Keen On Retirement™

The idea that retirees can live off Social Security alone is a bit of a holdover from the old "automatic retirement at 65" days. For the most part, your parents and grandparents weren't thinking about 30 or 40-year retirements, active living into their 70s or 80s, or cycling in and out of the workforce to pursue new challenges and passions. Most -- but not all -- of today's retirees would have a hard time relying solely on their Social Security benefits to cover monthly expenses, especially in the later stages of retirement when health care costs tend to spike. However, just because Social Security has a different place in the retirement equation than it once did, that doesn't mean your benefits aren't still incredibly valuable! If you work hard and plan ahead with your financial advisor, you can utilize these five strategies to boost your benefits, pad your nest egg, and hopefully feel a little more secure about your retirement spending plan.

"Robin" is a single mother of two high schoolers. She's 45 and she earns about $350,000 per year. Robin had never worked with a financial advisor before, and one of our clients referred her to Keen Wealth because she was looking for help with streamlining her finances and, hopefully, retiring in nine years. On today's show, we run Robin's case through Keen Wealth's checklist-driven, comprehensive planning process and explain how my team arrived at actionable strategies for achieving that early retirement goal.

Earlier this month, millions of investors and financial professionals around the world turned their attention to Nebraska, where Warren Buffett spoke at Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder's meeting. Buffett's tone was a little more somber than usual, as this was the first shareholder's meeting since Charlie Munger's passing at age 99. But, as is usually the case, the news from Berkshire Hathaway was positive: strong earnings for shareholders and $189 billion in cash for the Oracle of Omaha to manage. Succession planning was also an important topic in the 93-year-old Buffett's comments. Over the years, as he's accumulated not just wealth but experience, Buffett has delivered many pithy observations that reflect how his wisdom reaches far beyond the markets. I would encourage seniors to reflect on how these seven quotes apply to not just your financial planning, but how you're planning to live in retirement.

Interest rates, inflation forecasts, and long-term market trends were just a few of the topics Matt Wilson, CFP® covered in our recent 2024 Q2 Market Update Webinar, "Gain Insights on the Economy & Markets." The follow-up questions we tackle on today’s show are largely geared toward folks who are approaching the retirement transition with some understandable anxiety. I hope that as we provide a little more detail on these important topics and the overall state of the economy, folks will feel more confident in their financial plans and more excited about retirement.

Most soon-to-be retirees have a broad understanding of the differences between living off their assets and living off a monthly paycheck. But making that switch and adjusting to new spending habits can be more complicated than you might think, especially if you aren't prepared for the rules around withdrawing from your retirement accounts and how your relationship to your money might change. In his most recent webinar, Matt Wilson, CFP® Chief Investment Officer and President at Keen Wealth explained the importance of making a plan for your retirement spending before you actually retire. Today's episode touches on some of the topics that Matt's webinar covered in depth, as well as important follow-up questions we received about budgeting, required minimum distributions, and managing the psychological and emotional challenges of retirement.

Just after midnight on New Year's Day of 2012, I was standing in a pizzeria in New York with my wife Carissa. We had just watched “The Ball” drop in Times Square. Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" was playing over loudspeakers. Confetti was in the air. Spirits were high. And I was filled with gratitude and hope for the year ahead. Then I happened to see an email from my mother come in on my phone. What it said confused and worried me. I showed the email to Carissa, and she confirmed my reaction: "It is clear your mother is telling you goodbye." On today's show, I discuss how this experience changed my life, as well as my approach to financial advisory and building community at Keen Wealth Advisors.