With 10 years of experience in wealth management and retirement planning under my belt, there’s one question I’ve grown accustomed to every client and prospective client asking:
“What do I need to know to prepare for retirement?”
This may seem like a straightforward question, however, there’s isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer. Fortunately, I can provide a checklist and step by step guide to Retirement Readiness with the help of a fun gumbo analogy!
Every Gumbo’s Different, But They’re All Still Gumbo
No matter who you ask, Louisiana gumbo is gumbo, but depending on where you are in Louisiana there may be some varying degrees of ingredients and steps to get to their version of gumbo. If you’ve ever made gumbo, you know that you must start a roux, no matter the locale.
It’s no different in retirement preparation. Your retirement roux is made up of 401(k)s, 403(b)s, teacher pension plans, stock options, Social Security, bank savings, etc. Your roux may slightly differ from another person’s roux, but that’s okay!
Let’s Start Cooking
Step 1: Gather all of our financial ingredients.
Step 2: Next, measure out with your financial advisor, hopefully a CFP® professional, how much from each financial ingredient is going into your roux of income!
Step 3: We now have the financial roux heating on medium low, it’s time to add our retirement goals, such as:
- Travel (onion)
- Hobbies (celery and parsley)
- Downsizing our home (bell pepper)
- Purchasing vehicles or paying them off (okra)
Step 4: With our financial Planning gumbo moving in the right direction, it’s time to add the meaty items:
- Taxation strategy planning (sausage)
- RMD planning (crab)
- Medicare planning (shrimp)
- Estate planning (oyster)
Each one of these financial planning proteins can be very important and as you know, they can have different (IRS) rules for cooking.
Step 5: Before we add each to the pot, we want to make sure that we are cooking (reviewing) them to their particular completeness. If the proteins are done right, they should work together in your financial plan gumbo and create a delicious retirement.
Recapping Our Steps to a Delicious Retirement:
- Gather all of your financial information, account types, retirement statements, health benefit options, tax returns and investment accounts.
- Review your financial goals for retirement and think about what you would like to do in your retirement years and how your assets will fund these goals.
- Consider building a financial plan with a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERTM professional. We think it’s important to have a fiduciary who has your best interest in mind when creating a strategy for your success.
- Put your financial plan into action when it’s finally time to leave that 9 to 5.
Most importantly if the financial plan is done, right, you should be able to retire and stay retired! [Schedule a conversation] to get your recipe for a delicious retirement cooking!
