Good Financial Reads: Advice for Retirement

When and how to retire may be one the largest financial decision you will make. This generates many new financial questions you may not have dealt with before:

Earlier this week I packed up my car, got a coffee and drove from Sarasota, FL to Chicago, IL with my 15 year old daughter.

Now, I have made this drive many times when I used to run the “day to day” business of my financial advisory practice for three weeks in FL and spend one week in IL running all of my client appointments.

Many of us are living longer than previous generations. As a result, we must plan to fund our lifestyle for more years. Retirement planning helps us put the resources in place to maintain the desired quality of life in retirement.

While the gap narrows as we age, women also tend to live longer than men. Plus, on average, women are younger than their husbands. This magnifies retirement risks for women.

Most people contribute to their retirement savings on a more or less regular basis through IRA accounts, 401(k) accounts or similar, and taxable accounts. But what does that savings mean in terms of the retirement income that you can expect it to deliver when you retire? Are you contributing enough for the retirement you want? Will you have enough by your desired retirement age? Or when will you accumulate enough to sustain your needs in retirement? 

More and more people are trying to redefine retirement. Many are young professionals with good income trajectories and excellent savings habits. Their goal is to get Financially Independent and Retire Early, ideally sometime in their forties (the “FIRE” movement).  The key question for them is: when will I be ready to make the leap?