Envision your retirement
When planning a road trip, you first choose a destination. Otherwise, it would be impossible to consult a map and decide upon a route to take you there!
Before we can make a plan for your retirement, you need to ask yourself some important questions about your goals for the future.
Where do you expect to live?
How long do you think you will live? Will your income last that long?
What types of activities do you want to pursue?
Do you hope, or expect, to work part-time in retirement?
How much do you expect to spend on healthcare?
How will inflation impact your budget in the future?
Who will care for you, in the event of a long-term illness or disability?
How will you cover the cost of long-term nursing care?
What will happen to your spouse, if you pass away first?
Do you hope to leave a legacy to children, grandchildren, or a favorite charity?
These are just some of the questions that you should ask now as you retire, and revisit every few years during your retirement. We can help you answer these questions, and make adjustments to your income plan so that your priorities and needs can be covered.
Leaving a Legacy
After a lifetime of hard work and investing, you’re hopefully enjoying a comfortable lifestyle in retirement. But for many people, the ultimate reward comes not from reaching their personal goals but lies in their ability to leave a legacy. Whether you want to ensure that your spouse or children are comfortable after you pass on, or you want to gift a charitable organization with a large sum of cash, we have the tools to show you how to accomplish your goals.
Leaving a legacy is no simple matter. Contrary to common belief, you can’t just specify a sum and a recipient in your will. There are various tax consequences to consider, and you probably hope to avoid probate court so that your beneficiaries are not subject to that arduous process. We can help you analyze the potential tax situation of your beneficiaries, and establish the right type of trust or other legal documents to help you accomplish your goals.
Portfolio Risk Management
One of the fundamental truths of investing is that more risk often translates into the potential for greater growth, while safer investments usually grow more slowly. Most investors must continually analyze their desire for growth versus their need for security, and make the necessary adjustments to their portfolios.
Early in your career, you knew that you had plenty of time to make up for any losses in your portfolio. You also created ambitious goals for yourself, and your investment strategy probably reflected those priorities. As you approach retirement, however, you might realize that you now have less room for error. You want to protect your capital and set up a stable stream of income for retirement.
We can help you identify your particular tolerance for risk, and make the necessary changes in your portfolio to reach your goals. We will meet regularly to re-evaluate your risk tolerance and work to ensure that your portfolio consistently matches with your risk tolerance and expectations.
Sustained Income Streams
When your parents and grandparents reached the ends of their careers, they likely drew upon a company pension and Social Security as they lived another decade or so. Today, retirement looks much different for your generation. Between improved healthcare and increased longevity, you might be looking at a retirement that lasts twenty or thirty years – perhaps even longer!
As you plan for a long retirement, it’s important to consider the effect of inflation. While we seldom notice a small rise in prices from one year to the next, over two decades inflation could cut your spending power in half. And when you consider the fact that the cost of healthcare is currently outpacing the inflation rate, it’s easy to see that your budget today will not cover living expenses in your later retirement years.
Social Security is only meant to serve as a supplement to other income, and in some years your benefits might not receive a cost of living adjustment. That’s why it’s important to establish a sustained stream of income in retirement. We can show you various methods of accomplishing this goal, depending upon your particular income needs.
Extended Care
Due to improved healthcare, we can all expect to live longer lives than the generation before us. That is good news, but it also means more opportunity to develop a serious, debilitating illness or disability. In many cases, seniors need long-term nursing care. Contrary to what you might believe, Medicare does not cover most of the cost of long-term care. And to qualify for Medicaid, you must meet strict income requirements.
That means the burden of paying for long-term care will fall upon you. Even if you expect to receive care from a family member, you should consider the cost to their career and personal life. In most cases, you will need a considerable amount of money to cover any nursing services. Alternatively, a long-term care insurance program can kick in to cover this expense, but only if you had the forethought to enroll in a plan ahead of time.