Chartered Financial Consultant


Commentaries

The Sixties…Not those Sixties. It’s a Great Time for Financial Strategizing.

For most of your adult life, doing wise financial planning is a good idea, but you don’t always have many options.  When you approach your retirement years, usually starting in your Sixties, there are lots of options and the  decisions that you make will impact the rest of your life:
·         When should you retire or start working less?
·         When and how should you start taking Social Security?
·         When should you start taking money out of your IRAs and other retirement plans?  Except for Roths, you have to start taking Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) the year you turn seventy and a half.
Often these questions are decided by considering all three together.  Sometimes, these decisions are forced upon you by financial or other circumstances.  Your tax bracket and your proximity to a higher tax bracket factor into this equation.
It maymake sense to start withdrawing from your retirement accounts after you retire, but before you apply for Social Security.  Delaying when you start SS can increase your monthly benefits by 32% if you start them at 70 instead of 66, but if you are in financial need, poor health or if longevity is not a strength of your family history, starting earlier may make sense.
It is impossible to generalize here, so if you have some of those decisions on your near horizon, you might consider stopping in for an hourly consultation with me.  Cost is $150 per hour, no minimum time required.  Normally a one to two hour consultation should help put your options into perspective.
Bob Dreizler

Bob Dreizler