Retirement Planning

The Foundation of Good Retirement Planning

Your Retirement Roadmap

Retirement planning involves a lot more than simply crunching numbers and the most successful financial plan is one that can make your dreams a reality. A holistic approach to planning for retirement should always take into account questions such as, “Where am I going?” and “What are my goals?” rather than immediately describing what you can or simply cannot afford. Once we have the answers to what you want your retirement to look like, we can start getting a more accurate look at the financial considerations such as your future living expenses. By understanding what you’re living expenses will look like in retirement versus today, we can go on to build a more precise roadmap that plans out the exact steps you need to take today in order to live comfortably in the future. 

When it comes to building a plan for retirement, it is important to budget your future living expenses based on the kind of lifestyle that you will want to enjoy. After all, it’s only when you know what your big-picture looks like that you can find out the answer to whether you will have enough saved in time for retirement. Knowing what you want out of retirement also helps us with calculating the amount of discretionary income that you will need to have saved in order to reach your goals. Discretionary income evaluates the amount of income you have left after all your essentials have been paid for. Once your essentials have been paid for, your discretionary income will help you to fill the gap towards living the comfortable lifestyle you always imagined having in retirement. However, it is important to note that planning for discretionary income is an added amount to the money you will need to put aside both for taxes in retirement as well as your fixed living expenses such as housing, food, clothing, and health care. By thinking about what kind of lifestyle you may want to enjoy, you can plan for any and all leisure time including any activities that you may be interested in once you’ve finally retired.

Once you have an idea of what your living expenses will look like, planning for retirement makes sure that you will be able to live comfortably while enjoying the lifestyle that you have in mind for yourself. In order to have a better idea of how much you will need to save for retirement, you can use the Rule of 25. To use this, calculate out how much you plan on spending, per year in retirement. Multiply this number by 25 and you will get the amount of money that you will need to have saved in your retirement account(s) comes retirement. Still, while this is a good rule of thumb, there are always other factors in play when it comes to estimating exactly how much you will need to have set aside for retirement. Some of these factors may be a longer life expectancy, unexpected healthcare needs, tax obligations, as well as a multitude of other considerations.

How Our Independent Financial Advisors and Retirement Planners Help You Plan for Your Retirement

When it comes time, being able to turn your retirement savings into a steady income stream can be a daunting task. Even if you have a budget in place and an understanding around where your retirement income will be coming from, both rising costs and unexpected expenses can hamper your ability to retire at your target date. However, we help you determine exactly how to translate your hard-earned retirement investments into income as well as providing you with a smart Social Security filing strategy in order to fully replace your income in retirement. When it comes to organizing an accurate projection of your retirement income, we take a close look at your employer-sponsored retirement plans first and foremost. By first understanding your workplace benefits, we can then take a closer look at any of your outside investment accounts. By taking a comprehensive look at all of the retirement accounts and other investment accounts, we can determine what will be the best way to have both your personal and professional assets work together in tandem in order to provide for your income come retirement. 

An income gap is something that we are always seeking to find the retirement solution for. Oftentimes, this gap shows itself between the time our clients stop working and when they plan on collecting social security. Other times, it can stem simply between the amount of fixed income you are set to receive from things such as social security and the amount of income you will need in order to maintain the lifestyle you want in retirement. Both greater longevity and rising healthcare costs can also exacerbate a larger-than-expected income gap. However, many of our projections rely on having a better knowledge of your net worth (the total amount of your assets minus any liabilities). This allows us to understand the amount of money that you have versus the amount you will need in order to bridge any possible income gap when retirement finally knocks on your door. Even simply creating a budget on your own and putting together a statement of your net worth can make a huge difference towards answering questions around whether you will have enough money saved to retire at your target date.

Overall, we always want to first have a better understanding of your goals and lifestyle wants. By knowing what kind of a lifestyle you will want in retirement, we then take a look at your current financial state and compare it to your projected costs of living which combine your discretionary and non-discretionary living expenses accounting for inflation. Having a better sense of who you are and what retirement will look like for you, allows us to finally strategize what kind of changes we can make today in order to lead you across the finish line towards making your retirement dreams a reality.

When your goals and needs are clear, your financial advisor or retirement planner can help you investigate different retirement investment options such as Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), Roth IRAs, Simplified Employee Pension (SEP), or any other retirement funds that are available to you.

Unbiased Retirement Planning Solutions For The Future You Desire

Retirement is a balancing act, all of the key components such as money saved (retirement savings) and social security need to be planned so that you can reach the finish line towards living the retirement you always imagined. Getting a realistic image of where you are at versus where you need to be in terms of retirement planning is where we come into the picture. As independent financial advisors, we offer unbiased advice on a fiduciary basis.

Because of our independence, we are not tied to proprietary products and therefore we do not have any sales quotas that we struggle to meet. When we create a comprehensive financial retirement plan we make sure it’s tailored around your personal goals so that we can find suitable solutions to the things that are the most concerning to you.