Retirement Planning Myths Debunked

Whether you are thinking about retirement already retired, or you’re just starting to take your financial futures seriously, you’re in the right place. Now, in our Northern Michigan offices, we’ve sat down with individuals and families, and a lot of them have very similar half truths or myths that they that they thought were very true. So I’m here to debunk some of those myths and try to help you save hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. So myth number one: “I’ll spend less in retirement”. Now, let’s be honest, we might be very excited about retirement because now we have time to travel, spend time with the grandkids, do whatever you need to do. Like like maybe a home renovation. So yes, you may not be commuting as much to work, or you might not be going out to lunch with your coworkers, but there’s going to be other expenses that are going to eat up some of that. So don’t underestimate the lifestyle that you might want to live, or maybe inflation or even, health care costs. So we recently had a client come into our Traverse City office and he had a concern. He had a truck that was on its last leg, and he needed to replace that truck. And with interest rates being high, 7 to 9%, he was concerned whether I should take a loan out or if I should just pay for the truck altogether. Now, that is a concern that it could be unforeseen circumstances in that situation. And he came to us for help. So it would be nice to have a little extra money in that situation, right? We dive deeper into a lot of these topics on our YouTube channel, and feel free to go into our YouTube channel and utilize any of those free, information that we give to you in the public. Myth number two: “I can just rely on Social Security”. Now, Social Security is great, but it was not intended to completely replace your income. It was only designed to replace about 40% of your income, in fact. And it really matters when you take that income. So if you take it early in retirement, it could eat up about 30% of what you could have taken if you would have waited a little bit longer. So it’s very important to sit down with a licensed professional on this. And they can really look into do a deep dive on what your needs are right now, and could save you a lot of money in the long run. And, you know, developing a good plan for you. We offer a free consultation in any one of our Northern Michigan locations. So feel free to give us a call. We would love to sit down and talk to you about your concerns on any of those topics. And then the third myth is: “All I need is my 401k”, right. So the 401K is great, but it’s if you were to keep it all the way to retirement that’s going to incur require minimum distribution. And if you utilize like if you come in and talk to us and utilize maybe talking about a Roth conversion or talking about maybe a life insurance or even annuities can help be more tax efficient. It will save you hundreds, if not thousands in the long run. And then the fourth myth is “I can wait until I’m older to start planning”. Now that’s a dangerous one because compound interest can really add up if you were to start even now, for instance. Because whether you’re in your 20s, your 30s, your 40s or your 50s, it really does matter. And it does add up when you start planning for retirement. Now, whether you are nearing retirement and you’re still concerned about that and you’re just like, oh man, I didn’t start early enough, we can still talk to you about some, some, good diversification strategies that we can do with for you to help make a little bit more money, tax efficiency, stuff like that. So don’t wait. Visit our YouTube channel. If you don’t have time to come into our office or give us a call. And there’s plenty of good information there that can help you stay informed. Retirement should be something to look forward to, not something that you stress about. So whether it be myths, half truths, or assumptions, it can quickly eat up and sabotage some of your future. So it’s very important again to get in and talk to a licensed professional on this.