Robert Puelz

Professor Emeritus, Edwin L. Cox School of Business at SMU · FinPlan LLC

Faculty member at the Edwin L. Cox School of Business. Today, writing and working in the area of economics-based financial planning and personal finance, including bringing my SMU life-cycle economics class to Substack through Moneygimme.

My approach starts from a simple premise: most financial advice is built on rules of thumb that were designed for the average household. No one is average. Life cycle economics offers a better framework — one that 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

Why economics-based planning is different

Rules of thumb were built for no one in particular. Life cycle economics models your household specifically.

Rules of thumb are averages

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.

Life cycle economics is specific

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.

The right question changes everything

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.

Education should fit the learner

Elon Musk put it plainly: allow people to progress at the pace that interests them, 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

MaxiFi Planner makes the economics computable.

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 Planner →

Affiliate link — Moneygimme may receive compensation at no cost to you.

Household-level optimization

Models your specific income, assets, taxes, Social Security, and longevity — not population averages.

Lifetime living standard

The output is a sustainable spending number your household can build a life around.

Scenario modeling

Compare retirement dates, Social Security strategies, Roth conversions, and life events side by side.

Contact

Get in touch

For questions about the site, content collaborations, advisory inquiries, or anything related to economics-based financial planning, reach out directly.

robert@finplanllc.net