Volcanos, Annuities and an Unconventional Retirement (with Dr. Rosaly Lopes)

What does a volcano have to do with your retirement? We won't use any crazy analogies here, like "things might erupt," or "danger could be bubbling below the surface," mostly because we wouldn't do something like that. But we don't need metaphors mostly because today we're talking to Dr. Rosaly Lopes, senior researcher, vulcanologist, and a TIAA client who speaks to us for a few minutes about her career, volcanoes, and how she's actively sought out annuities to fund her retirement. Why would she use them? What is a vulcanologist? What career advice does she have for people just starting down the path toward meaningful work? We'll ask all of those questions and more on today's show.

And in our headlines segment, have you ever made bad financial decisions after a few drinks? (and we're definitely not referring to the kind the comes with free refills....). Maybe you ordered too much food, or indulged in some of Amazon's two-day shipping for "just a few" items you've had your eyes on? While breaking your diet for a night or ordering a new board game aren't exactly the biggest mistakes to make in the world, but how about drinking while you're on the job? While that may seem like duh moment for most of us, one exchange has recently made it official, telling workers to stop drinking on the job. Which business? Of course, it's a financial business...which is why we're talking about it today. Plus, in our second headline, scammers have ramped up schemes against people with medical bills. We'll cover 7 red flags to watch out for, and in a triple threat headlines segment today, we'll discuss one piece that proves how difficult it is to predict interest rates. It turns out even the brightest among us who study the market full time can't get it right.

Later, after we take some time for Doug's specially themed volcanic trivia, we'll throw out the Haven Life Line to Mike, who's been thinking about exchange-traded funds. Should Mike have any concerns about using ETFs in his Roth IRA instead of mutual funds? After we're through discussing ETFs, we'll tear open a letter from Brian, who wants some fact-checking on his backdoor Roth conversion plans.

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