Medicare: your foundation
The four parts, the seven-month enrollment window, what Medicare covers and the gaps it leaves, Original Medicare against Medicare Advantage, Medigap, and Part D.
Free 295-page guide · 2026 Edition
Retire With Confidence
Medicare, Social Security, and the money decisions that decide your retirement — the ones that come at you between 62 and 75, most with deadlines, several expensive to get wrong in ways nobody tells you about until later. It's free, and there's nothing to buy at the end of it.
We email it — nothing to download, nothing to buy.
Where should we send it?
Check your inbox (and spam folder) within a few minutes of submitting. Prefer to talk first? Call (770) 285-5174.
What's in it
Forty-seven chapters, six parts
IRMAA and the income traps
The surcharge nobody warns you about, the late-enrollment penalties that never end, and how selling a house or converting an IRA can raise your Medicare premium two years later.
Social Security
How the benefit is calculated, claiming at 62 against 67 against 70, spousal and survivor benefits, the earnings test, and how much of it is taxed.
Retirement income planning
Building the income stack, the tax difference between a 401(k), an IRA and a Roth, life insurance in retirement, and where you live changing what you keep.
Protecting what you have built
Long-term care and the hybrid policies that return your money, where you will live, caring for aging parents, and final expense planning.
Future-proofing & reference
The annual Medicare review, the decision timeline from 59½ to 75+, a glossary of 60+ terms, a 2026 quick-reference card, and what changed for 2026.
Who wrote it
Darin Weidauer
Gerontologist, 22-year U.S. Air Force veteran, independent insurance agent, and Registered Social Security Analyst. He's the licensed agent behind this site, and he's independent — appointed with a number of carriers rather than employed by one. That's worth knowing before you read anything he's written about insurance.
Why give it away? The rest of this site answers a narrow question: what Medicare plans are available where you live. The book answers the wider one — the decisions that arrive between 62 and 75.
Ready for your copy?
Get Retire With Confidence, free.
Emailed to you — nothing to download, nothing to buy.
Written and reviewed by Darin Weidauer — licensed insurance agent (NPN 18580338, GA License #3660495), Gerontologist (USC Davis School of Gerontology), MBA, Registered Social Security Analyst, and 22-year U.S. Air Force veteran.Last reviewed September 2, 2026. Plan availability, benefits and costs change every plan year — verify current details at Medicare.gov or 1-800-MEDICARE.