring, in my late fifties, I had a 403(b) from teaching, a couple of old 401(k)s from earlier jobs, a Roth IRA I’d opened and half-forgotten, and a Social Security benefit I couldn’t picture, and no idea whether it all added up to enough.

Working it out was harder than it should have been. The official information was accurate but dry, and most of what came up online was either selling an annuity or written for people already fluent in RMDs, IRMAA, and Roth conversions. I just wanted someone a step ahead to explain, in plain English, what the choices actually were and what they felt like to make.

That’s what Brightcom Retirement Planning is, built from actually doing it: rolling over old 401(k)s, reading my Social Security statement, choosing when to claim, signing up for Medicare. Daniel Brookfield, a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER, keeps the numbers and the rules straight. I’m no advisor, just someone a few steps further down the road who’d like you to feel less lost than I did.