Do I Have Enough to Retire?

There’s probably commonly two questions I get the most when people either see me out and about knowing what I do for a living here. And one of those questions is do I have enough to retire? The other question is what is the stock market going to do? Don’t we wish we all knew that? But do I have enough to retire? And usually when somebody asks that question referencing the dollar amount that they’ve saved in whether it’s a 401K or maybe various other things. It’s an interesting question. And I can tell you something from many years of doing this and helping lots of people achieve that goal is sometimes that dollar amount is irrelevant. Think of it folks, in retirement it’s relatively simple. You have to have more coming in than going out. Just like when you’re working and trying to earn a paycheck. You want that paycheck obviously bigger than your expenses, right? You want to have some money left at the end of every month. So when you’re thinking of that question, do I have enough to retire, that’s when we have to do retirement planning, income planning and the dreaded budget comes into play. You know let’s identify what expenses you have on a monthly or recurring basis, an annual basis and then what are the other things? What are your goals for your retirement? You know some folks get into retirement and their expenses may not be that great. Maybe their expenses drop from what they’re used to. Other folks find themselves in retirement and their expenses actually rise. Now that they have time on their hands, maybe they’re traveling more. Maybe they’re doing more with grandchildren, stuff like that. So really think about what that may be for you. You know that lifestyle is going to be the biggest part because let’s face it, depending upon what you want to do will determine the amount of money you need. As an example, I’ve met with folks over the years that have little to almost nothing saved for their retirement and they’re living primarily on Social Security or maybe they have a small fixed pension. And they’re as happy as can be. You know it’s meeting their basic needs that they’re doing. They’re able to do the few things that they want to do on that budget. On the other side of the spectrum, I’ve met with folks that have a multi, multi millions over the years and we have to tell them that they can’t retire because they don’t have enough yet because when we do those budgets, we look at spending. They’re spending much more than what the income is going to be able to produce over their expected lifetime in retirement. Also a thing that may play a role in it, what is your medical situation? What insurances do you have? What other like long-term care sort of stuff comes later, life expectancy, all of these things that we have to highly consider when we’re looking at that question. So if you’re sitting there wondering do I have enough to retire? Maybe, maybe not. Let’s talk about that though. Give us a call at the number on the screen. We’d love to sit down with you, talk about all the various aspects. Figure out where your goals and aspirations are for your retirement and help you develop a plan so you can retire well.