Do you know what you should be doing in the 5 years leading up to retirement? Are you doing everything you can to get yourself retirement-ready? 

This is the last episode in a 5 part series that expands upon what you need to do in the final push before retirement. If you’d like to start at the beginning of the series click here. 

Today we’ll hear from the audience. I have asked those that have already retired to share what they wish they would have known before retirement. Listen in to hear their words of wisdom so that you can make sure to rock your retirement. 

Your mental model can determine your success

How do you envision your retirement? Are you stressed about the logistics? Can you visualize yourself living out your retirement dream?

Many of us get caught up in the numbers side of retirement planning. And although it is important to have a good financial plan in place, what can be even more important is your model of what is achievable. If you don’t think your goal is achievable you’ll never be able to realize it. 

One way to adjust your mental model is to hang out with and learn from people that are already there living the way you want to live. Learning from them can help you evolve your own mental model. Listen in to expand your vision of what is possible in retirement. 

Words of wisdom from current retirees

Over the past month, I have been asking listeners who are recent retirees to chime in with pieces of advice that they wish they had known before they retired. I got some fantastic responses via email and voicemail. 

Chase wishes he had talked with others about their Medicare plans before choosing his own. Even after all his time researching, he felt like he made a poor choice of plans. During his next enrollment period, he’ll go with a different plan that a friend uses.

Kyle wishes he had paid more attention to tax brackets. He was a fantastic saver over the years, but didn’t focus on the different types of accounts he was saving in. This won’t be helpful when it comes to tax planning in retirement. 

On the flip side, Doug is very pleased that he laid out an income strategy in his retirement plan. Tax planning was a big part of the way he planned.

Glen recommends paying off the mortgage in the years leading up to retirement. Not only did it feel great to pay off, but this also allowed him to test drive his retirement budget. Listen in to hear how Glen did that.

Create your retirement plan and stay agile

Looking at the big picture and creating your retirement model will help you envision the life you want. Engage with your spouse if you are married and discuss what life could be like. Knowing where you want to go helps create the mindset you need to move forward with confidence and to live life without regrets. 

Organization is power, so have a game plan and be ready to execute it. You can always make adjustments as the retirement game unfolds. If you stay agile then you can adjust your plan as needed. 

Don’t miss out on all the words of wisdom from our listeners. They have some fantastic advice to get you moving on your retirement journey.

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE RETIREMENT ANSWER MAN

PRACTICAL PLANNING SEGMENT

• [3:30] Your mental model of what is achievable is just as important as everything else
• [4:42] Ask others about their Medicare plans
• [6:36] Building out a retirement helps to picture what could be
• [8:31] knowing where you want to go creates the proper mindset to move forward with confidence
• [10:02] Kyle wishes they had paid more attention to tax brackets
• [11:53] It’s important to have nonwork friends
• [16:09] You will lose your life insurance if it is through work
• [18:44] Wishes he put more 401K into Roth
• [22:02] Allow yourself to relax

Q&A SEGMENT

• [24:29] A long-term care buyout question
• [30:35] A MYGA fixed annuity question

TODAY’S SMART SPRINT SEGMENT

• [33:11] Think about your mental model -- is it holding you back?

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Long-term care series - Start at episode 311

Breaking the 4 Minute Mile from Harvard Business Review 

Rock Retirement Club

Roger’s YouTube Channel - Roger That

BOOK - Rock Retirement  by Roger Whitney

Work with Roger

Roger’s Retirement Learning Center

Are you within 5 years of retirement? If so, it’s time to start training. Retirement is like a marathon, and you need to be ready to run it. This episode is part 4 of a 5 part series on what to do in the 5 years leading up to retirement. Today you’ll learn how to properly train for the marathon that is retirement so that you can enjoy the run when you get there.

Are you signed up for the 6-Shot Saturday newsletter? Make sure to get on the email list so that you can receive a comprehensive guide that lays out what you need to focus on in the 5 years leading up to retirement. Next week you’ll hear tips from current retirees who are a few steps ahead of you on this journey, so don’t miss it!

Expert advice from those who have walked the walk

Many of you have wondered how our Retirement Plan Live case study participants have fared in retirement. A few years ago, our first participant, Carl, came out of the closet to let everyone know that he is actually Fritz Gilbert from The Retirement Manifesto. 

Fritz joins me today to share his experience in writing his blog and what he learned from planning his retirement. Now that he has a few years of retirement under his belt he can reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and what were the integral parts of his retirement planning. Come listen to those who have already walked this walk. Let’s see what we can learn from them. Listen in to hear Fritz’s story. 

Fritz’s takeaways from his retirement planning

So, what did Fritz learn from his retirement planning? He did so much to plan for retirement, but certain things that he did proved more helpful than others. During his one phase of planning for retirement, Fritz created a pre-retirement checklist. 

He had never made a budget before but knew he had to have an understanding of how much he and his wife spent each month. They successfully tracked their spending by category for 11 months so that they could break those expenditures down into necessities and discretionary spending. 

After having a better understanding of his spending he was able to lay everything out in a cash flow timeline. Fritz projected his cash flow for the first 5 years of retirement which helped him understand how and where he needed to put his money. 

What was the biggest adjustment for Fritz in retirement?

One thing that people don’t plan for is how they will move from the accumulation phase of investing to the withdrawal phase. This stage of investing requires a completely different approach to managing a portfolio. 

Your new investment plan must be in place from day 1 of retirement, so it will need to be planned out a few years prior to retiring. Have you considered hiring a financial planner as a consultant to check your retirement plan?

The non-financial aspects of retirement are just as important as the financials

When people talk about the changes of retirement they are referring to the non-financial aspects of this stage of life, yet most people focus solely on planning the financial part of the puzzle. Your best chance for a great retirement is finding out what gets you excited about life. What will give you purpose when you retire? 

When you retire you’ll leave your network of friends, the structure, routine, challenges, and rewards of your work life behind. This freedom can be liberating or paralyzing. Think about ways that you can give back and focus on others. Listen in to find out how Fritz’s 10 commandments of retirement helped him stay focused on rocking retirement. 

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE RETIREMENT ANSWER MAN

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

• [1:56] What is a marathon?
• [4:25] Retirement is like a marathon
• [12:03] Your marathon should be enjoyable

PRACTICAL PLANNING SEGMENT

• [15:10] Fritz Gilbert aka Carl reflects on his retirement planning
• [18:12] Fritz was never a budgeter
• [21:15] Were there any spending surprises?
• [27:50] Get your investing plan in place
• [32:14] The non-financial aspects of retirement can be a source of anxiety as well 
• [46:07] Define your values 

Q&A SEGMENT

• [49:09] Are there any tax consequences to consolidating your retirement accounts?
• [51:19] How will Social Security work with a disabled child?
• [54:30] What are you trying to optimize for in your planning?

TODAY’S SMART SPRINT SEGMENT

• [58:22] Start to put your plan together

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Retirement Manifesto

Rock Retirement Club

Roger’s YouTube Channel - Roger That

BOOK - Rock Retirement  by Roger Whitney

Work with Roger

Roger’s Retirement Learning Center

Have you ever tried Googling your specific retirement questions? Chances are, those Google searches gave you more confusion than clarity. We all want to rock retirement, but there is a long road from where you are today to the retirement of your dreams. 

My goal with the 5 episode What to Do in the 5 Years Before Retirement series is to teach you what you need to focus on in those years leading up to retirement. I want you to have the knowledge and power you need to truly rock retirement. If you want to learn what it takes to fulfill your retirement dreams then press play now. 

Identify your values

Many people think that they are most worried about the financial aspect of their retirement but they don’t want to acknowledge the fact that they are worried about other areas of retirement as well. Instead of recognizing these worries, they redirect their worries to the financial areas. 

One way to begin to get started planning the non-financial side of retirement is by identifying your values. Think about who you want to be. What do you want your life to represent? You can create a new identity for yourself in retirement that reflects your true self. 

Once you identify your values you can then create your mission statement. Take some time to reflect on what you really want as you work through these exercises.

Get off the career treadmill

In your career, you have been focused on achievement for decades, but in the last 5 years of retirement, you need to mentally separate yourself from your career. Work has always come first, but it won’t be that way for long. Since you are no longer trying to get that next promotion it’s time to start setting boundaries. 

Try taking a retirement rehearsal. Think about where you want to live and what you want to do in retirement and take a month off of work to go there and do what you would be doing. 

Expert advice from those who have walked the walk

Listen in to this episode to hear this interview with the Rock Retirement Club’s very own retirement coach, Kevin (Beachwalker) Lyle. He’ll share his experience from his own retirement as well as the wisdom he has learned from others in his time coaching with the RRC.

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE RETIREMENT ANSWER MAN

PRACTICAL PLANNING SEGMENT

• [6:39] Acknowledge the stress you feel
• [8:02] Identify your values
• [13:22] You need to get off the career treadmill
• [19:05] Book recommendations 

Q&A SEGMENT

• [22:34] Why don’t more planners use a fee-only structure? 
• [33:30] Annuities are now offered in 401K and 403B plans, are there any plans with lower fees?
• [35:47] Stop looking for a deeper meaning to everything
• [37:05] Can you use an HSA plan for healthcare premiums?

TODAY’S SMART SPRINT SEGMENT

• [40:23] Think about the non-financial changes that will happen in retirement

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

BOOK - Halftime by Bob Buford

BOOK - Boundaries by Henry Cloud

BOOK - The New Retirementality by Mitch Anthony

Annuity series

Rock Retirement Club

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

Do you want to have the confidence to truly rock retirement? Are you within 5 years of retirement? If so, this is the series for you. Over the next 5 episodes, we’ll explore what you should be focused on in the years leading up to retirement. 

Today we’ll explore the opportunities and risks that come within this time frame. Next week, we’ll start setting the stage to prepare you for retirement. After that, we’ll explore the financial and non-financial aspects of preparing for retirement. In the 4th episode of this series, you’ll learn how to put it all into a plan. And lastly, you’ll hear an episode full of wisdom from people who are a bit ahead of you in this retirement journey. Are you ready to get started? Press play now!

Preparing for retirement is much like prepping for an adventure

In the 5 years leading up to retirement, you need to get ready. It’s as though you are preparing for an adventure. I liken it to a backpacking trip I took a few years back. First, my partner and I had to decide where we wanted to go. Then we had to arrange the logistics. Next, we had to assess whether we had the right equipment for our journey. Then we had to consider both our physical and mental readiness. After that, we had to acquire the things we needed. Once we finally got to our destination we had to assess the trail ahead. We even had to add extra supplies based on those trail conditions. We had to remain agile throughout the course of our journey. 

The opportunities and barriers to preparing for retirement

At this point in your career, you are probably making more money than you ever have before. You have a reputation and a vast professional network. You may even be at the tail end of the various financial engagements that come with raising a family. Now is a good time to evaluate your life. 

There are some barriers that you may need to overcome as you prepare for retirement. I often refer to the 50s as your not-so-thrifty 50s. It’s easy to save more and spend less now that you are earning more. It’s also easy to create a financial cage for yourself. Be careful of financial obligations like 2nd mortgages, RV or boat payments, or even that adult child that you continue to subsidize. These obligations could force you to work longer than you would like. Listen in to hear about more barriers you might face as you prepare for life in retirement. 

What can you do now to set yourself up for retirement?

There are several steps you can take to begin to set yourself up for retirement. 

1. Start to assess your risks and opportunities by dialing in your income, expenses, and savings. Think about your expenses. What does it really cost to live your life? Separate your discretionary and non-discretionary spending to realize what it takes to live a good baseline life.
2. Create your net worth statement listing your assets and liabilities. 
3. Assess your boundaries at work. You have worked hard to build your career, but have you built up boundaries between work and home life?
4. Assess your social life. Who would you call to have coffee with tomorrow? Do you need to broaden your social network?
5. Assess your purpose. If you had 2 weeks to not think or talk about work what would you do each day?

It’s a great time to join the Rock Retirement Club!

Are you signed up for the 6-Shot Saturday newsletter? You’ll want to make sure that you are so that you can get our free net worth and expense worksheets.

Have you been on the fence about joining the Rock Retirement Club? Now is a great time to join because on March 16 we are starting a 3-week sprint to assess your needs, wants, and wishes. You can try it out for 30 days with a money-back guarantee. Go ahead and join now to see whether it is right for you. 

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE RETIREMENT ANSWER MAN

PRACTICAL PLANNING SEGMENT

• [3:30] A Rock Retirement Club update
• [4:04] The five years leading up to retirement is much like prepping for an adventure
• [7:27] You have opportunities that you don’t want to miss in the 5 years 
• [11:37] What can you do now to set yourself up for retirement?

Q&A SEGMENT

• [21:51] Using a Roth IRA to fund long term care
• [27:11] Roth IRAs and the 5-year rule
• [30:04] Roth IRAs and Game Stop

TODAY’S SMART SPRINT SEGMENT

• [31:57] Start to dial in your expenses and update your net worth statement

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Share your wisdom with future retirees! 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