Keen On Retirement

Formulating a one-time, bulletproof financial plan would be incredibly simple if you could supply an advisor with just two pieces of information: exactly how much money you're going to spend every single year in retirement, and your date of death. Absent those two impossible data points, an effective, comprehensive financial plan has to be an ongoing, personalized, and adjustable process, no matter what size your nest egg is. On today's show, we talk through another case study to illustrate how my team at Keen Wealth helps folks plan for a retirement that's much more than just their numbers.

"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.

When discussing the unique financial challenges that many senior women face, it's important to make clear distinctions between useless stereotypes and scientific facts. As I've written about and discussed frequently on my podcast, there's just no truth to outdated cliches about women needing more help than men when it comes to managing money. And while it may have been more common in decades past for married couples to leave the family's finances to the breadwinning man, that old-fashioned dynamic is rare today. But, according to longevity expert Maddy Dychtwald, it's a fact that women, on average, live six years longer than men. Whatever your marital status is, and however big your nest egg is, women have to be very intentional about how they plan to cover their needs during those extra years. My Keen on Retirement co-host, Steve Sanduski, recently talked to Dychtwald about her new book, Ageless Aging: A Woman’s Guide to Increasing Healthspan, Brainspan, and Lifespan. Their conversation was full of insightful and actionable advice for women who are aiming to live well long into retirement.

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.

A great many of the successful clients we're privileged to work with at Keen Wealth weren't born wealthy. They've grown their nest eggs, dollar by dollar, over years of hard work and diligent financial planning. As they're nearing retirement, these folks aren't just thinking about what life without work is going to be like -- they want to preserve their wealth to support them throughout their golden years and to build a lasting, inspiring legacy. Affluent seniors can use these five principles to start making their plans to enjoy, maintain, and even maybe grow their assets in retirement.

While inflation has generally improved in the past year or so, folks are still paying more for goods and services than they're used to. From a financial planning perspective, this short-term experience of above-average inflation has some valuable long-term lessons for seniors: throughout the course of your retirement, you should plan to cover rising prices every year as you're living off a relatively fixed income. The Federal Reserve tries to maintain an inflation rate increase of 2% per year, which it believes translates to a more stable economy. And even in years when inflation rates are below that target, modest upticks in costs will continue to compound and grow year over year. Let's take a look at how inflation typically affects three top-line retirement spending categories and how comprehensive financial planning can give seniors the resources they need to adjust to rising costs.