Are You 5 to 10 Years from Retirement?

Every Christmas Eve we’d drive to Suttons Bay and spent time with all of my Mom’s side of the family, all the Aunts and Uncles and cousins and grandpa and grandma. I remember as a kid sitting in the backseat thinking this is the longest drive ever. Time as a kid seemed to stand still. What does it take from Traverse City to Suttons Bay? Maybe 20 minutes or something like that. Again, time seemed like that. And my parents always would say, I remember them from the front seat they’d turn around and say, you just wait. As you get older, time always goes faster. And I thought what do you guys know? I mean, come on, what do you know about time going faster? And as a student you know in school, you look out the windows and daydream is this day ever going to be done? The days would drag on, the weeks would take longer. And they were right though. As time goes along, it does seem to go faster. And why am I saying this? Well the topic here that I want to talk about is are you five to10 years away from retirement? And the reason I’m bringing this up is you’re probably sitting there shaking your head about the time. If you’re five to 10 years away from retirement, it’s going to be here before you know it. Because time flies, doesn’t it? As you age and those children have grown and maybe they’re out of the house now and time really seems to kind of pick up speed. So we don’t have that time. That time is going to be here and could be gone fast. So this is kind of the crunch time. If you’re five to 10 years away, this is the sweet spot to really start nailing things down to finalize the plan. One, let’s talk about can you even realistically retire and when will that be? And what do you need to just kind of answer that realistic question. One, what are your expenses going to be? What is that budget going to look like? Don’t forget what is medical, you know insurance premiums, medical costs going to be? Do you still have a mortgage balance? Do you still have child related costs? Whether that’s schooling or caring for them. Do you have vehicle payments? All these sort of things, make sure you’re funneling that in. And then what does that cost today? And what is that going to look like in that five to 10 years for retirement? One, then what does that income going to need be? Again, we just know what your expenses are. We’re going to need the income to do that. What source is that income going to come from, right? Where is that going to go? And what is your plan? We talk about it time and time again on this show about plan, plan, plan. But now is the time five to 10 years away you need to have a plan? Not only from your investments and what you’re putting away, but we need to start mapping this out. You but we need to start mapping this out. You’ve heard us talk about tax planning before. You’ve heard us talk about planning for income from like a health insurance perspective. All of these other things. This is that time period where we start honing in on that and if there’s anything that needs to be changed, we have some time left to do that. So limited with only five to 10 years left, but maybe be can adjust things enough to make sure that we can get you in that sweet spot. So if you can retire, you retire as efficiently as possible. So let’s back up for a second. Five to 10 years away. If that’s you, step one, ask yourself and look through these details can you realistically retire? If you’re unsure of that, give us a call. We’ll help you through that process. We’ll map out those things and walk side by side with you to determine that that is. Three, what needs to be adjusted in your plan that you’re currently doing to where we can maximize something, make it as most efficient at possible to set you up for the greatest chance for success in retirement. Four, do we need to make additions? Is there something you’re just not doing at all that we have to add in to adjust this to do that? And finally, then set forth and enjoy. You know five to 10 years one thing that’s often talked about is maybe you’re at the highlight or pinnacle of your career at this point. You want to get this planning done so you can enjoy those years. Oftentimes it goes beyond this, your career and your work becomes a piece of you. It becomes a part of your lifestyle. It becomes who you are. And there’s something to be said as we enter retirement or we get closer to that, it’s a big lifestyle change. And enjoying those last years of work is important. And you don’t want to be stressed with the unknown as the retirement. And you wan to be more confident with that. Give us a call at the number on the screen. We’d love to sit down with you for a no cost, no obligations visit here at Centennial Wealth Advisory so we can help you answer these questions so you can plan to retire well.