Jim and Jan's goal was to set a realistic retirement date.
The Problem/Challenge
Jim and Jane are finally empty nesters. Their last daughter of 3 just went off to college and they are enjoying a quiet house after 28 years of High School excitement and extracurriculars. With the extra free time Jim and Jane are starting to think about retirement more. It used to be some far-off daydream they’d have in between running kids to soccer practice and theatre classes, but now that it’s looming on the horizon they wondered when and how they could make it happen. Could they retire by 62? Would they have to work longer? What about those dream trips to Europe they just kept putting off or the lake house they had their eye on? How about their mortgage, should they pay it off? These were all questions running through their heads when Jim and Jane first sat down with us.
The Solution/Approach
We began the Financial Planning Process by taking inventory of the obvious, where Jim and Jane were at financially and what they expected in the near future. Next, we asked them about how they envisioned retirement, where they wanted to go, and what they expected to do with their new found free time! Since Jim and Jane were still working, there were some adjustments they could make to their current trajectory that would set them up for a better transition into retirement. After analyzing their current Cash Flow we found some opportunities to take advantage of a strategy called a Roth Conversion in the early years of their retirement. This helped Jim and Jane to diversify their retirement savings from a tax perspective. We also looked at the impact of being a bit more aggressive with their investments in and through retirement. Using this Cash Flow model we projected forward to see what their retirement might look like, taking into account social security and retirement savings. This allowed Jim and Jane to see that they really could take those extra dream vacations to Europe and more importantly that they could retire by age 65 and 62.
The Results
This understanding of where they were and what they had to accomplish in the coming years to achieve their goal of retiring at 65 & 62 allowed Jim and Jane to breathe a sigh of relief. They knew they had a plan and that if circumstances changed (as life often does) they had a professional (or knowledgeable professional etc) in their corner to help them navigate those changes and adjust their plan. Creating their custom financial plan helped show Jim and Jane how they can have freedom to enjoy their working years with less stress and confidently step into the retirement they worked so hard for!
