Retirement Plans

Dreams, calculations, and codes

Retirement planning really is planning a meaningful lifestyle for as long as you can maintain your health.  Let’s sit down and chat.

Dreams

Your hopes, dreams and concerns should be at the beginning of any plans for old age—which may or may not involve retirementHow do you see yourself at age 70 or 80 we ask?  Do you want to be the “wise old hand” at work part time?  Do you want a new business or new roles in charity? Do you want world travel or just relaxation with your dog beside you?  Your ideal life is the plan.

Calculations

Product salespeople might simply try to sell you mutual funds or insurance as products somehow useful to retirement and a stock jockey might say she has a system to buy better stocks.  By contrast, a financial planner puts all products into context the way the doctor considers how hypertension pills relates to other pills and what side effects they cause.  A CFP retirement planner genuinely calculates your expected needs in retirement and then shows how you do or do not have sufficient funds to meet those needs.  This is part of an overall plan that considers insurance spending, debt repayment, rates of return on investment, education, etc., according to your values.  This portfolio should be readjusted regularly as your investments fluctuate or circumstances change.

Codes

Retirement plans then relate to fussy Internal Revenue Codes like 401(k) and 403(b), to SEPs, SIMPLEs, Defined Benefit Plans, Roths and plain old IRAs.  As a business owner, we can help you calculate which plan is most appropriate to your business and personal needs and show you how much funding is possible.  As an employee or self-employed individual, we can calculate maximum savings limits or show taxes on withdrawals.  What special circumstances allow additional withdrawals without penalties in given years?  How many required minimum distributions are needed?  How do CRTs and charitable contributions fit into the picture?  As an expert on tax law and investments, I can help you understand what possibilities could help you achieve your dreams.

“Do anything, but let it produce joy.” — Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass