When planning for retirement, you have a lot of questions pop up. However, in our recent podcast, we had the opportunity to go through the most common questions about retirement that we receive, including:

1. What are my goals?
2. Do I need professional help?
3. How do I sit down and prepare for retirement?

If you’re just trying to figure out your retirement, this is one podcast that you’ll want to listen to (here), or you can read the summary below, too.

1. What Are My Goals?

Everyone has their own unique goals. All too often, people focus on reaching retirement, yet they don’t know what they want to get out of retirement. A few questions to ask yourself are:

• What age do you want to retire?
• Is it possible to retire at this age?

You don’t need to get bogged down by the details, but it’s important to begin wondering what you’ll do when you retire. A few things that are fun to think about here are:

• Do you want to travel? If so, where do you want to travel? Plan these goals out for yourself.
• Do you want to spend time with the kids and grandkids?
• Do you want to pursue a new hobby?

If you begin thinking about these goals early, you can quickly see the bigger picture of retirement and what it will mean for you. 

Also, one question that people often overlook is: how do I want to retire?

Some people jump into full retirement immediately, but others want to stay busy and active, so they’ll volunteer or find a part-time job. Many retirees have the opportunity to consult, and this allows a retiree to set their own hours and decide on who they want to work with.

You really need to think about what you want retirement to look like for you and your family.

• One client of ours has decided that they want to move from North Carolina to California to spend time with their grandkids. 
• Another client is consulting in another state to spend time with their kids. 
• And another client’s goal was to buy an RV and travel the United States.

Everyone has their own goals for retirement, and you need to identify your own goals so that you have a full understanding of why you’re focusing on retirement planning in the first place.

2. Do I Need Professional Help?

Once you’ve established your goals, it’s time to consider if you need professional help to meet your retirement goals. A lot of clients come to us with large retirement accounts and have been diligent savers their entire lives.

These individuals funnel money into a 401(k) or IRA, and as they get closer to retirement, they want to know how to use this nest egg in the most strategic way possible.

It’s easy to save for retirement, but it’s hard to keep enough money in your account if you’re not diligent.

However, many others just need a second opinion to look over their plan because they’ve done everything:

• Planned
• Invested
• Learned about financial markets

Some people love finances and spend a lot of time each month following the markets and really come to us for an overview.

With that said, most people come to us with the following:

• CPAs who have been doing their taxes
• In need of an estate plan
• Questions on when to take Social Security
• Medicare and what plans to take
• Questions about long-term care or downsizing a home

The person above is who we work with most. These individuals are the CEOs of their plans, but they use us as a CFO to take care of all the points above. We worry about the fine details while the person enjoys their life.

We work with a variety of specialists because there’s no way that we can handle everything in retirement on our own.

If you think you need a second set of eyes or want to work with an advisor, be sure to sit down with multiple advisors to find one that you trust. We may or may not be a good fit for you, so be sure to take the time to find the right team for you. 

3. How Do I Actually Sit Down and Prepare for Retirement?

First, determine if you need an advisor or not. If you need professional guidance for your retirement plan, then you need to go through the following steps:

• Build out a retirement plan
• Learn when you want to retire
• Determine your retirement goals

We like to pick a starting point to learn where our clients are when they walk through our door. Perhaps you want to retire at 65, have $1 million in savings and have a second home. Your advisor needs to know all these details.

An advisor will need to learn about your potential income buckets, such as:

• Social Security
• Pension
• Rental income
• Annuities 

Understanding your income sources in retirement will help us understand if you have enough money to reach your retirement goals or not.

Saving is huge and a major part of retirement, but you also need to have a spending plan. Without a spending plan, it’s easy to deplete your retirement savings. In our business, we will run multiple scenarios for your retirement so that we can determine:

• How to reach your goals
• How much to save for retirement
• Spending
• So much more

There are just so many questions about retirement that people need to ask. We would hate for you to secure your retirement and then realize you don’t have the cash to travel or spend time with your grandchildren.

This is where working with a financial advisor comes in handy.

When you call us for a consultation, we’ll walk you through all these steps and scenarios to ensure that you know the complete picture of your retirement. However, if you also want a second pair of eyes to review your plan, we’re more than happy to assist you in this way, too.

Click here to schedule a call with us today if 1you have questions about your retirement planning.