Retirement Is a Life Event, Not a Number
Many people think of retirement as something tied to a specific age or account balance. But in truth, retirement is a life event, one that affects your finances, identity, lifestyle, and family dynamics. No one can reliably predict all that will occur in retirement; that’s why planning for retirement shouldn’t just be about hitting a number. It should be about building a plan that fits your values, adapts to change, and prepares you for what’s ahead.
When you retire, you move from accumulation to distribution. That means your paycheck stops, and your portfolio becomes your primary income source. The decisions you make—when to draw Social Security, how to handle taxes, which accounts to tap for income—have long-term consequences.
This phase of life requires a different kind of financial strategy. Retirement is not the time to be chasing returns. An effective retirement plan should focus on creating stability, sustainability, and peace of mind.
Common Pitfalls (and How to Avoid Them)
People are living longer—many retirees will spend 30+ years in retirement. Your plan should presume that either you or your spouse will live to 95 or even 100. You should also plan for significant health care costs, even if you remain relatively healthy. And one more thing: you should expect your appetite for risk to decline as you grow older, so your plan should evolve to be less risk-loving over time.
A market downturn early in your retirement can be devastating when you’re living on your portfolio. Rather than shunning stocks, your plan should have enough cash to cover your expenses for up to five years. This will allow time for the market to correct. If you get lucky and the market is up in your initial retirement years, you can withdraw from it for income, preserving your cash for the inevitable down years, and avoid selling stocks in a down market.
Until recently, most Americans were used to low inflation, but for the past 100 years, it has averaged 3.1% per year. Expect costs to go up, especially for food and energy. Inflation and health expenses should be part of your plan from day one, which virtually mandates the need for exposure to assets that protect against inflation, like stocks and TIPS.
Accept your humanity. One of the biggest threats to a retirement plan is panic selling during a downturn. That’s why behavioral discipline, enforced by your plan’s structure, is essential. Avoid overexposure to risk, and make sure you can handle the risks you do take.
A Personalized Plan for a Personalized Life
At Financial Gravity, we help clients prepare for every major transition, with retirement planning at the core of our approach. Our Time Optimized Planning™ (TOP) strategy is designed to adjust annually, based on your needs, market conditions, and life events.
Unlike the common approaches to retirement, TOP incorporates real-world data into an annual rebalancing of assets. This may sound complicated, but it’s grounded in common sense. Sell stocks when they’re high, not low. Have enough cash to protect you from selling low in market downturns, and to create an emotional buffer to prevent market timing. Seek income streams that are guaranteed for life, and with built-in cost-of-living adjustments. Gradually reduce your exposure to stocks. If possible, segregate an asset pool for your heirs, and know that it can be your safety valve if the unexpected happens.
Every family is different, and every retirement plan should be personalized to fit the economic reality, risk tolerance, value system, and desires of the retiree. Prepare for some soul-searching conversations about what really matters to you, how much risk you can live with, and whatever you hope to leave to loved ones and charity.
Whether you’re years away from retirement or already there, you may benefit from a customized retirement income report and thinking about this transition in a new way. At Financial Gravity, we’re happy to help you create lifetime lifestyle security with a no-cost or obligation report personalized for you.
