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Do you have any kind of activity that you you just really enjoy that you are passionate about? That is what is going to keep you motivated in retirement. Yes, the money is going to be important. We’re going to need to plan for that, too. But you should be planning what your actual time looks like. Hey, Peter. Good to see you. Welcome back, everyone. Anybody who knows me knows I love a good checklist. So today we have a retirement readiness checklist, steps to prepare for the next chapter. And you need to start planning
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now for the lifestyle you want and what you will need to financially get there. And step number one, Peter, you say define your retirement. And we are not talking about your budget here. We’re talking about a bucket list. Explain. >> I’m looking forward to retirement. I’m going to have all the free time. I can do whatever I want. Yes. But what is that? What are you going to do with all of that extra time? And a lot of people actually haven’t thought this through to a great extent or even at all. And then
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they get to retirement, they’re a couple months in, they’ve been twiddling their thumbs all day when they would have otherwise been at work. And they have not found any kind of drive or motivation or purpose. It’s not what we’re designed for. We’re not designed to sit around idally and rust. And so I’m talking about like contentment here. What is going to keep you engaged the day, the week, the month, the decade after you retire? Let’s figure that out. And what do you plan to do to fill up
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the rest of the time? Are we traveling? Are we vacationing? Are you good in the garden? Do you have any kind of activity that you you just really enjoy that you are passionate about? That is what is going to keep you motivated in retirement. Yes, the money is going to be important. We’re going to need to plan for that, too. But you should be planning what your actual time looks like. And if you got any of those bucket list kind of trips, don’t put them off forever and ever because uh someday
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should start today. We’re not promised necessarily tomorrow. We should be doing some things, >> right? And number two, you suggest taking stock of your assets. Now, this is again beyond your bank account and retirement assets. Do you suggest writing down your passions and unique assets and then maybe think about how they could generate part-time income? >> Yeah, there’s a lot of things that people are pretty good at that again can fill that time, can give us freedom and passion and purpose, the things that
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we’re looking for, but also might be able to give us profit. There are a lot of people who have talents that they could turn into not only uh something to fill their time, but something that they could actually create a little bit of income from. And so, don’t overlook those things. If you really enjoy working out, could you be an instructor at the local gym? Could you uh organize some group to uh do do CrossFit together in your driveway or run around the greenways? Uh you know, could you do
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some things? Are you a gardener? Could you turn that into maybe selling vegetables down at the farmers market? I there’s any number of things. If you are a traveler, have you ever considered writing a travel blog or about your experiences? So, these are the kind of things that can pe keep keep people mentally engaged. Um and and again, I think we are designed innately to have some kind of driving motivation and purpose. And and that’s what these first two things are really about is try to
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try to drill down on what’s yours so that you don’t end up rusting or feeling depressed in retirement that you don’t have anything to do >> which is often overlooked when people talk about retiring. I I know that you know that Peter, but that’s one of the reasons why those are number one and two on our list today. Step number three, evaluate your health. Health care is often one of your biggest expenses in retirement. So start now to either stay or get healthy. Yeah, health is wealth
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and that cannot be understated. Um there there is an immense life quality cost to not being healthy, but there is an immense financial cost to not being as as healthy as we can be. And so starting some type of exercise routine, getting regular checkups from your doctors, following their advice on what they’re suggesting you should be doing to improve things. um some type of like yoga class or light calisthetics, some type of balance um training. You don’t have to be He-Man or or or Shira or
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anything like that to where you’re lifting huge heavy weights, but being able to uh stay active can also lead to a better quality of life. There was a commercial a while ago with an older gentleman and he he was lifting up a kettle bell and it was just showing him over and over lifting this kettle bell and people would look at him strange and and and throughout the commercial it just showed him repeating this process in different places and then the end of the commercial was him picking up his
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granddaughter at Christmas and lifting her up to the top of the Christmas tree, right? Uh to put the star on. There are just things that we want to be able to maintain our ability to do as far as activity-wise and staying in shape and staying healthy and and in the knowledge and control of our health is vitally important. Not to mention the financial implications of healthcare and retirement. >> Create those habits now. >> Yep. >> All right. Next up, let’s talk finances now, Peter. Huh? Create a retirement
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budget. What does this mean, though? Well, we need to have an understanding of what life costs us. And a lot of my clients, whether you want to classify it as lucky or hardworking or blessed, what have you, they have been comfortable enough to earn a pretty comfortable amount of income adequate to meet their expenses and then some. And so, they have not been as diligent at at paying attention to the budget. They have not had to clip every coupon and pinch every penny and stretch every dollar. It’s a
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great place to be. However, for that same description of individual, generally the lifestyle that we are accustomed to is that much more expensive and the change once we retire is that much more significant. So, we need to go back to some basics here. And I hear from a lot of these people, oh well, we used to budget, but now we’ve come so far, we don’t really have to anymore. Fantastic. Again, a wonderful statement to be able to make, but let’s circle back to those basics and figure
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out how much life costs you. Because retirement is not about how much you have in your retirement accounts. It’s about how much you want to spend each month. And if you don’t know what that number is, I can’t tell you how much you need in those retirement accounts. Uh, I could be the best marksman in the world, but I got to aim for the right target to accomplish the mission. And I’ve got people, families that come in and say they spend next to nothing. And I’ve got people who come in and say they spend a
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pretty healthy amount. Either one is fine, but you should know what your situation is. So, I encourage people to pull out the last six to 12 months worth of bank statements and do what I call the look back budget. Let’s just look not at every place you spent every dollar, but how much went out of the root account over the last 6 to 12 months each month, and let’s get a running total. Let’s get an average and figure out what kind of number we need to be aiming for so you can keep up the
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lifestyle that you’re comfortable and accustomed to once you retire because >> that that the lifestyle doesn’t go away, the income does. >> Right. Exactly. And then last, this one is important. Perhaps one of the most important decisions you will make in retirement. Determine when to claim social security. >> Yeah, it’s a big one. I mean, the the decision on social security is more than a lifetime decision. It’s not just a lifetime decision. It is more than a lifetime decision because it’s got
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survivorship implications. It’s got legacy implications. your social security is not going to pass on. But how much you have been able to uh to to cover your living expenses with social security means that those assets were not liquidated and might be preserved to pass on to your spouse or your next generation. And the longer you wait on social security, I think everybody knows this, the more that you get from it. So you’ve got a full retirement age. If you take it early, that’s reduced pretty
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significantly. uh you can come down to about 70% of of the benefit that you’re entitled to taking it as early as 62. And every year you wait after full retirement age, it is an 8% increase on that amount. And so you really need to consider carefully, well, when is this going to help me in an optimal way within my plan cover as much of the expenses as possible and how do I coordinate this benefit with my spouse? you have spent 30 or 35 years earning your social security, earning as much as you are entitled to, it’s absolutely
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worth 30 minutes to an hour to to make sure you’re making a good decision on that. And so, financially speaking, this is one of the root foundational issues that we help almost everybody uh uh with that comes into the office. And if it’s nothing more than this, it’s worth the time because a different social security claiming can be several hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of retirement. That’s money that either comes from social security you have to pull from your personal investments or
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just isn’t there at all. And so I know which one of the three I would prefer and most of the people that I talked to would prefer as well. So, we’ll help you with your Social Security decision, claiming, timing, organizing the benefits, which, by the way, the folks down down at the Social Security Administration office don’t do. They will take your order. They’ll give you some information on the day that you show up. They don’t know the rest of your financial situation. They don’t
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take on the liability of making advice or guidance or recommendations on if it is the best day. They just file your benefits on the day that you show up, not tell you if it’s the best day to claim. So get get some education on this one and think about the rest of the what what life looks like I think are covered in these five tips. >> Exactly. Yes. No five I think almost easily tackleable checklists. You know this is always nice when you get to cross it off the list. >> The old saying is easier said than done.
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Some of these that too especially that need any help with it. Give us a call. We we’d love to help you through all. >> How do we get you Peter? How do we reach you? >> Yep. 919-30058869193005886. You can also text your name to that number 919-3005886 or online rashplanning.com. We’d love to hear from you, help in any way we can. >> Great, Peter. Thank you for your time today. >> Thanks Aaron. >> Hey folks, Peter Rashan here with Rashan Planning. So glad that you are enjoying
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the podcast, Planning Matters Radio. You know, one of the tools that we’ve put out there that people really seem to appreciate and really are are finding of value is at 919.com. It is your retirement tax bill calculator. If you’ve got any kind of retirement account, your tax deferred 401k or IRA, this is the website. This is the resource where you can go. You can plug in your own numbers, your information. You can slide the the the tool calculator up and down for your tax rate or your amount of savings and see
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what your tax bill is likely to be if you default and defer to the IRS’s plan versus what you could potentially bring that tax bill down to. A lot of times it is a very significant savings. So, if you have not yet, go to the website 919retired.com. Run your numbers on the retirement tax bill calculator. >> This has been planning matters radio. >> The content of this radio show is provided forformational purposes only and is not a solicitation or recommendation of any investment strategy. You are encouraged to seek
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investment, tax, or legal advice from an independent professional adviser. Any investments and/or investment strategies mentioned involve risk, including the possible loss of principle. Advisory services offered through Brooks Zone Capital Management, a registered investment adviser. Fiduciary duty extends solely to investment advisory advice and does not extend to other activities such as insurance or broker dealer services. Advisory clients are charged a quarterly fee for assets under management, while insurance products pay
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a commission, which may result in a conflict of interest regarding compensation.
