Retirement Planning

Links to

Basic Preparation for Retirement Resources (below):

Wharton Professor's Study on guaranteeing lifetime income:

INTRODUCTION: 

Most people work over 90,000 hours in their working career, but spend less than 9 hours preparing for what may be 30 or more years of retirement.

Financial Planning should not mean a comparison of rates of return. If you are truly thinking about creating a retirement plan, rather than just "retiring", and you would like to have a person with quite a bit of experience, be your partner, please be prepared to do some work. The first task would be to familiarize yourself with the risks and rewards of retiring. You may get a broader picture from  the following white paper on retirement. You can download/read it at the following link:

Basic Preparation for Retirement

Understanding, and Answering, the Risks of Retirement      OR,  Click here to have Sherpa send you a hardcopy of this white paper. We recommend reading this before meeting with a financial planner.

If you want to work with a planner, please let your planner help you imagine the things you want to do: travelling, community, volunteering, developing fitness, charitable work/contributing, writing a book, etc. Be willing to address difficult issues such as declining health, or loss of a spouse. Make sure you address:

• When to best take Social Security and how to strategize spousal benefits.
• Taking a monthly pension vs a lump sum, if available.
• A drop in income at the death of a spouse.
• The effect of inflation on long-term income needs.
• Which assets to use first for income, and why?
• How to minimize your income, and your tax bracket, each year. These can be complex issues, and may require extensive "what-if" scenarios".
• How you wish to value your family and each of your heirs, as you pass on your legacy - wealth transfer and estate tax planning.

Regardless of your ability to retire, you need to anticipate what a radical change in life's activities may mean to your enjoyment, your sense of purpose, your family relationships, as well as your finances. The best way to do this is to take some (substantial, if possible) time off and pretend you're retired in the manner you would like to be.

There are some excellent books on retirement, including one we heartily recommend for anyone thinking ahead, by a favorite author of ours, Mitch Anthony, called "The New Retirementality". Click on the book title to preview it's contents at Amazon.

Find a person with whom you are comfortable to help you with your planning. Sherpa's first meeting is always complimentary, to allow you to get the sense of who you would like to work with. If you do choose one of us to help you with your retirement plan, we will give you some real homework, so don't be surprised. You need to be fully "in", to create a great plan!

Wharton Professor takes Pulse of Economists regarding Pensionizing your Assets in Retirement

Please read what Professor David Babbel has to say, especially page 6 on which he reveals powerful agreement about the value of annuitizing assets as a lifetime income stream. As practitioners, (not economists), we who make plans for clients will utilize many creative versions of this basic concept. Please read, if you're going to retire, the David Babbel "Investing your Lump Sum at Retirement"