Retirement may be the biggest financial decision you ever make and most people are planning it the wrong way. Here is what you should know… 

YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS BEFORE PLANNING RETIREMENT

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SPEAKERS

Alex Okugawa  00:00

Retirement may be one of the biggest financial decisions of your life and most people are looking at it the wrong way.

Today we’re going to talk about the biggest pitfall to avoid. Stay tuned.

 

Alex Okugawa  00:22

So Anthony, when most people think about retirement, what do they think about?

They think about the white sand beaches, you know, golfing at a beautiful resort.

The problem is those things, although they might be enjoyable and what we envision our perfect retirement for. They’re not sustainable over the long term.

 

Anthony Saffer  00:41

Yeah, they are a bit cliche. It’s hard for people to pull off the 100% leisure and really have fulfillment in that.

Like we needed someone who he loved to golf with. And, you know, he did it as much as he can. While he was working.

He felt all kinds of pressure during his job. And, and when he was able to fully retire he golfed all the time. And it really kind of became work for him. In a lot of ways and that interest really waned over time.

 

Alex Okugawa  01:05

Yeah, it was like, because when I was working, when he was working, when he went golfing, it was a release, and it didn’t matter if he had a bad golf day because a bad golf day was better than a good workday.

So when you had a bad golf day, when he was retiring, it was like he took it personally. And I remember that.

Yeah. So the problem that it seems to me is that there’s a lack of direction, what are you going to be doing for the rest of your life? Because retirement isn’t just, you know, one, two years? I mean, you have to think about what am I going to be doing for 365 days for the rest of my life?

 

Anthony Saffer  01:37

I think people miss out on that because getting there financially can be difficult for a lot of people.

And so the focus is really on that even in our industry. It’s like, how do I get you to have income for the rest of your life and it’s so focused on that, that we forget about all the time, which is our other resource.

So so many people, they get to the point where it’s all or nothing. And they’re not thinking, one about what they’re going to do?

They’re not really thinking creatively, like, hey, what if I incrementally retire? Yeah, what if I go down to part-time kind of reduced the stress, maybe even find something that I really enjoy doing? And can even possibly pull in an income from that.

 

Alex Okugawa  02:12

Well, that’s an important piece, right? So not only keep your skills sharp but the income piece, even if you’re going to work part-time, is incredibly important, because that completely shifts the dynamic, right?

It’s very possible that working part-time could you know, push up your, quote, partial retirement of where you’re currently working.

 

Anthony Saffer  02:33

Yeah. So we’ve had that to where somebody says, Well, I don’t think I’m really going to be able to retire for this many years. And we’re able to say, Okay, well, if we retire a little bit earlier, that’s possible.

As long as you’re earning some income to meet your basic needs. You don’t have to touch your investments don’t make any income from that.

Now, you may not be able to save as much, but it takes some of the pressure off. So to give you some numbers as an example, if someone goes from earning, you know, whatever they’re earning as a salary, and maybe now they’re making $40,000 a year, okay, very modest income, but it meets just some basic expenses.

That’s like the equivalent of having a million dollars in their portfolio and taking a 4% payment.

 

Alex Okugawa  03:10

That’s huge, right? So when people think about this, the problem is, unfortunately, people get tunnel vision, and it happens to the best of us, because we have this one thing in our head, we get burnt out, we’ve been working for 40 years, I’m done, I’m ready to retire and just enjoy life.

And unfortunately, we don’t see the big picture. We’re not thinking about all the different possibilities that might be out there.

And that’s part of the beauty of seeking wise counsel is to help you look-say, Look, I’m not going to make the decision for you. But let’s just look at these different scenarios and empower you to make the best decision for your personal situation.

And this is what we do on a day-to-day basis with clients we help get them to and through a successful retirement of what is successful on their own terms. If you’d like to learn more, you can visit our website or give us a call. We’d love to talk with you.

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This does not constitute an investment recommendation. Investing involves risk. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Consult your financial advisor for what is appropriate for you. See our website at onedegreeadvisors.com for full disclosures.