People come to us for financial planning at different stages of life. Most of our clients are closing in on retirement or they’re in retirement, but that can be a 10- to 15-year window of when people generally become a client of our firm. I’ve gotten a bird’s-eye view into what works well and what doesn’t.

We normally recommend that people begin working on their financial plans for retirement when they are five years out from retirement. It makes sense to begin making the transition from an accumulation stage to an income and distribution stage five years out. Once we are closer to potentially using our funds, it makes sense to dial down our risk on some of our funds in order to figure out a way to increase our probability of being able to successfully take income out of our accounts. For that reason we are downside focused first because most of our clients are transitioning into retirement.

We also want to begin figuring out how much income you may be able to sustainably draw from your retirement accounts and make them last as long as possible. This may include tax planning strategies like converting tax-deferred 401k accounts to tax-free accounts and the implications around this. Healthcare planning and taking a crash course on Medicare is often helpful, as is figuring out your best Social Security claiming strategy.

We can do all this quickly, but when there is a window of time to work through these things, it allows for you to not feel like you have an exhausting summer of activities and you have time to rest in between mental exercises. It’s not easy planning the next 25 to 40 years of your life, and it’s best done methodically. If you’re like most of our clients, it took you 30 to 40 years to accumulate the funds you have. It definitely merits taking a few hours off work to figure how to make them last for the next 30 years.

Whenever you have questions about your financial plan, please reach out at 864.641.7955. Get David's book How To Excel in Retirement.

Investment advisory services offered through CreativeOne Wealth, LLC. Clients Excel, LLC and CreativeOne Wealth are not affiliated companies. Licensed Insurance Professionals. Investing involves risk, including potential loss of principal. Any references to protection or lifetime income generally refer to fixed insurance products, never securities or investments. Insurance guarantees are backed by the financial strength and claims paying abilities of the insuring carrier. Annuity withdrawals are subject to ordinary income taxes and potentially a 10% IRS penalty before age 59-1/2. Roth distributions are tax free after age 59-1/2 and the account has been open for at least 5 years. This video is intended for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be used as the sole basis for financial decisions, nor should it be construed as advice designed to meet particular needs of an individual’s situation. Clients Excel is not permitted to offer and no statement made during this show shall constitute tax or legal advice. Our firm is not affiliated with or endorsed by any governmental agency. The information and opinions contained herein provided by third parties have been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but accuracy and completeness cannot be guaranteed by Clients Excel. The use of logos and/or trademarks of hosting sites are the property of their respective owners and are not an endorsement by those owners of our firm or our program.