Keen On Retirement

At Keen Wealth, we encourage our married clients to participate equally in the financial planning process. One spouse might be the primary breadwinner and the other might keep up the home and raise the kids. Or both spouses may have careers but one still handles all of the financial planning.

A generation or two ago, most folks retired just because they turned 65. Today’s retirement is a bit more complicated than that. Age is still an important factor, but your ability to connect your financial resources to your lifestyle goals is just as important. And that brings us to one of my favorite planning tools – Checklists!

Last week I tried to provide some calm perspective on the recent fluctuations in the markets. Again, in summary: the corrections we’re experiencing right now are perfectly normal, and not nearly as scary as some of the headlines would have you believe.

Most of the clients that we work with at Keen Wealth are prudent, reasonable and disciplined with respect to their retirement resources. Every so often we will come across a soon-to-be retiree who thinks that when they gain access to their retirement nest egg, they can just stop working and crack open their accounts like they’ve just won the lottery. This occurs more often with folks who haven’t had to commit to a lifetime of saving, investing, and planning, but instead may have earned a lump sum on their pension, earned corporate profit sharing, or came into an inheritance. In s

I was recently able to spend some time with one of my flight instructors and mentors, General Hank Canterbury (above with me and my son, Devin). A retired Major General of the United States Air Force, Hank was a fighter pilot flying over 450 combat missions, a member of the Air Force Thunderbirds, and a graduate of the very first Air Force Academy graduating class in Colorado Springs. During his retirement from the military, General Canterbury has been training pilots and still does to this day. Needless to say, I am honored to have him as a mentor and instructor and look at the knowledge, wisdom and experience he shares with me as priceless.

The number one question we get from clients and friends at Keen Wealth is, “How much money do I need to retire?” But that’s not the question we help our clients answer when we’re working on their financial plans. Contrary to all the late-night TV and internet ads, there’s not some magic number to hit, no secret formula for combined savings, assets and investments that’s going to guarantee a secure retirement.