Are you trying to gain the confidence you need to rock retirement? If so, you’re in the right place. Welcome to the Retirement Answer Man show, you’ve joined the second episode in a 5-week series geared toward those who are within 5 years of retirement. If you’d like to listen to the first episode of this series head on over to episode 367. 

The purpose of this series is to get you to start thinking about the things in the financial realm to prepare yourself for this monumental life transition. Most blogs, podcasts, and other retirement resources focus on the retirement sizzle -- this series will serve you the steak. Press play if you are ready to build a strong foundation to rock retirement. 

How to build your foundation so that you can rock retirement

When you are within 5 years of retirement it's time to start thinking about your retirement plan. This is not the time to get fancy, instead, it’s time to start building your foundation. You can do this by creating your initial plan of record. This is the plan that balances all the cool things you want to do in retirement with all the resources you have available to make it happen. 

Your initial plan of record will help you start to make decisions. You can use fancy charts and tables to help you build your success ratios, but what is missing is what you can do to make it so. You want to know exactly how your plan is going to work. Where are you going to get your paycheck? Your plan of record is the chart that helps you get into the specifics of how to make retirement work. 

Is your plan feasible?

Once you get it all laid out in your plan of record, then you’ll want to map out your first 5 years of retirement to help you make decisions on where to allocate your resources. 

It is important to stay agile. You may have to change your plan based on external factors like the markets, your dreams, your health, or whatever obstacles pop up. 

To check the feasibility of your plan you’ll need to dial in your needs, wants, and wishes and your 3 sources of capital. Once you have determined these things then you’ll begin to build your process to determine the feasibility of your plan. Listen in to hear how. 

Use the right tools

You probably know about many of the retirement planning spreadsheets and calculators that are out there. It can be tempting to jump around and use different sources, but once you find one you’ll want to stick with it. Find a scale that you can use to dial in your information that you use consistently over time in an agile way to make decisions. 

Map out the first 5 yrs of retirement

Now it’s time to think about your income sources and projected spending for the first 5 years of your retirement. Look back at your 3 sources of capital: social capital, human capital, and financial capital. Will you use social capital like a pension or Social Security? Will you work part-time or start a small business? If so, what is your projected income from those sources? Will it cover your spending? If not, the deficit that remains will be covered by your financial capital. Listen to this episode to really dig in and discover how you can build your retirement plan for those first 5 years. 

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE RETIREMENT ANSWER MAN

PRACTICAL PLANNING SEGMENT

• [3:31] If you are already retired please share your wisdom at RogerWhitney.com/askroger
• [4:37] Create an initial plan of record
• [9:12] Is your plan feasible?
• [12:44] Map it out
• [16:36] Now is the time to check on your Social Security benefit
• [22:33] Where do you put your excess cash flow?
• [25:41] What is liquidity?

Q&A SEGMENT

• [29:57] Isn’t there an exception to the 5-year rule of Roth conversions?
• [30:35] Are real estate syndications good or bad?
• [36:14] Pay off the house or make a Roth conversion?
• [41:00] Are there examples of Retirement Plan Lives with people who have fewer resources for retirement?

TODAY’S SMART SPRINT SEGMENT

• [41:44] Create a simple spreadsheet that maps out the first 5 years of your retirement

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

SSA.gov

If you are already retired please share your wisdom at RogerWhitney.com/askroger

Rock Retirement Club

Roger’s YouTube Channel - Roger That

BOOK - Rock Retirement  by Roger Whitney

Work with Roger

Roger’s Retirement Learning Center