FOUNDATION PROGRAM · FREE · NOTHING IS SOLD

Bring your numbers. I’ll walk you through them.

You ran one of our calculators and got a number. A number is not a plan. Thirty minutes on a call, with your actual figures in front of us, is where it turns into something you can act on — or decide to ignore on purpose, which is also a decision.

Book a 30-minute session

Free. No product is offered, discussed, or sold on this call.

Who you’ll be talking to

Hans Goldstein — Founder & Executive Director, Retirement Literacy Foundation.

  • Passed all three parts of the IRS Special Enrollment Examination in 2026. Enrollment is pending with the IRS Office of Enrollment; Form 23 was filed September 10, 2026. PTIN P03491457. Until the IRS grants enrollment I am not an Enrolled Agent and do not hold myself out as one. I am telling you where I am in the process so you can weigh it yourself.
  • I do this every day. The retirement-tax math on this site — RMD divisors, the IRMAA cliffs, capital gains and depreciation recapture, the 1031 boot rules — is what I work in daily. The calculators on this site are ones I built and maintain.
  • Background in software engineering before retirement planning, which is why this Foundation ships calculators instead of brochures.

What the Foundation is

  • A 501(c)(3) public charity. IRS determination letter issued April 2, 2026; tax-exempt status effective March 18, 2026. EIN 41-5062266 — verifiable in the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search.
  • No corporate money. RLF accepts no funding from insurance carriers, asset managers or brokerages. Operating funds come from individual donors and the Founder’s own contributions.
  • A conflict-of-interest policy filed with the IRS. No director or officer may take compensation from any financial-services company in exchange for a referral from the Foundation. That is the rule this session runs under.
  • Free tools, free guides, free workshops. Every calculator and guide on this site is free to use.

What actually happens in the thirty minutes

  1. You bring real numbers. Balances, ages, filing status, and what you are considering — a withdrawal, a conversion, a sale, a claiming date.
  2. We run them properly. Most calculators, mine included, simplify. On a call we can handle the parts a web form cannot: a spouse two years younger, a state that treats retirement income oddly, depreciation you forgot you claimed.
  3. You get the order of operations. Which decision has a deadline, which one can wait, and which one quietly costs you money every year you leave it alone.
  4. You leave with it written down. I send the numbers and the reasoning afterward so you can take it to your CPA or your family.

What this is not

This is not a sales appointment with a soft open. To be specific, on this call there is:

  • No product offered, illustrated, quoted or sold.
  • No annuity, insurance or investment recommendation.
  • No carrier or company mentioned as something for you to buy.
  • No follow-up call from a salesperson, because there isn’t one.

It is also not tax advice or legal advice, and it does not create a professional engagement. It is education, and where you need a return signed or a document drafted, I will tell you to go get one.

Why it is free, honestly

Two reasons, and neither is a trick.

The first is that this is the Foundation’s actual charitable purpose. Free plain-English retirement education is the thing RLF exists to deliver, and a one-to-one session is the most useful form it takes.

The second is that I have the time right now. Enrollment is pending and my calendar is not yet what it will be. I would rather spend these hours on people who will use them than protect them for later. When the calendar fills, sessions will get scarcer — that is not a countdown timer, it is just arithmetic.

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