Retirement Planning

Retirement Planning

Achieving Your Retirement Goals

Step 1 - Determine Your Cost of Retirement
Achieving your retirement objectives will not happen automatically. The first step to consider as retirement approaches is to determine your cost of retirement. Your cost of retirement will be affected by many factors. Three of the most significant are:
  • Your monthly retirement living expenses

    A common rule of thumb is somewhere between 70% and 100% of your annual earned income prior to retirement.

  • Your retirement age

    This is the age at which you plan to stop working full time and start accessing your retirement portfolio assets.

  • Your life expectancy

    This will define how many years your retirement costs will continue to be incurred.
Step 2 - Apply Your Income Sources
Once your cost of retirement assumptions have been defined, you can start to look at the income sources that may be available to you in retirement to help offset your retirement costs. Income sources may include among other things:
  • Social Security
  • Pensions
  • Immediate annuity payments

     
Step 3 - Withdraw from Your Portfolio Assets
Once your available income sources have been applied to your cost of retirement, you can take withdrawals against your portfolio assets to make up the difference. Portfolio assets commonly include:
  • Brokerage accounts
  • Money Market accounts
  • 401(k)s, 403(b)s, and other employer-sponsored retirement accounts
  • IRAs
  • Annuities

     
Step 4 - If Necessary, Consider Changes
If you determine that you are not on track to achieve your retirement objectives, you will need to consider making some changes. These changes may include:
  • Saving more before you retire
  • Redefining your retirement age
  • Considering part time employment during retirement
  • Spending less during retirement
  • Combination of above

When we sit down with you to discuss your personal and family financial goals, we consider your current financial situation, any special circumstances and your tolerance for taking risks. Then we build a strategy tailored to your individual goals and objectives.

Our primary services for personal needs include:

  • Continual development and implementation of recommendations to fund your income needs and help maintain a comfortable standard of living throughout your lifetime
  • Creation of a Retirement Map to help guide your journey toward financial security
  • Application of tactics to manage risks along the way
  • Education regarding the most appropriate distribution strategy for your employer retirement plans and IRAs
  • Guidance on how to establish an Inherited IRA, Trusteed IRA or Roth IRA
  • Strategies to optimize Social Security and pension income
  • Planning for the costs of health care in retirement