Assess Your Goals

Your financial plan must start with the end clearly in mind. We help you think through all the important details of your new life in retirement. Some retirees may still have a job because they find joy in working. However, they don’t neces­sarily need to work to get paid. Working could be for a non-profit as a volunteer. We have found that some people who volun­tarily continue to work in retirement—even just part-time—are happier than those who don’t work at all. This part of the retirement planning process may be better defined as happiness planning.

We help you identify the resources you have now such as savings, invest­ments, and retirement accounts. Then we quantify future streams of income such as pensions and Social Security benefits. This is also a good time to start consol­i­dating accounts – all that are regis­tered the same can be combined at one custodian. Consol­i­dation can make tracking accounts easier and provides the ability to coordinate investment strategy across all accounts.

We start by taking an inventory of assets to develop a net worth statement. We will help you determine how much you spend now as a template for creating your unique retirement spending plan.

A primary focus will be to save enough money during the next ten years and maximize investment perfor­mance. We also want to minimize risk and create diver­si­fi­cation by dividing assets among the major classes and sub classes of stocks, bonds, and cash. Our process of allocating invest­ments properly gives you the potential of providing the return needed to reach your goal. We then provide the disci­pline necessary to maintain the allocation through rebal­ancing as the markets fluctuate.

Many people make the mistake of focusing only on the amount of savings while overlooking the impor­tance of saving tax-efficiently during this critical ten-year period. We focus on providing the ability to withdraw funds tax efficiently to help extend how long your nest egg lasts in retirement.

Social Security benefits are an important part of nearly everyone’s retirement plan. We help you review your earnings record regularly to avoid mistakes that could lead to reduced future benefits and can only be corrected for a short time. The same is true for clients who have pensions with a current employer or from a former employer. We are familiar with many pension plans and the rules for drawing benefits. We start by requesting a personal statement of benefits to verify the estimated value of the pension. Then we verify that benefits have been calcu­lated correctly well before it is time to start drawing them.