Four Steps to Take Before You Turn 60

For Mark Roberts’ Use: We all know that the ideal way to prepare for retirement includes early planning and saving. Hopefully, you got started in your twenties or at least by your thirties. But in most cases, we really start to think about retirement (and feel concerned) in our forties and fifties. At this point your looming retirement just seems like more of a reality than a distant dream.

According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, only 2 out of 10 workers feel confident about their retirement plans. So, rest assured that it’s normal to begin feeling concerned! The good news is that 8 out of 10 workers will accumulate at least 80 percent of the resources they need to retire. So, your odds are pretty good, but we’re glad you’re thinking about the future.

If you’re ready to ramp up your retirement strategy, here are four things you can do throughout your fifties to increase your savings rate and get into a better position to retire.

Establish a goal. Thinking about retirement without setting a savings goal is like going on vacation without choosing a destination. You know you need to drive “somewhere”, but you have no direction! Schedule an appointment with us, and we’ll help you decide how much you should be saving for retirement. Then, we can figure out how to get you there.

Make catch-up contributions. At age 50, you can now make additional catch-up contributions to your qualified retirement plan each year (while reaping more tax benefits). Take advantage of this opportunity.

Take advantage of employer matches. If you can’t contribute the full allowable amount to your retirement account, contribute at least enough to reap your employer’s full matching amount. Never say no to free money!

Consider your insurance needs. Establishing a stable form of income is an important part of retirement planning. But you should also consider ways to protect that income. One accident, illness, market downturn or another unfortunate event could put a serious dent in your savings. During our appointment we can talk about insurance products to hedge against risks in retirement.

By Mark Roberts|2018-09-17T09:45:30-05:00September 17th, 2018|Retirement|0 Comments

About the Author: Mark Roberts

In addition to managing clients’ money and giving investment and diversification advice, Mark offers something that “the other guys” don’t - a unique approach to Retirement Tax Strategies and distribution. Time and time again, Mark meets with new clients who tell him they have a great relationship with their financial advisor but have never been offered information on this kind of approach to securing their financial futures. Mark has taken this feedback to heart and works tirelessly to ensure that his strategies focus on taxes and distribution. Mark started selling insurance for a major insurance company right out of high school to help put himself through college. After graduating with a degree in finance, he dove into estate planning on the financial side to set himself apart from other financial advisors. However, as changes were made to estate tax laws over time, Mark shifted his focus to income tax strategies. Mark’s philosophy is “the blue prints are more important than the wall paper or carpet.” The wall paper and carpet represent products like investments and insurance policies, whereas the blue prints represent the strategies. Once strategies that truly fit the client’s needs are put in place, our focus can shift to providing you with the right products. According to Mark, “It doesn’t matter what carpet we use if the walls are not in the right place.” Our approach to money management is designed to generate the largest alpha (quality) with the lowest standard deviation and beta (risk). By doing this, we help provide clients with the highest return on the lowest risk. Generating income for our retirees is also very important. Because withdrawing money from your portfolio hurts the account rather than helping it, our goal is to design income strategies to harm the portfolio the least making the money last longer.

Four Steps to Take Before You Turn 60

Four Steps to Take Before You Turn 60

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About the Author: Mark Roberts