College football season is back. And here in Iowa and across the Midwest, those Saturdays mean the return of tailgates, kickoffs, living and dying with every drive.
It also provides us with a lens through which to look at financial planning and wealth management. The parallels are closer than you might expect. The programs that consistently compete for championships are not always the ones with the most talented rosters (see Indiana last season). They are the ones that have built a quality program with a disciplined approach and a coaching staff that knows how to build a game plan, adjust when things change, and keep everyone pulling in the same direction.
Sound familiar? It should. Here in Des Moines, West Des Moines, Dubuque, and throughout Iowa, those are exactly the qualities that separate families who retire with confidence from those who arrive at retirement hoping for the best. Here is what the game can teach us.
Championships Are Built in the Off-Season
Ask any coach at a program that wins consistently, and they will tell you the same thing. Championships are not won on game day. It is won year-round and often when nobody is watching. The off-season is when the foundation gets built — conditioning, film study, scheme installation, and recruiting. By the time September arrives, the work is already done. Game day is just the stress test.
Wealth management works the same way. The families who retire with financial confidence are not the ones who made the right call in a volatile market week. They are the ones who built the right foundation years earlier. Consistent contributions to retirement accounts. A diversified portfolio aligned to their timeline and risk tolerance. A tax strategy that did not start the year they retired but fifteen years before. A Social Security plan that was thought through long before the first check arrived.
The off-season in financial planning is your 40s and 50s. That is when the real work gets done. By the time retirement arrives, the plan should largely be in place. The decisions made in those quieter years determine what game day actually looks like.
The families who retire with confidence are the ones who treated the years before retirement like an off-season. They put in the work before anyone was watching.
Building the Right Team: Recruiting and the Transfer Portal
College football recruiting has changed dramatically. The transfer portal has made roster building more dynamic, competitive, and strategic than ever. The best programs are not just recruiting high school seniors anymore. They are evaluating fit, filling specific needs, and making calculated decisions about who belongs in their system.
Finding the right financial advisor is not that different. The question is not just who is available or who came recommended by a neighbor. Rather, it’s about who fits your situation, goals, and stage of life. A family in Des Moines approaching retirement with savings spread across a 401(k), an IRA, and a taxable account needs an advisor with specific experience in distribution planning, tax strategy, and Social Security optimization.
There are a few qualities worth evaluating in any financial advisor. First, are they a fiduciary? A fiduciary financial advisor is legally required to act in your best interest at all times, not the interest of their firm or their own compensation. Second, how are they compensated? And third, what types of clients do they typically serve? Fit matters as much as credentials.
If you are currently evaluating your options, we put together a blog with 10 questions worth asking before you hire a financial advisor that walks through exactly what to look for.
Every Week Has a Game Plan and Every Season of Life Does Too
A college football coaching staff does not run the same game plan every week. They study the opponent. They account for weather, injuries, matchups, and field conditions. The plan that worked in September may need to look completely different by November. What stays consistent is the process and the discipline of preparing for what is ahead.
A financial plan is no different. The strategy that made sense at 45 may need adjustments at 60. A job change, a market shift, a health event, or a change in tax law can all affect the plan. So can a child finishing college, a mortgage being paid off, or a decision to retire earlier than expected.
The best wealth management relationships are not transactional. They are ongoing. Your financial advisor should be reviewing your plan regularly, flagging changes in tax law that affect your strategy, and reaching out proactively when something in your life or the broader environment warrants a closer look. A game plan only works if it gets updated when the field conditions change.
For Iowa and Midwest families, a few of the field conditions worth knowing: Iowa does not tax retirement income for residents 55 and older, which affects how a withdrawal strategy should be built. Social Security optimization windows shift depending on your health and other income sources. And Medicare IRMAA thresholds mean that income management in your early retirement years has real premium implications. A good financial plan accounts for all of it, not just the obvious.
Making In-Game Adjustments: Steady and Calculated
Watch any great coaching staff manage a close game, and you notice something. They do not panic. When the other team scores, they do not abandon the game plan and start calling plays they have never practiced. They make calculated adjustments. They trust the system they built and stay disciplined.
Markets test investors the same way. When stocks drop sharply, the instinct is to do something. To sell, to move to cash, to protect what you have. It feels like the responsible move. But history is consistent on this point: some of the best single days in the market follow some of the worst. Investors who sell during a downturn often lock in losses and miss the recovery that follows, sometimes within days.
The families who navigate market volatility well are not the ones who make panic moves. They are the ones with a written plan and a trusted advisor who helps them think clearly when emotions run high. A financial advisor worth having is not one who tells you everything will be fine. They are the ones who educate you on how and why they built the plan and make decisions based on your long-term goals rather than short-term fear.
That is not a passive role. A good fiduciary financial advisor in Des Moines or West Des Moines is watching your portfolio, monitoring your tax picture, and reaching out when something needs attention. Not waiting for you to call when the market moves.
The Whole Team Has to Buy In
One of the most underrated factors in any successful program is team culture, the sense that everyone understands the goal, trusts the process, and is willing to do their part. A locker room full of talented individuals who are not aligned rarely beats a less talented team that plays together. The buy-in matters as much as the talent.
In financial planning and wealth management, the parallel is the relationship between a couple, a family, or a business owner and their advisor. A financial plan does not work if one spouse is fully engaged and the other is not. It does not work if the business owner has a retirement plan for the company but has not thought through their own personal exit strategy. And it does not work if the advisor is making recommendations in a vacuum without understanding what matters most to the people they serve.
The best financial planning relationships are built on alignment. Your advisor needs to understand your goals, risk tolerance, timeline, and what success actually looks like for your family. That alignment is what allows the plan to hold up when life gets complicated.
Here at RetireRight, we serve families across Des Moines, West Des Moines, and the Dubuque tri-state area. Our approach starts with understanding your specific situation. Because a plan that does not fit your life is just a document.
A Deep Depth Chart: Planning Beyond the Starter
Every program that has sustained success has depth. When the starting quarterback goes down, the season does not have to end. There is a plan in place, a backup who's been prepared, and a system that does not depend on one person to function.
Estate planning and beneficiary strategy are the depth chart of your financial plan. What happens to your assets if something happens to you? Are your beneficiary designations current? Does your spouse know where to find everything and who to call? Is your IRA structured in a way that minimizes the tax burden for the people who inherit it?
Most families give estate planning far less attention than it deserves. Under current law, a non-spouse beneficiary who inherits a traditional IRA must empty the account within ten years and pay ordinary income tax on every dollar. For high-earning children in states like Illinois or Wisconsin, that inherited IRA can trigger a significant and entirely avoidable tax bill. The depth chart you build now determines what your family deals with later.
Building a Program Worth Being Part Of
The programs that win consistently are not accidents. They are built intentionally, managed carefully, and adjusted thoughtfully over time. The coaches who sustain success are the ones who never stop working on the fundamentals, who build the right team around them, and who make calm, disciplined decisions when the pressure is highest.
Financial planning and wealth management reward the same qualities. The families across Iowa and the Midwest who retire with confidence are the ones who started early, built the right team, adjusted their plan as life changed, and stayed disciplined when the market made it tempting not to. The score on any given day matters far less than the system you have built.
If you are looking for a fiduciary financial advisor across Iowa and the Midwest, we would be glad to start that conversation. RetireRight serves families from our offices in West Des Moines and Dubuque with independent guidance that a championship-caliber financial plan requires.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between financial planning and wealth management?
Financial planning is the broad process of building a strategy for your financial future, including savings, investments, retirement, taxes, and estate goals. Wealth management typically refers to a more comprehensive, ongoing service that coordinates all of those elements together under one advisor relationship. For most families approaching retirement in Iowa and the Midwest, the distinction matters less than finding an advisor who takes a complete, coordinated view of their financial picture rather than focusing on one piece in isolation.
How do I find a fiduciary financial advisor in Des Moines or West Des Moines?
Start by asking directly whether any advisor you are evaluating is a fiduciary. A fiduciary financial advisor is legally required to act in your best interest at all times, not just when it is convenient. From there, ask about credentials, compensation structure, and what types of clients they typically work with. RetireRight is an independent fiduciary* serving families across Des Moines, West Des Moines, and the broader Iowa market from our offices in West Des Moines and Dubuque.
When is the right time to start working with a financial advisor?
The earlier, the better and not because you will be sold more products. The decisions you make in your 40s and early 50s around savings rates, account types, tax strategy, and Social Security planning have an outsized impact on your retirement. Families who engage with an advisor early have more options available to them than those who come to the table in the final few years. That said, no matter where you are today, starting the conversation now is always better than waiting.
What should I look for when choosing a wealth management firm in Iowa?
Look for an independent, fiduciary firm that takes a comprehensive approach to planning rather than focusing narrowly on investment management. Ask about their experience with clients in situations similar to yours, how they are compensated, and how proactively they communicate. Geography matters too; a wealth management firm in Des Moines, West Des Moines, or Dubuque that understands Iowa's specific tax advantages for retirees will build a meaningfully different plan than one applying a generic national approach.
*Registered representatives are only legally obligated to act as a fiduciary in advisory relationships. Registered representatives are not legally obligated to act as a fiduciary in Brokerage only relationships.