When I start working on a financial plan, I sometimes joke “And when would you like to die?” It’s a bad joke that rarely gets a sympathy laugh.

But when we’re planning for a lifetime, we have to make an educated guess on when that life might end. I often get pushback when I suggest as late as age 90 or 95. But average life expectancy can be deceiving…

My family thrives on checklists because without them we would almost certainly head to the beach for a long vacation without sunscreen or our swim trunks.

Preparing for retirement can feel a bit like a really long vacation, constantly wondering if there’s something you haven’t thought of. That’s why I created my 33 item retirement checklist to walk clients through as they prepare for retirement.

Last week we discussed how to evaluate whether your investment and tax plan are optimized to be working toward your retirement income goals.

In the final part of my Retirement Checklist series, we will discuss how to make sure you’re making cost-effective decisions about Medicare and other insurance, and evaluating the best Social Security strategy for yourself.

Last week we discussed the foundation for your retirement - calculating in detail your income and expenses at various stages throughout retirement. This week, we will discuss how to evaluate whether your investment and tax plan are working toward your retirement goals. While working with a trusted and competent advisor can be helpful for all items of the retirement checklist, they can be especially helpful in the area of investments and taxes discussed below.

My family thrives on checklists because without them we would almost certainly head to the beach for a long vacation without sunscreen or our swim trunks. Preparing for retirement can feel a bit like a really long vacation, constantly wondering if there’s something you haven’t thought of. That’s why I created my retirement checklist to walk clients through as they prepare for retirement.

I hear from many people that they plan to take Social Security as soon as possible at age 62, or at the very latest, full retirement age, which ranges from age 65 to 67. As I’ve written about before, two reasons you might consider taking it early is because (1) You don’t believe Social Security will be around and (2) you might die early. On the first issue, I believe Social Security is too foundational to the American retirement