My Retirement Checklist (Part 1)

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 wanted this checklist to be more detail-oriented than what you might find online so that it would truly be helpful in thinking through every aspect of your finances. There are 33 items altogether and for simplicity, I will be breaking it down into three parts, with Income and Expenses being discussed this week.

Part 1 - Income and Expenses

Part 2 - Investments & Taxes

Part 3 - Insurance & Social Security

Income

☐ Go to SSA.GOV and log in or create an account and get a full benefit statement.

☐ If applicable, get a current pension benefit statement.

☐ Calculate how much income your investments can provide on a monthly basis.

☐ Outline your income at various income stages throughout retirement.

For example, Bill and Jane are retiring in June 2021 and need $8,000/month to live on.

Expenses

☐ Calculate your retirement budget and ensure that it is less than your monthly income available.

☐ List irregular retirement expenses (saving for a car, home maintenance, car maintenance, and other expenses) and include them in your monthly budget.

☐ Live on your budget for 12 months prior to retiring as a way to stress test it. Consider having paychecks go into savings and setting up a monthly transfer to go from savings to checking that is equal to your retirement budget.

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

Thank you for reading,

Alex

This blog post is not advice. Please read disclaimers.