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Many folks facing retirement don\u2019t start to think about things they\u00a0want until they are retired. They just keep working and going about their daily lives and say to themselves, \u201cI\u2019ll get around to it someday when I retire\u201d.Well, waiting until you retire may be too late! We often explain to clients that you need to start forming a plan for retirement somewhere between 1-5 years before you retire. It\u2019s not just a question of money, savings, and cash flow in retirement. It\u2019s\u00a0also about what you expect your retirement life to look like after you don\u2019t have to go to work anymore as part of the daily rat race.\u00a0Where do you want to live? Do you still want to drive? Where\u2019s the local library? How close are the local grocery stores? Who will\u00a0be my doctor, and will they accept my medical insurance? The bottom line for these decisions\u2026. what\u2019s important to you?<\/p>\n
Cliff and Abby, who we advised for several years while leading up\u00a0to retirement, suddenly decided to move to the beach! They had vacationed at the beach off and on for several years, staying a week\u00a0or two at a time. They were thinking once we move there the kids and grandkids will visit more often and we will love living there.\u00a0Well, after selling their home and moving out of state, they came to discover that full-time beach living was not what they thought it\u00a0would be. There was constant maintenance on the small house they had bought due to the salty sea moisture that seemed to coat and\u00a0corrode everything. The couple was working far harder in their retirement than they had planned. Also, the kids and grandkids\u00a0could come for a visit but since they now lived further away, the kids could only visit during the school holidays. So now they saw\u00a0them much less than when they lived close at their old house. A few years later they sold the beach house and moved back closer to\u00a0the family. The beach house was a fun idea but in reality, it turned out not to be the right choice for their retirement for what was\u00a0important to them.<\/p>\n
A positive side effect of moving twice in a short period of time was\u00a0that they were able to downsize and get rid of many items they hadn\u2019t used in years.<\/p>\n
Another thought is that if you wait until full retirement to start\u00a0planning, there may be options that are available now that won\u2019t\u00a0be in the future. Maybe there is a certain area you want to move\u00a0to for retirement. What if it\u2019s sold out? That\u2019s no longer an option.<\/p>\n
If you still have all your retirement money in a 401(k), 403(b),\u00a0money market, or IRA, what happens if the stock market has a\u00a0sudden drop like in 2001 or 2008? All of these types of fund vehicles are tied to the performance of the stock market. If there is\u00a0a sudden large drop right before you retire, now you\u2019ll have to\u00a0work more years to recoup what you lost! You need to start\u00a0moving your retirement funds into retirement vehicles that won\u2019t\u00a0leave you exposed to the whims of the market. The risks that can\u00a0affect the stock market are many and include political risk,\u00a0international risk, systematic risk, or unsystematic risk. These are\u00a0just a handful of reasons the stock market can have a sudden shift,\u00a0causing you to lose valuable retirement funds.<\/p>\n
Where to go? What to do? You can avoid these\u00a0issues by preparing now and start making plans\u00a0and corrections to avoid these pitfalls! Call us!\u00a0We can help!<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"