Robert Puelz on Substack
Essays, decision frameworks, and practical guidance to help individuals become more financially literate and make smarter financial choices.
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Robert Puelz
About
Professor Emeritus, Edwin L. Cox School of Business at SMU · FinPlan LLC
I built Moneygimme for households to help people make better financial decisions using the same framework I taught for years at the Edwin L. Cox School of Business at SMU.
I’m a Professor Emeritus at SMU and founder of FinPlan LLC. Moneygimme is about education and implementation — raising your financial literacy using principles rarely found in standard financial education. You can learn adaptively, starting with Path 1 then Path 2, or jump directly to Path 2 if you’re more experienced. “Graduate” by passing Path 2 and we’ll work together one-on-one on your personal financial goals.
Moneygimme harnesses agentic AI to build an accessible framework for individuals working through real financial decisions — with a human, me, on their side.
Most financial advice is built on rules of thumb designed for an average household that doesn’t exist. Life-cycle economics models your actual income, spending, taxes, Social Security, and longevity together to find the plan that genuinely fits your household.
Moneygimme is where that framework becomes accessible — for individuals working through real financial decisions, and for advisors who want a sharper planning edge for their clients.
The philosophy
Rules of thumb were built for no one in particular. Life-cycle economics models your household specifically.
Save 10–15% of income. Have 3x your salary by 40. Spend no more than 4% of your portfolio each year. These benchmarks describe the average household. They do not describe yours. Applied to your specific situation, they can produce guidance that is meaningfully wrong.
The life-cycle model treats your household as a single optimization problem. It asks: given your income, assets, taxes, Social Security trajectory, and longevity, what spending and saving path maximizes your sustainable living standard over a lifetime? The answer is a number, not a percentage.
Standard planning asks: are you saving enough? Economics asks: what is your household's optimal living standard, and what choices move it higher? That shift in framing changes every recommendation that follows — retirement timing, Social Security, Roth vs. Traditional, and more.
Elon Musk put it plainly: “Allow people to progress at the fastest pace that they can or are interested in, in each subject.” Moneygimme is built on that premise. You start with the problem you have, not the chapter the curriculum is on. The economics follows the question.
The tool I recommend
Life cycle economics is the right framework. MaxiFi Planner is the software that puts it to work for a real household. It models income, spending, taxes, Social Security, and longevity together — and finds the plan that maximizes your clients' lifetime living standard. It is the only planning tool I recommend.
Try MaxiFi PlannerAffiliate link — Moneygimme may receive compensation at no cost to you.
Models your specific income, assets, taxes, Social Security, and longevity — not population averages.
The output is a sustainable spending number your household can build a life around.
Compare retirement dates, Social Security strategies, Roth conversions, and life events side by side.