Good evening everybody. Uh thanks so much for joining us today. Uh we’re presenting the home stretch. Seven things you need to do in the decade before you retire. Uh my name is Christian Chaplua. I’m a financial consultant here at Alliance Retirement Investment Services. So we work with uh clients members throughout the United States. Uh I work primarily with folks on the West Coast. Uh so welcome if you’re joining us from California, Hawaii, um Washington State, other parts of the country. I’m going be talking about the home stretch today about saving for retirement some ideas around um you know saving for this great milestone and uh it’s kind of a marathon for many of us where we’re saving diligently and contributing to our retirement accounts and uh there’s just you know a nice checklist here to uh for you to think about in terms of the decade before you retire and um how to how to maximize your your savings, how to think about your road map to retirement and uh some other ideas. So hopefully you enjoy it.
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Uh we’ve got a couple good webinars coming up as well. Uh so we’re going back to our regularly scheduled time 2 pm uh on August the 13th. We’re going to be discussing Roth IRA conversions. Uh so you’ve thought about a conversion want to know about uh you know how how to make that decision and all the variables to think about uh please do join us. So Thursday, August the 13th at 2 p.m. Pacific our regularly scheduled time. After that, we’ve got the tax planning changes scheduled for August the 20th. Again, 2 p.m. Pacific. Uh, so just thinking about tax planning, retirement planning, how it works together again to optimize your overall strategy and financial plan. Hopefully, you can join us there. And then uh just a quick slide on how we can potentially work together, how we can help you. So we offer uh financial planning both basic planning which is no charge advanced planning which we ask for a client relationship then there’s also estate planning available to you uh help you with your living trust your will medical directive uh as a client that’s offered to you complimentary no charge and then um of course we uh we offer investment management portfolios other product strategies income strategies whether dividends annuities market link CDs all the above. So, as you’re thinking about the presentation today and uh any areas that we can assist you with, uh give you a chance a little bit later on to uh sign up for a meeting, ask any questions or perhaps get your financial plan completed.
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Okay for many of us uh you know retirement it’s kind of like a a marathon uh a bit of a race and you get to the point in your career where uh you start to see the finish line. So today we’re going to go over the seven things that you need to do uh in that decade before you retire as you approach the the finish line. And my hope is uh that you’ll be able to identify some of the hurdles, some strategies for success uh so that you feel better prepared as you uh head towards the the home stretch and ultimate retirement. Here are the seven things we’ll discuss today. So number one, determine when the time is right. Number two, take aim at your retirement target. Uh three, maximize your nest egg. Number four, think about a portfolio checkup. create a social security strategy. Uh also, you know, think about an income stream in retirement. And then lastly, uh just looking beyond the money.
So, one of the first things you need to do when preparing for retirement is think about when the time is right. Uh we’ll look at a bit of history just to kind of get some perspective. Uh Ottovon Bismar, he was the chancellor of Germany in the late 1800s. He’s often credited with the idea uh the concept of creating uh of retirement. So to help combat pressure from opponents during a period of high inflation, high unemployment, Otto implemented what was called the old age and disability insurance law. This law provided state pension for anyone who reached the age of 70. Funny thing though is that not that many people actually took advantage of the program and the reason is because at the time uh average life expectancy was only 43 and a half years. So certainly had a big cushion in terms of uh payments and cash flows to retirees. Uh but here in the United States, social security um is a little bit different. you know it was in introduced in 1935 and initially defined 65 as the retirement age not 43. So just more you know more clos uh closely related to reality. Um you know today uh the age of retirement has remained largely unchanged. Uh but life expectancy has increased to almost 80 years. You know someone for someone born in 19 uh sorry 2026. So early on someone would have been lucky to reach uh retirement age. Today uh people will easily spend 20 years or more living uh in retirement. So uh just got to rightsize all of this um uh retirement planning. We think about what age you you’ll retire. Um the critical question you know for retirement uh it’s not that easy to answer. Uh so um there’s different research groups available employee benefit research institute. Um they asked workers over 25 to estimate when they’d retire and uh some of the results were pretty surprising. Uh over half of workers expected to retire at age 65 or later it turns up. Uh but the majority of retirees, 60% uh retire report retiring earlier than 65. So, we have a situation here where, you know, people think that they’re going to retire later, uh, but they’re retiring, um, earlier than 65, earlier than they thought they were going to. Uh, the median age of retirement is 62. Uh, so that’s kind of the middle number. Uh, 30 32% report retiring before they turn 60 actually. Uh, so there’s lots of reasons, you know, people retire early or differently than what they expect. Uh personal health issues is a big uh is a big factor there. Uh job loss, downsizing, involuntary uh work issues, that’s another reason. Um early retirement sometimes. Uh so in the end, you know, for most retirees, uh the reason for retirement is kind of beyond their control. And so that’s something just keep in mind as you plan for uh retirement later on.
It’s good to know that we might not retire exactly when we plan, but uh when question is when do people actually retire and this chart is based on Franklin Templeton retirement income strategies. Uh it was a survey done about uh four years ago. It shows the largest cohort of people ultimately retire between age 61 and 65. Uh so u as you think about the right time to retire for yourself for your family you know think use this information as a guidepost but uh don’t use it as kind of absolute numbers. Know that there’s variation in the numbers. Know that there’s variation in your forecast especially with uh time and uh the more time the more variation. So you may have to make some adjustments along the way. You know, life has a tendency to send some twists and turns our way. Uh but the you know these are some statistics on you know when people are retiring and again 44% retire kind of uh between the age of 61 and 65.
Let’s talk about couples for a second. So, one important factor to consider when it comes to deciding when to retire is whether you need to plan as a family, as a couple. Uh, so we’ll look at an example here. So, imagine um our happy couple married a few decades ago in 1984. The average man um first got married when they were 25. For women, it was 23. That resulted in marriage gap between the groom and the bride for about 2 years. Um while the average age between men and women today is um maybe a bit older, the age gap has remained uh you know roughly about the same. It’s about 2 years. Fast forward to the day um that the husband is maybe ready to retire at age 65 possibly. If his spouse is not covered by a workplace medical plan and is younger than 65, uh one thing to remember is that she won’t be eligible for Medicare. uh and the family will need to pay out of pocket for healthcare insurance. Um husband might be going on Medicare but two-year age gap uh the wife might be uh needing some supplementary health insurance until she reaches age 65 is able to go on health care also on Medicare also. So again moving uh moving ahead in time um when you know he reaches age 82 which is the average life expectancy for a 65 year old man um at that point husband possibly passes away his spouse will be living on her own. Uh so the average life expectancy for a woman uh age 80 is about um 9 years. Uh so women may live nine years or more on their own. um you know that’s almost a decade and so you know although these are just the averages it really depends on the person their health status kind of you know their longevity their family situation but these are all some just you know concepts to remember you know as we age as we hit these milestones and uh and and further into retirement into our 70s 80s and 90s
talk about some important milestones here so uh you want to be prepared for uh all these ages uh from starting ketchup contributions at age 50 to you know thinking about when you have required minimum distributions in your 70s um it’s you know a lot to kind of remember and a lot to do uh but it’s definitely possible you can manage this um we’ll talk more about some of these milestones throughout the presentation but I’ll quickly summarize so age 50 that’s when your catch-up contributions begin for your IRA and 401k age 55 5, you’re eligible for some early distributions from your current qualified employer plan. Uh you can make make uh health savings account catchup contributions. Age 60 is when uh widows are eligible for social security. Uh age 59 and a half is when your full retirement age for qualified plans occurs. You can withdraw penalty-free. Age 62 is when social security benefits begin. 65, like I mentioned earlier, that’s when Medicare starts. Plus or minus three months is when you’re going to be filing. Uh it just depends on whether or not you work for a large company or small company. Uh age 67, that’s full retirement age, when you get your full pension from social security. Age 70 is when you get maximum social security benefits. And then lastly, age 73 to 75, depending on the year that you were born. That’s when those required minimum distributions begin. So again, lot to kind of keep track of over the years, but you’ve got lots of time. So uh the first part of our presentation discussed the timing of retirement. We’re going to look at the next biggest kind of question. Uh you know, how much people uh need to retire just taking aim at the retirement target. So the first rule of thumb is that you’ll need to save around 70 to 90% of your pre-retirement income. Um you might need uh less in retirement. you know, certain costs possibly are going to go down once you retire. Um, this is a rule of thumb. It’s not for sure, but perhaps you’ll finish paying off your mortgage. Uh, less, you know, commuting, dry cleaning, work clothes. Uh, people spend less possibly on food because they have time to prepare meals. Uh, but these, uh, you know, reductions are offset by some other things, some other costs that might go up in retirement. So, um, many retirees are no longer covered by a workplace medical plan. Uh, with Medicare premiums, co-pays, they could rise as you age. You might need more health care. Um, you might be spending some more on travel or maybe at home and your utility usage is increasing. Um, and then there’s possible home maintenance u with more wear and tear on the home. So, these are all costs that can go up and down. And then, you know, there’s some costs that can go away. um that might be social security, um payroll taxes, and then um you won’t be taking any money out of your paycheck contributing to your retirement account because you’re in retirement. Uh so these are all the things to kind of think about, remember um and this is, you know, these are the biggest reasons that uh people tend to spend a little bit less in retirement. So kind of on average 80%.
Second rule of thumb is that you should save multiple of what your salary is by a certain age. So let me show you what I mean. As you get older, you should have a higher multiple of your salary save for retirement. So for example, if you’re making $100,000 at age 55, you should have retirement savings around six to eight times that or maybe $600 $800,000. Um, you know, by the time you hit that milestone. Uh so take a look on the chart, see where you fall, see what age you are, how much you’ve saved. Um you know, keep in mind these are just uh guide uh guidelines. Um if you’re ahead of this, if you’re behind, um that’s okay. Um obviously if you’re ahead, that’s a good thing. If you’re a little bit behind, that’s okay. Uh you can, you know, do different things to kind of catch up and uh put yourself in a better spot. There’s always something that you can do. uh lots of different levers ideas that uh are available to you. Third rule of thumb uh you know you want to save enough to generate a 4% withdrawal rate. So this is kind of a classic rate of withdrawal. Um this third rule of thumb is that you need enough retirement savings to generate a desired level of income with a sustainable withdrawal rate. So you know let’s look at what that means.
So, if you would like to have $25,000 in annual income, um that would take a uh retirement savings um of about 545,000 with a 1 and a half% return. Uh so, the more that uh that goes up, that rate of return goes up, the less you need uh to save. So, you know, over 20 years with a withdrawal rate of 4%. Um, you know, again, thinking about that $25,000 income. Uh, if you’ve got a 5% return, then your retirement savings required is 391,000, which is a lot less. So, this is the reason you want to stay invested, be invested. Um, you can see the numbers for 50,000 or $100,000 in desired annual income. Um, and it’s a big difference, you know, 25% difference between the two numbers. So, you know, this is a big big reason people are contributing to their retirement accounts uh because then they’ll need less in retirement uh and still maintain that uh annual income level.
Depending on the withdrawal rate, your portfolio may last longer or shorter um versus expectations. So this chart shows with uh about a 95% probability how long a hypothetical you know 6030 portfolio 603010 portfolio would last given various different withdrawal rates. So again the 4% is the kind of general rule of thumb out there. If you’re withdrawing more um then your your uh portfolio your retirement account is going to um um the lifespan is going to be shortened. Uh so again uh the less you withdraw uh the longer that you’ll have in terms of income.
Here are several different uh kind of annual withdrawal rates. Again, um you know, assume if you’re retired, you have a savings invested, something conservative, returns 3% per year. To provide that desired annual income, uh amount for 20 year, including inflation, you need to have a minimum 476,000. Um instead of a 3% return, if you get a 6% return, again, just to kind of, you know, make sure everybody is thinking about this, understand this, um you’ll need about 365,000. So again, um you know, these are all just general numbers, rules of thumb. Um but really depends on, you know, how much you have invested, how long that’s invested for, and the rates of return.
Okay, that brings us to uh topic number three, uh maximizing your nest egg. So, here we’re going to look at a hypothetical couple um looking to maximize their nest egg as they age. Um this couple um they’re 50 years old. Uh he’s an engineer. She’s a retired teacher who does volunteer work to together they earn annual income of $150,000. So, when it comes to saving for retirement, I mentioned that there’s lots that you can do um especially if you have time on your side or if you decide to work a little bit later. uh lots that you can do in terms of saving for retirement and one of the most common ways to do so is through a workplace plan such as a 401k. It gives you a bigger amount to save and often you get a match. So here are the 2026 maximum annual contributions um amounts for you know different plans 401k 403b 457 it’s 24,500 uh simple 401k 17,000 the sea you can contribute up to 72,000 if you’re se self-employed assuming that the working spouse participates in a 401k um you know they have a contribution of 24,000 and in addition many employers offer a matching So, for example, uh possible company match is 50 cents for every dollar up to 6% of your total salary. That would mean an additional 4,500 of additional contributions to your retirement plan each year. And here’s where kind of uh you know, time can work on your side uh as you get older. If you participate in that workplace plan, you’re 50 or older, you can do what’s called a catch-up contribution. So, uh, catchup in this example means that, you know, they can contribute an additional $8,000 in 2026 to the 401k plan. And many people assume that if you participate in a workplace plan, you’re not eligible to save using a IRA, an individual retirement account. This is sometimes the case, but not always the case. If your income is under the limits listed here, you can also participate in a traditional or Roth IRA, even if you’ve already maximized your 401k contribution. So, there are some income thresholds here. Um, if you’re with, you know, on the lower side of it, then you can still contribute to an IRA. So, for example, since our couple is married, has income less than 252,000, the working spouse can contribute 7500 to a Roth IRA.
And just like the 401k, those 50 and older are eligible to make a catch-up contribution of $1,100. Another way to save is through a spaso IRA. Even if one spouse doesn’t have earned income, the working spouse can contribute to an IRA on their behalf. Spousal IRA also has income limits, but as you can see, because our couple’s combined income is less than $240,000, they can add another 7500 to a Roth spousal IRA. And because both spouses are 50, $1,100 ketchup contribution can also be made. So this is adding up pretty quickly. Of course, you need the budget. Of course, you need kind of, you know, the salary kind of lower spending, but there are ways that you can uh, you know, maximize your your retirement account um contributions. And you can see here that it all adds up to $54,200.
And then if our couple was able to take advantage of every opportunity that uh we described, they could save, you know, $51,000 a year maybe in a tax advantaged account if they do that for 15 years and earn 6%. Um they would have an extra or one over $1 million in their retirement nest egg, you know, not including things that they uh contributions that they made earlier on. So you know again um this is only what they are saving in their tax advantage retirement accounts. You can save in your savings account. Uh again they might have previous savings retirement contributions. Uh but this this gives you the power uh shows you the power of saving of kind of using the um the retirement uh accounts to the maximum. And uh again a nice nest egg here of over $1.2 million.
This brings us to number four, getting a portfolio checkup. So, uh, today’s workforce kind of more mobile than ever. Um, Bureau of Labor Statistics recently found that workers, um, you know, born between the, you know, 50s and 60s switched jobs an average of about 12 times by the age by the time they were age 50. Um, you know, with that being said, you know, many people have uh accounts out there uh 401ks or workplace plans or IAS uh that they might have uh just not kept track of. So, you want to kind of just be mindful of that. Make sure that you’re keeping track of all your retirement accounts uh especially if you’ve switched jobs more than a few times. um and you know you might have been encouraged to to contribute through uh matching programs and things like that. So uh it’s important to get accounting of all these statements where your accounts are and uh and organize them so that they’re working for you uh the best way possible.
Consolidation is an idea. Um with multiple retirement accounts, it’s you know it’s hard to get a a real clear picture of your overall asset allocation. Um, if your retirement account at your current employer look something like this, you know, 40% bonds, 60% stocks, you want to compare it to what your other accounts might be. Also, um, if there’s some accounts left behind, your asset allocation might be different. Um, you want to optimize that. You want to just keep track of it. You know, those are your funds. You want to maximize that and and keep track of, you know, previous employment, pre previous retirement accounts. And uh again, you want to combine it all, simplify, make it easier to keep track of. Um you know, and then change your asset allocation possibly. Um with this example, you know, the person opted for more equities, more stocks, try to increase the rate of return. Um but again, those are the benefits of just uh you know, making sure you’re doing the accounting, the auditing, find all your accounts and and uh optimize your asset allocation. Here’s an example of just kind of uh you know what to think about and um you know where you might be at in terms of your equity or your bond allocation. Um you know deciding how how many stocks to own uh the ratio of stocks versus bonds is a personal choice. You know the worst thing that you can do is kind of jump around. Um, you know, if you have too much invested in stocks and you know, you’re nervous about that, sometimes the, uh, the temptation is to jump around. And, um, we’ll give you an example here of, um, you know, why that’s a bad idea, why you want to stay disciplined, uh, um, with your retirement accounts as a best practice um, so that you’re not kind of messing things up. So, let’s assume 1999. You’re three years from your retirement age. You have $900,000. Um, and your goal is to reach a million. You’ve done well with your stock portfolio here. Uh, but you’re getting a little bit more nervous. Uh, you want to continue contributing at the pass rate of about $10,000 per year. Um, so, you know, let’s look at this example. You know, you’re looking at a 8% uh rate of return assumption possibly. Um you might even start to think about retiring early. But uh you know if you go through a bad spell, if the market goes through a bad spell, um there might be some nervousness on on the part of the you know retirement planning because all of a sudden that $900,000 falls to um you know around $600,000 which is a $400,000 shortfall. Uh so you know kind of a you know bit of a stumble be before the end of the race before you hit that retirement. Uh but this is only one point in time you know there you know you’re going to be in retirement for many years. Um so it’s important to remember that uh not do anything harsh. So all the you know the account dropped um you know you might change your asset allocation um you know from 100% stocks to maybe a 50/50 portfolio. Um there’s different things that you can do. Um here’s you know an example of you know maybe reduce volatility by having a more diversified portfolio. Um so but this is different for everybody. Some people have the kind of stamina wherewithal to kind of stay invested even though they’ve got you know a draw down of 30 40% because you know better times are usually ahead and they’re able to recover. Um so in our example here um you know it was it took longer for the stock portfolio the all stock portfolio to recover. Uh but the important thing is that they both recovered over time and uh you know we don’t have any forecast past uh you know the um the last year but um you know the important thing is stay invested um and just make sure that your asset allocation is right for you and you can withstand the volatility.
Don’t want to jump in and out of the market like I mentioned. Um so we’re going to take another example here. Um, pretend it’s 2007 global financial crisis. Um, you’ve got your 50/50 portfolio. Um, and you decide to jump into tea bills, into treasury pills. Um, you know, that feels good for a time, but um, you know, jumping into the market in and out of the market again can be very bad for your retirement account. Uh, if you stay invested in that T bill account, you’re going to have a lower rate of return. Uh but if you kind of keep with this stock uh portfolio, you’re going to bounce back quicker and um then you’re going to be able to get to your million-doll target much more uh much sooner. So this is a kind of, you know, just a warning not to kind of jump in out of the market, stay invested, find the right asset allocation, and uh avoid going to T bills in and out because it’s really hard to kind of keep up and and catch the market when it rallies.
Let’s talk about a little bit about estate planning. Uh updating beneficiaries. Um that’s an important thing to think about when uh you know as life changes as we all age. You know maybe the family’s changed, maybe you know there’s a divorce or a new spouse. Um make sure that you’re up your beneficiaries are up to date. Um you know children come can come into the picture. um grandchildren could come into the picture. And then also you want to make sure that you’re kind of just utilizing uh any trusts that um you might need. So a living trust um is a very common thing to uh to have if you have real estate. Again, we can help you with this estate planning. Um if you’re interested
social security strategy uh you want to make mindful of that as you you approach social security age.
Uh so there might be some changes to social security in the future. Uh you know we’ve been monitoring the social security trust fund for decades. um you know from the 80s to the 2020s you know the revenues exceeded um you know the benefits paid out uh there was a surplus it was it’s called the social security trust fund and it was built up over you know those years and it’s total about 2 2.9 trillion 2.9 trillion at the end of 2021 but uh you know social security began running a deficit uh in that year and uh is using about 57 billion from the trust fund to help make up uh for those benefit payments. Uh so social security running a deficit now. Um and the trend is actually expected to accelerate into the future as more baby boomers retire. To make up for future deficits, um social security is going to continue to draw from the trust fund uh to pay for those flow benefits that are promised. Uh current estimates predict that the surplus will only last until about 2033 2034. Um, so you know, keep this in mind. You know, watch uh for headlines, keep up to date on uh the news. Um, you know, Social Security will be here for us down the road. It might change. Um, and there’s things that Congress can do. Um, you know, lots of different options. Um, one option is to make the make up the gap, increase payroll taxes, um, in order to kind of fund Social Security. Uh, it’s going to be a hot topic. Um, but again, it’s going to be there for us. It might change, but uh, or contributions might change or the full retirement age might change. Lots of different choices that are available.
You know, your full retirement age, um, it’s something that you need to know. So it’s basically defined by social security administration and it depends on the year that you were born. Uh you can see that anyone born 1956 or earlier has already reached full retirement age. Uh those born after 56 um you know there’s a sliding scale until uh 1960. Anyone born uh 1960 or after has a full retirement age of age 67. And your full retirement age is important because it’s the age at which you are eligible to receive your full social security benefits. Um you don’t have to wait until full retirement age. Um you can you can claim uh but doing so comes with a penalty. Your your benefits are reduced the earlier that you claim social security. Um and the earliest that you can claim is age 62. Um you can file for benefits anytime between age 62 and age 70. And um you know the longer you wait the more that you’ll get in 2026. These are the maximum amounts a person um could receive in social security retirement benefits from age 62 to 70. Uh to qualify you’ve needed to a very high income for a very long time hitting the social security payroll tax cap for 35 years. You can see that delaying the start of social security benefits would increase the amount of monthly income you generate. Uh it’d be nice if we all qualified for maximum social security. Uh but you know most people uh many people don’t u for someone with a history making average income in the US. You know these are the monthly average social security benefits um that one would expect in 2026. Um notice that the older that you are when you start taking social security, the higher the benefit amount. Um so that’s one kind of uh uh tactic to use. You know, wait till full retirement age or wait till later, receive a bonus uh if you decide to uh file at 68 or 70 uh and to red and to receive more income. And the more that you earn at work u the less social security will replace. So, you can see from here um that if you make $50,000 a year, Social Security is designed to replace about 50% of your pre-retirement income. If you move further out uh to 150,000 in income, Social Security will only replace about 32% of your pre-retirement income. So, how much you’re making before Social Security, what your budget is, all all these things are important in terms of retirement planning. Uh again, Social Security not likely to disappear. uh but you want to kind of work on your financial plan. You want think about social security kind of holistically with your other uh savings and your other assets or pension income, retirement, rental income, whatever you have. And uh again, put together a financial plan so that you know where you’re at. And then lastly, you want to think about an income stream um in retirement. So uh some people utilize you know CDs um money market accounts um you know there are other vehicles bonds investment grade bonds high yield bonds um you know these are some 10-year averages um in terms of monthly income um these rates look a little bit lower than they are today because rates have gone up uh you know 10-year bonds around 4 and a.5% right now um so interest rates are going to change um you The amount of income you get from these different securities and asset classes will be different. But these are some kind of perspectives. Somewhere around inflation is what a fixed income account is going to pay. So basically two and a half, three, maybe 4% is what you can expect from many of these different uh uh fixed income portfolios. Another strategy for creating a stream of retirement is to take out systematic withdrawals. Uh that’s when you sell a small portion of your overall retirement portfolio at intervals to generate income. So imagine you had about $500,000 in your retirement account, purchased a 100,000 shares of an investment, five thou $5 per share. um just uh you know thinking about sequence and uh timing of withdrawals uh withdrawing $1,500 per month um selling shares as you go and then you’re going to deplete your balance as uh as time goes on. So um you’ll have some good months, some bad months uh where things are going assets are going up and down. Um but this is an idea in terms of like uh uh generating income from growth versus uh income from fixed returns.
You know each of the kind of ideas that we present today um you know again they should be thought through in terms of your overall financial plan. Um, you just want to look at your income producing assets. Um, you your growth strategy, your your withdrawal plan, uh, combine them both. Um, and just, you know, see see what it looks like. You might have a dividend strategy, you might have an income annuity, all these different things. Um, and you might have a growth portfolio. So, in the end, um, just map it out. Look at your asset allocation. you know, work with us, work with a planner, uh, to get get an idea of what you’re going to have, you know, over time, if you’re going to be okay, u, and get that financial plan just kind of, uh, you know, in good shape so that you know what to expect. And lastly, um, you know, make sure you’re thinking about, uh, you know, not just the money. Uh, look beyond the money. Uh, you know, personal finance is more personal than it is financial. Um I know that having worked with uh clients for the last 15 years and uh this is an example of a human happiness curve. You know you can see that happiness tends to decline as you get into your you know 40s and 50s but um you know things get better in terms of sentiment and happiness as you age into your 60s 70s and 80s. um you know, lower stress, um more time for yourself, uh just wisdom that comes with age, all these reasons that people tend to get happier as they get older. Um hopefully you’re in good health, you know, maximizing, uh walking, uh going to the gym, exercising, you know, having a community, having friendships, having family around you. Uh all these things will increase your happiness. and um and just having something to live for. So, think about again, you know, what you’re good at, what you love, what the world needs, what you get paid for. Maybe if you volunteer, if you work part-time, all of these things, it’ll help you with retirement, being more content, being more happy. Um, you can contribute to a cause and volunteer, you know, spend time with family and friends, contribute to the family, have a hobby, travel, go to school, go back to school, all of these things are an option. Um, and all can be done cost- effectively and lots of amazing things are done by lots of amazing people in retirement. uh whether that’s uh starting a business or uh running a marathon, climbing Mount Everest, you know, there are simple examples. Just gardening is uh is a very worthwhile endeavor. Um and this is a great quote. You know, retirement is wonderful if you have two essentials. Um much to live on and much to live for.
So with that, it brings us to the end of our presentation today. Um, I’m going to launch a poll uh in a second in case you want to ask ask some questions. Uh, schedule a meeting. I can help you with your retirement um retirement plan uh estate planning. Um, but kind of just to summarize this is uh you know what we discussed today. Uh, number one, determine when the time is right. Number two, you know, take aim at that retirement target. Think about how much you need, what your spending is, and what you might need in retirement. uh maximize your nest egg, you know, asset allocation. Combine all those accounts. Uh make sure that you’re getting a portfolio checkup to uh optimize and uh you know, stay invested. Stay invested in the market. You know, think about income. Think about your social security that might be coming in. Um and think about your income stream, whether that’s coming from dividends or a portfolio or a growth strategy, an income annuity, rental income, all of the above. Um and then have a plan for uh enjoying your hard work uh enjoying the the money and the success um that you’ve worked so hard for. Um and look beyond the money and some you know your your family or community and all those other things.
So again my invitation to work together um these are all the ways that we can work together. So think about your financial planning questions, social security, pensions, cash flow management, Roth conversions, all of this is available to you. Um estate planning like I mentioned and then we have active passive strategies. Uh we have no fee options and strategies available to you. Uh lots of different uh combinations and and ways to uh diversify your assets and and get a good return. Then lastly, here’s a slide for the trusted will program. Um, this is available to clients no charge. Uh, get your living trust done, your will, your power of attorney. Um, very important for all of us, no matter what age you are. Uh, and update your trust uh, and your estate planning if needed. Uh, and then we could help you with that. I’m going to launch the poll now. So, if you have any questions, um would like to schedule a meeting with me, take advantage of these great u uh solutions and strategies and and product offerings that we have, then please do book a meeting. Uh look forward I’ll reach out, we’ll schedule that and uh and get together. Uh we always have a great participation, so uh hopefully take us up on it.
Okay, here’s my contact information. Uh, with that, if there are any questions, please do put it in the chat. I’ll just go over a couple things while I’m waiting for any questions. You can put in the um Q&A or you could put into the chat. We’ll give you a couple minutes. Uh, thanks everybody that’s uh signed up for a meeting. Got a great response today. Uh, so if there’s anybody else then please do sign up. Also, this is my contact information. My cell phone number 213-320860.
That’s my direct number at work. I’m a full-time employee of Align Credit Union. That’s my work number. This is my email at work. Uh first initial, last name at lioncreditun.com.
Right. Great. Uh first question that people posted, will this deck uh be sent to us? Um unfortunately not. Uh sorry about that. For compliance reasons, um this deck is proprietary. We pay for it. Uh so we don’t disseminate it. Um, unfortunately there’s other folks that use it in financial services and uh, so we ask that uh, people contact us. I could take you through any one of these uh, concepts or ideas or remind you. Um, and then the most important thing is get your financial plan done. Uh, so sorry about that. We do not uh, send out the deck. Uh, we ask that you kind of just um, participate in the webinar. We always repeat these webinars on a regular basis. So, uh, you can sign up for the next one. We’ll go through this again. Uh, but again, we’re always available. Highly encourage folks to call us and here’s my direct number. Uh, so, um, to answer your question in terms of the deck, um, I’m just going to talk a little bit about estate planning again. Um, you know, one thing to remember on top of this is, uh, digital estate planning. It’s kind of a new concept in the last 10 years, but many of us have digital assets. Um, you also want to kind of take advantage of that. So, uh, friendly reminder like your frequent flyer miles, um, you know, any digital kind of currency, Bitcoin or other, um, you want to make sure that that is accounted for in your, uh, in your estate planning and make sure that you’re working as a team when it comes to estate planning. Um, your spouse has an idea of where your assets are if you’re the primary kind of financial person. Uh, because anything can happen. uh you know working in this job uh we meet lots of folks, lots of great folks and but unfortunately every year um you know someone passes away uh unexpectedly and u you know you want to make sure that you’re prepared so that your family is protected. Uh that’s the general kind of uh message there. And then um you know lastly uh not a lot of questions tonight. Everybody wants to go for dinner probably but uh again these are all the things that are available to you. U this is our value ad. Uh you know our goal is to give you increased confidence. So uh if you’re ever interested hopefully you’ll be uh continuing to sign up for our webinars and um and then be able to uh uh set up a meeting in the future. You know with that I’ll let you go. Um and thank you again for joining us. Uh it’s uh you know we we offer these in the evening sometimes and uh get a different group. Uh but look forward to seeing you at our next event, our next webinar. Uh we offer them on a weekly basis. So really appreciate the support in the community. Uh have a great evening and see you next time.