Do you have a plan for your retirement income? Will your income last for your lifetime and that of your significant other, if applicable? I believe many would answer these questions with “I think so,” or “I am pretty sure.” However, what if you could be more certain and confident in your retirement income?
You will want to generate a plan. Not a plan with volume of pages, numbers, and graphs. That may look nice and fancy when first presented to you, but is difficult to understand and even more confusing a day later. Your plan should be easy to understand, present options and opportunities, and be flexible. It should include your current situation and investments, your savings, time length, and a reasonable growth rate. Now you can project your income in retirement.
You will have your ‘Fixed’ sources of income and your ‘Variable’ sources of income. Fixed will include your expected Social Security benefit income and, possibly, pension income. Your Variable will be money withdrawn from your investments. The total will be your expected Gross Income. Your income taxes then need to be estimated and deducted from your gross to get your expected Net Income. You can then compare this to what income will be needed. Make sure you add in an inflation factor. If there is a gap between what will be needed and your expected income, you can then explore ideas to help shrink that gap. These may include additional savings and tax minimization strategies.
A discussion regarding the risks involved is necessary – longevity, health, investment results, timing or sequence of returns, withdrawal rate, inflation, and tax risks. To address these risks, our Playbook Pro Method breaks down your investments into ‘Offense,’ ‘Defense,’ and ‘Special Teams.’ This will help you determine how much of your investments you want in the market, how much of your income you want to protect, and how much of your income will be or you want to be income tax-free. There are strategies to get more retirement income not subject to the stock and bond market volatility, interest rate movements, inflation, and health issues.
Contact me to start your planning. Whether you are saving and climbing up the mountain, approaching the top of the mountain and trying to determine what your retirement income will be, or descending the mountain for a planned long retirement, we can help you. We strive to provide you the confidence and clarity for your overall financial and retirement income plan.