Made decision to retire, now what??

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Topic Author
Ralphie22
Posts: 51
Joined: Tue Jul 18, 2023 6:18 pm

Made decision to retire, now what??

Post by Ralphie22 »

Ok, after much deliberation and help from this site (and others), we are ready to pull the plug on OMY! My next question is how to invest for the gap between now and SS to reduce potential adverse SOR, and what’s the investment plan afterwards. Trying to determine where to allocate and pull pretax and taxable monies each step of the way, including a ladder of some sorts.

Situation:
Age 55, wife age 58
Children finishing college (paid through 529)
No debt, including no mortgages

401(k)s $56,000
Traditional IRAs $2,659,000
Roth IRAs $35,000
Total Pre-Tax: $2,750,000

Brokerage Account 1 (Taxable) $165,000
Brokerage Account 2 (Taxable) $335,000
CD $500,000 (expires 2025)
CD $460,000 (expires 2027)
Cash $2,630,000
I-Bonds $60,000
Total Post Tax: $4,150,000

Total Investments (above): $6,900,000 but see *** below which reduces total to $6,000,000

***I anticipate reducing post tax accounts by $900,000 over lifetime for weddings, children house deposits, our replacement cars, and some future renovations. Where do I also park that in addition to laddering?

Pension (my age 62): $26,600 per year, no cola
Social Security (her age 70): $54,800 / year
Social Security (my age 70): $48,800 / year

Annual Expenses $131,000
Annual Healthcare $30,000 (if no subsidies)
Annual Taxes (20%) $39,000
Total Annual Expenses $200,000

Will be consolidating accounts to Vanguard, including when CDs mature. Edit: I am also seeking a 65/30/5 split and wish to hopefully maximize ACA subsidies.

Thank you in advance for your help as we are truly blessed to have such talent and resources found here!!
Last edited by Ralphie22 on Fri Oct 11, 2024 7:41 am, edited 13 times in total.
BogleRocksDB
Posts: 44
Joined: Thu May 05, 2016 8:48 pm

Re: Made decision to retire, now what??

Post by BogleRocksDB »

Ralphie22 wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2024 6:23 am Ok, after much deliberation and help from this site, we are ready to pull the plug on OMY! My next question is how to invest for the gap between now and SS to reduce potential adverse SOR, and what’s the investment plan afterwards. Trying to determine where to allocate and pull pretax and taxable monies each step of the way, including a ladder of some sorts.

Situation:
Age 55, wife age 58
Children finishing college (paid through 529)
No debt, including no mortgages

401(k)s $56,000
Traditional IRAs $2,659,000
Roth IRAs $35,000
Total Pre-Tax: $2,750,000

Brokerage Account 1 (Taxable) $165,000
Brokerage Account 2 (Taxable) $335,000
CD $500,000 (expires 2025)
CD $460,000 (expires 2027)
Cash $2,630,000
I-Bonds $60,000
Total Post Tax: $4,150,000

Total Investments (above): $6,900,000

Real Estate: Primary Residence $1,100,000
Real Estate: Vacation Home $600,000
Total Real Estate $1,700,000

Pension (my age 62): $26,600 per year, no cola
Social Security (her age 70): $54,800 / year
Social Security (my age 70): $48,800 / year

Annual Expenses $131,000
Annual Healthcare $30,000
Annual Taxes (20%) $39,000
Total Annual Expenses $200,000

Will be consolidating accounts to Vanguard, including when CDs mature. Also, will sell primary and vacation homes and consolidate both values into one retirement home.

Thank you in advance for your help as we are truly blessed to have such talent and resources found here!!
Congratulations!!! You have two basic options: drawdown from your taxable dividends and investments, or use a SEPP (substantially equal payments) to bridge to 59.5. I personally think that taking from taxable first will be the best from a tax-advantaged perspective. That will also help you manage your income which may help for the ACA. EDIT: I didn't read closely enough. We can't see your asset allocation, but in the short term you certainly can just draw from a mix of CDs and after tax investments.

Just like you had an investment plan, you need to make a drawdown plan. Google physician on fire or go curry cracker for examples of draw down plans.

For my FI allocation (which I think is somewhat unbogleheady), I am 75/25. I probably should be less in cash, but I am at about 5 years right now. So in the short to perhaps medium term I am just sending myself x per month. My cash is part of the 25%.

For sequence of returns risk, check out early retirement now. He did a bunch of analysis. One thing he personally does is use a equity increasing glide path (I think) to mitigate the risk. I am not doing that but I think the thinking is if you start retirement at 70 and smooth up to 75, if there is a drop, you are buying equities into the drop (or at least not selling them by drawing other assets down).
Topic Author
Ralphie22
Posts: 51
Joined: Tue Jul 18, 2023 6:18 pm

Re: Made decision to retire, now what??

Post by Ralphie22 »

BogleRocksDB wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2024 6:30 am
Ralphie22 wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2024 6:23 am Ok, after much deliberation and help from this site, we are ready to pull the plug on OMY! My next question is how to invest for the gap between now and SS to reduce potential adverse SOR, and what’s the investment plan afterwards. Trying to determine where to allocate and pull pretax and taxable monies each step of the way, including a ladder of some sorts.

Situation:
Age 55, wife age 58
Children finishing college (paid through 529)
No debt, including no mortgages

401(k)s $56,000
Traditional IRAs $2,659,000
Roth IRAs $35,000
Total Pre-Tax: $2,750,000

Brokerage Account 1 (Taxable) $165,000
Brokerage Account 2 (Taxable) $335,000
CD $500,000 (expires 2025)
CD $460,000 (expires 2027)
Cash $2,630,000
I-Bonds $60,000
Total Post Tax: $4,150,000

Total Investments (above): $6,900,000

Real Estate: Primary Residence $1,100,000
Real Estate: Vacation Home $600,000
Total Real Estate $1,700,000

Pension (my age 62): $26,600 per year, no cola
Social Security (her age 70): $54,800 / year
Social Security (my age 70): $48,800 / year

Annual Expenses $131,000
Annual Healthcare $30,000
Annual Taxes (20%) $39,000
Total Annual Expenses $200,000

Will be consolidating accounts to Vanguard, including when CDs mature. Also, will sell primary and vacation homes and consolidate both values into one retirement home.

Thank you in advance for your help as we are truly blessed to have such talent and resources found here!!
Congratulations!!! You have two basic options: drawdown from your taxable dividends and investments, or use a SEPP (substantially equal payments) to bridge to 59.5. I personally think that taking from taxable first will be the best from a tax-advantaged perspective. That will also help you manage your income which may help for the ACA.

Just like you had an investment plan, you need to make a drawdown plan. Google physician on fire or go curry cracker for examples of draw down plans.

For my FI allocation (which I think is somewhat unbogleheady), I am 75/25. I probably should be less in cash, but I am at about 5 years right now. So in the short to perhaps medium term I am just sending myself x per month. My cash is part of the 25%.

For sequence of returns risk, check out early retirement now. He did a bunch of analysis. One thing he personally does is use a equity increasing glide path (I think) to mitigate the risk. I am not doing that but I think the thinking is if you start retirement at 70 and smooth up to 75, if there is a drop, you are buying equities into the drop (or at least not selling them by drawing other assets down).
Thank you, BogleRocksDB! Great ideas and points, as I am seeking 65/30/5 and would like to maximize ACA, which I will edit and include in my original post. I will check out those sites…thank you!
Silverado
Posts: 1908
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 6:07 pm

Re: Made decision to retire, now what??

Post by Silverado »

Congrats on making the move!

Get that cash invested to get your equities up to your desired level, or at least close. Leave enough to bridge until the first CD expires next year. Use the time until then to start moving things around and get ready for perhaps a final rebalance.

Get things consolidated and balanced, and get ready for a wonderful retirement!
Workqa
Posts: 100
Joined: Mon Apr 08, 2024 10:46 am

Re: Made decision to retire, now what??

Post by Workqa »

SEPP is too restrictive. I will just withdraw from your non tax advantaged accounts till 59.5, and then use a combination to plan taxes.

There was a website that allows you to enter the amount for the various accounts and will give you suggestions a combination of accounts to withdraw. Oorp? Forgot the name
Topic Author
Ralphie22
Posts: 51
Joined: Tue Jul 18, 2023 6:18 pm

Re: Made decision to retire, now what??

Post by Ralphie22 »

Silverado and workqa, thank you!

I’m really interested in seeing how I should structure a 10-year treasury ladder, confirming if it should be taxable or pre-tax based on my situation and desire to keep ACA subsidies in play. How would it work, each year, based on how the markets are doing to ensure a consistent 65/30/5 split (or does it not matter in an adverse SOR situation, and you just keep pulling from ladder?). Thanks in advance for the BH experts!
CoAndy
Posts: 1126
Joined: Thu Jun 06, 2013 4:45 pm

Re: Made decision to retire, now what??

Post by CoAndy »

OP where is that 2.6m in cash sitting? And that is exclusive of the money in CD's, I am assuming?
RetireGuy
Posts: 42
Joined: Mon Jun 17, 2024 12:46 pm

Re: Made decision to retire, now what??

Post by RetireGuy »

CoAndy wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2024 9:17 am OP where is that 2.6m in cash sitting? And that is exclusive of the money in CD's, I am assuming?
Thanks CoAndy. Right now it’s sitting in a MMA, earning 4% but needs to be moved somewhere to reach the 65/30/5.
stan1
Posts: 15559
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 4:35 pm

Re: Made decision to retire, now what??

Post by stan1 »

You are another good candidate to reach out to Mark Zoril's PlanVision for a low cost second opinion to help you feel confident about your decisions and make sure you aren't missing anything, especially if you do not intend to spend many hours per year thinking about your portfolio and taxes. Also now is a good time to update your estate plan. Examples might include some Traditional to Roth conversions. There are also low cost DIY resources like Pralana Online if you want to learn more. I'm confident you are good to go without taking this step, but if you have any doubts or want your spouse to hear what an expert has to say those can reinforce your decisions.

Your pension, taxable portfolio dividends, and eventually SS plus RMDs should go a long way to generating the income you need to pay for your annual expenses (including cash flow of the additional expenses of weddings and gifts to children). Congratulations!
Wannaretireearly
Posts: 5700
Joined: Wed Mar 31, 2010 4:39 pm

Re: Made decision to retire, now what??

Post by Wannaretireearly »

Great job. I don’t think it matters that much what you do financially. What do you plan on doing the next few retirement years?
“At some point you are trading time you will never get back for money you will never spend.“ | “How do you want to spend the best remaining year of your life?“
RetireGuy
Posts: 42
Joined: Mon Jun 17, 2024 12:46 pm

Re: Made decision to retire, now what??

Post by RetireGuy »

stan1 wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2024 10:10 am You are another good candidate to reach out to Mark Zoril's PlanVision for a low cost second opinion to help you feel confident about your decisions and make sure you aren't missing anything, especially if you do not intend to spend many hours per year thinking about your portfolio and taxes. Also now is a good time to update your estate plan. Examples might include some Traditional to Roth conversions. There are also low cost DIY resources like Pralana Online if you want to learn more. I'm confident you are good to go without taking this step, but if you have any doubts or want your spouse to hear what an expert has to say those can reinforce your decisions.

Your pension, taxable portfolio dividends, and eventually SS plus RMDs should go a long way to generating the income you need to pay for your annual expenses (including cash flow of the additional expenses of weddings and gifts to children). Congratulations!
Thank you very much - great advice!
RetireGuy
Posts: 42
Joined: Mon Jun 17, 2024 12:46 pm

Re: Made decision to retire, now what??

Post by RetireGuy »

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FiveK
Posts: 16959
Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2014 2:43 pm

Re: Made decision to retire, now what??

Post by FiveK »

Ralphie22 wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2024 6:23 am Trying to determine where to allocate and pull pretax and taxable monies each step of the way, including a ladder of some sorts.
Have you considered Whether, when, and how much to convert to Roth?
RetireGuy
Posts: 42
Joined: Mon Jun 17, 2024 12:46 pm

Re: Made decision to retire, now what??

Post by RetireGuy »

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FiveK
Posts: 16959
Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2014 2:43 pm

Re: Made decision to retire, now what??

Post by FiveK »

RetireGuy wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2024 6:22 pm
FiveK wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2024 1:50 pm Have you considered Whether, when, and how much to convert to Roth?
Thank you, FiveK. I’m not sure conversions will help, please let me know if I am not understanding correctly. But, it seems like I will be prepaying taxes, and not helping much with RMDs as I will need to take out that amount anyways to support my expenses. Am I right in my thinking?
Nothing at all wrong with "prepaying taxes" if that leaves you with more money after tax across the years.

It comes down to what marginal tax rate you pay to convert now, vs. the marginal tax rate you expect to pay later, such as when taking SS and RMDs.

Have you tried calculating those rates? The Using a spreadsheet wiki section just under the one linked above can be useful for this.
RetireGuy
Posts: 42
Joined: Mon Jun 17, 2024 12:46 pm

Re: Made decision to retire, now what??

Post by RetireGuy »

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Last edited by RetireGuy on Sun Oct 13, 2024 8:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Watty
Posts: 30158
Joined: Wed Oct 10, 2007 3:55 pm

Re: Made decision to retire, now what??

Post by Watty »

Ralphie22 wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2024 6:23 am Social Security (her age 70): $54,800 / year
Social Security (my age 70): $48,800 / year
See this web site to see when it suggests that you should each start Social Security. It varies but it likely will suggest that one of you start at around 62 and the other start it at around 70 to get the maximum expected lifetime payout.

https://opensocialsecurity.com/
Ralphie22 wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2024 6:23 am My next question is how to invest for the gap between now and SS to reduce potential adverse SOR, and what’s the investment plan afterwards.
....
Total Investments (above): $6,900,000 but see *** below which reduces total to $6,000,000
....
Total Annual Expenses $200,000
You may be overthinking it. If you just set your investments to not automatically reinvest dividends, interest, and capital gains distributions that will pretty much cover your desired expenses.

If you can basically live off of your interest and dividends then you will not be selling investments when they are low which will mostly eliminate the sequence of returns risk.

Some of those will be in retirement accounts but you can just make offsetting transactions in a taxable account to free up the money. For example if you have $10K in a retirement account from dividends that you want to free up you can sell $10K in stocks in a taxable account and buy $10K in stocks in the retirement account. You would need to watch out for wash sales.

Your CDs will mature soon and as those mature you can spend them or buy a CD ladder to cover your spending until your pension starts and one of you likely starts SS at 62
Ralphie22 wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2024 6:23 am ***I anticipate reducing post tax accounts by $900,000 over lifetime for weddings, children house deposits, our replacement cars, and some future renovations. Where do I also park that in addition to laddering?
For the weddings and house deposits I would look at just giving the kids investments from your taxable accounts and letting them sell them and pay the capital gains tax. They will likely be in a lower tax bracket and not need to worry about IRMAA, NIIT, etc.

If you put it into something like a total stock market index fund and the value is down when you have the expense then you have lots of alternative sources for the money you will need.
Ralphie22 wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2024 6:23 am and wish to hopefully maximize ACA subsidies.
You likely want to mostly own stocks in the taxable account to reduce interest and to help keep your income low.

https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Tax-eff ... _placement

https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Three-fund_portfolio

If you will not get a huge ACA subsidy then doing Roth conversions could make more sense for the long term. Tax rates are scheduled to revert to the old higher rates in 2026 if there are no tax law changes so would be worthwhile looking at doing Roth conversions in 2025 up to the top of the 25% federal tax bracket to see if that makes sense.

If one of your survives the other and is then filing tax returns in the higher single tax brackets they could be in a higher tax bracket them. With the complex way that Social Security is taxed that could also put you into a higher than expected tax bracket.

https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Taxatio ... y_benefits
Saintor
Posts: 117
Joined: Sun Dec 17, 2023 7:14 am

Re: Made decision to retire, now what??

Post by Saintor »

My next question is how to invest for the gap between now and SS to reduce potential adverse SOR, and what’s the investment plan afterwards.
My strategy to front with SOR is to keep 5 years of expenses in cash-like investments. Mines get 4.5% average. In your case, $1M (5x200K) would be it. BTW, you should spend more ASAP after 59.5 because you'll have to bring that $2659000 to zero, preferably to 0 by 80, but possible up to early '90s. But if your income is already too high and in the highest bracket to start with, maybe it isn't that relevant.

All the rest 5.9M (85%) in investments with an average return of 8.0%+, in highly rated non-sectorial & no load mutual funds or index funds. Most of it (75%) in US, the rest in the international scene. If you withdraw 50K quarterly, you do it by default from the sale of these investments. If no return, then you withdraw the 50K from your cash. You rebalance later when the situation is better.

With this kind of money, I would use a fee-based referred advisor. You are in an extraordinarily good position. Good luck.
rs9876lg
Posts: 504
Joined: Wed Jul 03, 2024 8:48 am

Re: Made decision to retire, now what??

Post by rs9876lg »

I know that you know the answer to the questions you posed. Ignoring all other sources of income at 3.5% rate your 6M can sustain $210k per year indefinitely

That does not include your pension or the double SS in later years

I know you understand the math. I also know that understanding the math and actual emotional fear are not always related. I am with you on that

But at the end of the day there are no guarantees and certainly not form BH participants that you will NEVER regret your decision. This is something you have to take leap of faith even if everyone believes your chances of success are 99.99999 percent
Topic Author
Ralphie22
Posts: 51
Joined: Tue Jul 18, 2023 6:18 pm

Re: Made decision to retire, now what??

Post by Ralphie22 »

RetireGuy wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2024 9:47 am
CoAndy wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2024 9:17 am OP where is that 2.6m in cash sitting? And that is exclusive of the money in CD's, I am assuming?
Topic Author
Ralphie22
Posts: 51
Joined: Tue Jul 18, 2023 6:18 pm

Re: Made decision to retire, now what??

Post by Ralphie22 »

Watty wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2024 7:02 pm
Ralphie22 wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2024 6:23 am Social Security (her age 70): $54,800 / year
Social Security (my age 70): $48,800 / year
See this web site to see when it suggests that you should each start Social Security. It varies but it likely will suggest that one of you start at around 62 and the other start it at around 70 to get the maximum expected lifetime payout.

https://opensocialsecurity.com/
Ralphie22 wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2024 6:23 am My next question is how to invest for the gap between now and SS to reduce potential adverse SOR, and what’s the investment plan afterwards.
....
Total Investments (above): $6,900,000 but see *** below which reduces total to $6,000,000
....
Total Annual Expenses $200,000
You may be overthinking it. If you just set your investments to not automatically reinvest dividends, interest, and capital gains distributions that will pretty much cover your desired expenses.

If you can basically live off of your interest and dividends then you will not be selling investments when they are low which will mostly eliminate the sequence of returns risk.

Some of those will be in retirement accounts but you can just make offsetting transactions in a taxable account to free up the money. For example if you have $10K in a retirement account from dividends that you want to free up you can sell $10K in stocks in a taxable account and buy $10K in stocks in the retirement account. You would need to watch out for wash sales.

Your CDs will mature soon and as those mature you can spend them or buy a CD ladder to cover your spending until your pension starts and one of you likely starts SS at 62
Ralphie22 wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2024 6:23 am ***I anticipate reducing post tax accounts by $900,000 over lifetime for weddings, children house deposits, our replacement cars, and some future renovations. Where do I also park that in addition to laddering?
For the weddings and house deposits I would look at just giving the kids investments from your taxable accounts and letting them sell them and pay the capital gains tax. They will likely be in a lower tax bracket and not need to worry about IRMAA, NIIT, etc.

If you put it into something like a total stock market index fund and the value is down when you have the expense then you have lots of alternative sources for the money you will need.
Ralphie22 wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2024 6:23 am and wish to hopefully maximize ACA subsidies.
You likely want to mostly own stocks in the taxable account to reduce interest and to help keep your income low.

https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Tax-eff ... _placement

https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Three-fund_portfolio

If you will not get a huge ACA subsidy then doing Roth conversions could make more sense for the long term. Tax rates are scheduled to revert to the old higher rates in 2026 if there are no tax law changes so would be worthwhile looking at doing Roth conversions in 2025 up to the top of the 25% federal tax bracket to see if that makes sense.

If one of your survives the other and is then filing tax returns in the higher single tax brackets they could be in a higher tax bracket them. With the complex way that Social Security is taxed that could also put you into a higher than expected tax bracket.

https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Taxatio ... y_benefits
This is gold - thank you very much Watty!
Topic Author
Ralphie22
Posts: 51
Joined: Tue Jul 18, 2023 6:18 pm

Re: Made decision to retire, now what??

Post by Ralphie22 »

Saintor wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2024 8:54 pm
My next question is how to invest for the gap between now and SS to reduce potential adverse SOR, and what’s the investment plan afterwards.
My strategy to front with SOR is to keep 5 years of expenses in cash-like investments. Mines get 4.5% average. In your case, $1M (5x200K) would be it. BTW, you should spend more ASAP after 59.5 because you'll have to bring that $2659000 to zero, preferably to 0 by 80, but possible up to early '90s. But if your income is already too high and in the highest bracket to start with, maybe it isn't that relevant.

All the rest 5.9M (85%) in investments with an average return of 8.0%+, in highly rated non-sectorial & no load mutual funds or index funds. Most of it (75%) in US, the rest in the international scene. If you withdraw 50K quarterly, you do it by default from the sale of these investments. If no return, then you withdraw the 50K from your cash. You rebalance later when the situation is better.

With this kind of money, I would use a fee-based referred advisor. You are in an extraordinarily good position. Good luck.
Thank you Saintor!
Topic Author
Ralphie22
Posts: 51
Joined: Tue Jul 18, 2023 6:18 pm

Re: Made decision to retire, now what??

Post by Ralphie22 »

rs9876lg wrote: Sat Oct 12, 2024 8:28 am I know that you know the answer to the questions you posed. Ignoring all other sources of income at 3.5% rate your 6M can sustain $210k per year indefinitely

That does not include your pension or the double SS in later years

I know you understand the math. I also know that understanding the math and actual emotional fear are not always related. I am with you on that

But at the end of the day there are no guarantees and certainly not form BH participants that you will NEVER regret your decision. This is something you have to take leap of faith even if everyone believes your chances of success are 99.99999 percent
All great points!!
User avatar
nedsaid
Posts: 19940
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Re: Made decision to retire, now what??

Post by nedsaid »

Looks to me that you can easily retire now, your withdrawal rate is 3 1/3% a year, if you are willing to make adjustments in your withdrawal rate in bad markets, this could be sustained indefinitely. Just eyeballing it, adjustments downward in your annual withdrawals probably wouldn't be that much in a bad market. With a net worth of over $6 million, you could very easily afford a one time plan from a Certified Financial Planner. Looks to me like you have informed yourself quite well, are getting some advice here, and you could do this all on your own. The biggest reason that I suggest paying for advice is the Advisor's experience, the Advisor has seen what others have done in real life both good and bad, and can see what you might have overlooked.

Fortunately, there is Mark Zoril and PlanVision. Not a client but have read a lot of favorable reviews about them here on the forum and their costs are pretty low. I think I would run all this by them before you make the final decision to retire. Not that you won't do well on your own, they could help with optimizing your plan with such things as ROTH Conversions and Social Security claiming strategies. It really helps to have someone experienced with the software make projections for you. The biggest issue with a do-it-yourself person using retirement planning software on their own is making a mistake and thus having a big error in calculations, which isn't hard to do if you don't fully understand the software.

The most efficient way to get Advice is by the hour, I would lean strongly against an Assets Under Management arrangement. Pay for the advice and then execute the plan yourself if you can. The more you know, the more that you can save. I would take a good hard look at PlanVision.

Another big decision is your Asset Allocation in retirement and the tax efficient placement of asset classes among accounts. Opinions on asset allocation will be all over the map, the Wiki has great resources on placement of asset classes among taxable accounts, tax deferred accounts, and tax free accounts. This is another area where an experienced Advisor could help.

Similarly, I would have an Insurance Broker shop your health insurance for you. This is another big retirement decision, there are so many options that this is another worthwhile place to get guidance.
A fool and his money are good for business.
Topic Author
Ralphie22
Posts: 51
Joined: Tue Jul 18, 2023 6:18 pm

Re: Made decision to retire, now what??

Post by Ralphie22 »

nedsaid wrote: Sun Oct 13, 2024 12:30 pm Looks to me that you can easily retire now, your withdrawal rate is 3 1/3% a year, if you are willing to make adjustments in your withdrawal rate in bad markets, this could be sustained indefinitely. Just eyeballing it, adjustments downward in your annual withdrawals probably wouldn't be that much in a bad market. With a net worth of over $6 million, you could very easily afford a one time plan from a Certified Financial Planner. Looks to me like you have informed yourself quite well, are getting some advice here, and you could do this all on your own. The biggest reason that I suggest paying for advice is the Advisor's experience, the Advisor has seen what others have done in real life both good and bad, and can see what you might have overlooked.

Fortunately, there is Mark Zoril and PlanVision. Not a client but have read a lot of favorable reviews about them here on the forum and their costs are pretty low. I think I would run all this by them before you make the final decision to retire. Not that you won't do well on your own, they could help with optimizing your plan with such things as ROTH Conversions and Social Security claiming strategies. It really helps to have someone experienced with the software make projections for you. The biggest issue with a do-it-yourself person using retirement planning software on their own is making a mistake and thus having a big error in calculations, which isn't hard to do if you don't fully understand the software.

The most efficient way to get Advice is by the hour, I would lean strongly against an Assets Under Management arrangement. Pay for the advice and then execute the plan yourself if you can. The more you know, the more that you can save. I would take a good hard look at PlanVision.

Another big decision is your Asset Allocation in retirement and the tax efficient placement of asset classes among accounts. Opinions on asset allocation will be all over the map, the Wiki has great resources on placement of asset classes among taxable accounts, tax deferred accounts, and tax free accounts. This is another area where an experienced Advisor could help.

Similarly, I would have an Insurance Broker shop your health insurance for you. This is another big retirement decision, there are so many options that this is another worthwhile place to get guidance.
Thank you, nedsaid!
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