Whether you’re going on vacation, getting married, sending your kids to college, building a new home, or moving to the Caribbean islands, you need a plan. Few people have a financial plan, and that’s why many people struggle to have enough money to live on during retirement.
Have a plan. Even a bad plan is better than no plan. The ideal situation is for you to sit down with a financial planner and figure out the best way to fund your retirement years. The earlier you do this, the better.
Financial advisors can help you reduce your tax burden, help you figure out the right mix of investments to invest in, and advise you on the timing of your financial decisions. For example, people sometimes talk about wanting to retire at age 61, not realizing that the earliest age they can begin drawing Social Security is 62.
Or people will say they want to retire at age 64, not realizing that Medicare doesn’t start until age 65.
Couples sometimes fail to look at their collective situations. For example, a husband might say he wants to retire at 65, but his wife is three years younger than him. So once he retires, is he going to sit there watching TV all day, impatiently waiting for her to return home every weekday evening for three years? It’s best to make these types of decisions as a couple and to consider how every scenario will affect the other spouse.
Financial advisors can help you figure out situations you might not have thought of. It’s what we do every day. No one expects you to know all the ins and outs of the accumulation and distribution phases of retirement, tax laws, or the pros and cons of all different types of investments. We worry about that so you don’t have to.
Why not just make an appointment with a financial advisor or two, and see what they have to say? You don’t have to take their advice, but they might just provide you with an extremely helpful piece of advice that could save you a lot of money and help you approach retirement with a lot of confidence and peace of mind.