Planning for retirement is like building a house.

Can you imagine trying to build a house without a blueprint? That might have worked for Laura Ingalls in her simple little house on the prairie, but that’s not a house most of us would want to live in, and it certainly isn’t a dream home.

No, if we’re going to build a home today, the architect needs to know how you want it to look and function.

And we need to know how much it will cost. Can we afford that? If not, what can we change now, before we commit our resources to the plan?

Well planning a retirement works the same way. You want your retirement to be the best it can be, and you want to make sure you can afford it, before you commit your resources.

Over the years I’ve learned that more often than not its the fear of spending too much in retirement that leads to less than optimal financial decisions which lead to a less than optimal retirement. And that’s because we know that once we retire, returning to work is no longer an option, and from that point on our financial decisions need to right.

And I can tell you that without a plan that incorporates reasonable assumptions about inflation, rates of return, taxes, and expenses; without a plan that shows us the best time start taking Social Security and the amount of portfolio risk we actually need, as opposed to the amount we are willing to take; without that plan, we cannot know the extent to which we can afford, or not afford, the retirement we want to live.

So, are you planning to spend too much or too little? If you’re spending too much, you risk running out of money unless you change something. The sooner you find out, the more attractive your alternatives will be.

But, what if the plan reveals you have more resources than you need?

Wouldn’t it be fun … to make sizable gifts to the people you love the most, while you’re still alive to see the smiles on their faces; or to see your excess money hard at work for your favorite cause?

Of course you can’t know how much to give if you don’t know how much extra you have. But we can tell you that.

So, call us to schedule your no-cost, no-obligation, initial meeting.  And let us show you how we can help you create an efficient and feasible path to the best retirement possible, such that the fear of spending too much, or the missed opportunities of spending too little …. dissappear.