Walk Into Retirement with Confidence Because of Great Planning

There’s no magic number or set retirement age that signals when you can retire. The simplest answer is that you can retire when you’re able to quit working for wages and still have enough money to cover your expenses comfortably. A financial advisor can help you project a retirement age and time that is most likely to work best for you.

It depends. You may have read that it will take $1-2 million dollars to retire comfortably, but your reality may be different. It’s important to consider how much money you will be spending, what kind of lifestyle you want to maintain, and your fixed expenses.

You can begin drawing your Social Security benefits as early as age 62, but your monthly payment will be significantly and permanently lower than it would be if you were to wait longer. If you were born from 1943 to 1954, the full retirement age to get your full benefits is 66; and if you delay your claim, you can get up to 8% additionally each year until you reach age 70. If you plan to continue working full time, keep in mind that there is a benefits penalty for earning more than a set limit. Talk with a financial advisor to help you strategize when it would be most beneficial to claim your Social Security benefits.

The best way to avoid running out of money in retirement is to develop a comprehensive retirement plan with a financial advisor and stick to it. With sufficient savings, income streams, and the right budget, you can feel confident that you will be unlikely to run out of money in retirement.

If you are behind on saving for retirement, the sooner you put a plan in place to catch up, the better. A financial advisor can help you develop strategies to help cut your expenses and tighten your budget. Implementing these strategies can help to increase your income so you can put more money aside, pay off your mortgage early, push back retirement by a few years, and create streams of retirement income.

The taxes you pay in retirement will depend on the strategies you used to accumulate your retirement savings and retirement income. A financial advisor and accountant can help you estimate what your tax burden is likely to be during retirement and what you can do to ensure you are not paying more than your fair share.

The biggest mistake people make when it comes to retirement planning is waiting to start saving. The sooner you start, the more investing and compounding interest will help you grow your nest egg. Another major mistake people often make is underestimating their expenses during retirement. Many people assume that they will slow down more than they actually do and they tend to expect medical expenses to be lower than what they end up being—not having a plan that takes the appropriate challenges and opportunities into account will also set you behind in reaching your goals.

A good financial advisor will make recommendations based on understanding your specific needs, expected time horizon, goals, and investment risk tolerance. With this information, your advisor will help you develop a comprehensive retirement plan and tax-savvy investment strategies. They will help you determine how much retirement income you can reasonably expect to have, make informed decisions about when to take Social Security benefits, distributions, and withdrawals, how to manage debt, medical expenses, insurance, and estate planning, and much more.