Keen On Retirement

On today’s show, we tackle one big retirement question from a listener with a lot on his mind. Retirement is nearing for both him and his wife. Decisions have to be made about portfolio rebalancing, withdrawal rates, and legacy planning. The breadth of issues and wealth of options are intimidating, and worse, this listener isn’t sure who to trust with these important questions.

At Keen Wealth, we try to view these developments through a very wide lens and remind our clients that the long-term upward trajectory of our economy never follows a straight line. Today, I thought it might be useful to narrow our focus a little bit. Let’s look at how the rate of inflation affects your personal portfolio, as well as other factors that don’t necessarily make the headlines but can still impact your purchasing power in retirement.

Deciding when to start taking Social Security payments is one of the most important decisions you and your fiduciary advisor will make about your retirement plan. It’s also one of the trickiest to get right.

By the end of February, your financial institutions should have sent you all your relevant tax documents for 2017, like earning statements on your investment accounts, interest earned on savings, etc. If you’re missing anything important, you might want to get in touch with those institutions and make sure the info you need is on its way.

The headlines and talking heads painted a very bleak picture last week as the market went through its first significant bout of volatility in two years. But at Keen on Retirement I’m not trying to scare you into clicking on another link or sticking around through the next commercial break. We want to give folks our honest perspective on what’s really going on in the markets and the state of the economy’s fundamentals.

I’ve written before that my team at Keen Wealth places a high priority on educating ourselves about trends, innovations, and ideas that could have an impact on the financial and lifestyle planning we do for our clients. Personally, I set aside a few hours out of my workweek for learning time, and recently I came across a fascinating Ted2017 talk from Susan Pinker. She’s a developmental psychologist whose book, The Village Effect, talks about how important face-to-face social bonds are to our longevity and quality of life. I recommend watching Pinker’s entire Ted2017 talk, but I’d also like to focus on a few insights that I think can really help seniors strengthen their social bonds and enjoy a long and prosperous life in retirement.