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Time for Your
Pre-retiree Checklist?
L
ike everyone, you want to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle
when you retire. But a successful retirement doesn’t just
happen—it requires a lot of planning. And that’s why
it’s a good idea to draw up a “pre-retiree checklist.” Such a
checklist might look like this:
This article was written by Edward Jones for use by your local
Edward Jones Financial Advisor.
Edward Jones, its employees and financial advisors cannot
provide tax or legal advice. You should consult your attorney or
qualified tax advisor regarding your situation.
q Twenty years before retirement: Try to estimate a
“price tag” for your retirement, incorporating a variety of
factors—where you might live, how much you might travel,
what activities you’ll pursue, and so on. Then, assess if your
retirement savings are on track to help you meet your
expected costs. From this point, monitor your progress every
year.
q Fifteen years before retirement: Although you’re still
fairly far away from retirement, you’ll want to bring your
goals and challenges into a clearer focus. For starters, try
to establish a firmer target goal for the assets you’ll need
during retirement. Also, consider your legacy goals and start
developing your estate plans, if you haven’t already done so.
You might also explore methods of dealing with potentially
enormous long-term care costs, such as an extended stay in
a nursing home. Solutions to long-term care may become
much more expensive later in life.
q Ten years before retirement: At this stage, in addition
to reviewing your target asset and spending levels, you’ll
want to get more precise about how much income you
can expect as a retiree, whether through your investments
or retirement accounts (such as your 401(k) and IRA),
or through some type of part-time work or consulting.
Maintaining an adequate income flow is extremely
important, because you could spend two or three decades
as a retiree, and some of your expenses—health care
in particular—will likely rise during the later years. It’s
important to plan for health care and long-term care,
given the costs and ability to qualify for coverage later in life.
q Five years before retirement: Reevaluate your
investment mix to help reduce the risk of having your
portfolio vulnerable to a market downturn when you plan to
retire. Generally speaking, stocks and other growth-oriented
investments are more volatile than bonds and other
income-producing vehicles. So, you may want to consider
shifting some—but certainly not all—of your investment
dollars from the “growth” portion of your portfolio to the
“income” side.
q Two years before retirement: This close to retirement,
you’ll want to pay particularly close attention to health-
care expenses, so you may want to investigate Medicare
supplemental policies. You’ll also want to ensure that you
have an adequate emergency fund to cope with unexpected
costs, such as major home repairs. In addition, you’ll want to
think about whether you should take Social Security right
away or if you can afford to wait until your monthly checks
will be bigger.
q One year before retirement: Now it’s time for some
key decisions: How much can you withdraw each year from
your 401(k), IRA and other retirement accounts without
running the risk of outliving your money? Have you lined up
your health care coverage? And, finally, are you really set on
retiring in a year or could you delay retirement to improve
your financial picture? This checklist isn’t exhaustive—but it
can give you a good idea of the various issues you’ll need to
consider on the long road to retirement. And the sooner you
start planning for that journey, the better.
Matt
Dudkowski,
AAMS®
Matt
Dudkowski,
AAMS® | Financial
Advisor | 1007 Mt Royal Blvd. Pittsburgh, PA 15223 | 412.487.3300
Financial Advisor
[email protected]
| www.edwardjones.com
.
Matt
Dudkowski
has been
1007
Mt Royal
Blvd a financial advisor with Edward Jones since 2002, serving individual investors in
the
Pittsburgh area
from
his Shaler Township office. In January of 2015, Dudkowski accepted an invitation
Pittsburgh,
PA
15223
to 412-487-3300
become a limited partner with the firm.
Since joining Edward Jones, Dudkowski has obtained the professional designation of AAMS®. Prior to Edward
Jones, Dudkowski, as a CPA, worked at the H.J. Heinz Company, and at Ernst & Young LLP.
He currently serves on the board of directors for Keystone Wellness Programs, a local nonprofit organization.
A native of Butler County and a graduate of the University
of Notre Dame, Dudkowski resides in Gibsonia with his wife,
two sons and daughter.
Matt Dudkowski has been a financial advisor with Edward Jones since
pine-richland
2002, serving individual investors in the Pittsburgh
area from his Shaler
Township office. In January of 2015, Dudkowski accepted an invitation to
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