The Story:

Jeffrey was recently forced into retirement a bit earlier than he had planned.

He has plans and goals for the future but does not know if they will be possible if he does not go back to work.

Jeffrey wants a plan that can show him the spending tolerance of his portfolio so that he can make an informed decision whether to go back to work or not.

The Challenge:

Jeffrey is married without kids. He and his partner have been looking forward to traveling. They’ve even considered relocating if their finances can support it. They simply don’t know how to evaluate those types of decisions and don’t want to do anything that would jeopardize their retirement.

Jeffrey has some old employer retirement plans and a big chunk of money in a taxable account that came to him via inheritance. He does not know how to access the retirement account funds. Nor does he know how to invest or produce an income from the combination of his brokerage assets.

Ultimately, Jeffrey wants to be a good steward of his wealth - but he does not have any immediate family that he needs to leave the funds to. He and his partner need a way to figure out the right balance between spending and caution so that they can enjoy their life together.

The Solution:

Jeffrey wanted some basic financial education to begin things. While he wants to delegate, he also wants to feel educated enough to understand the recommendations coming his way.

The first step would be to create a financial dashboard and then educate Jeffrey about the different account types, investment allocations, and tax consequences of how his money is currently situated.

Then, working in conjunction with his CPA, his retirement plan included:

• Creating a Financial Dashboard showing all of his accounts, assets, and liabilities in one place
• Setting up an expense worksheet and a “real time” expense tracking system
• Identifying and documenting how much income his portfolio could tolerate each year, and how that fit in with his desired spending behaviors.
• Establishing the proper account structure to support his short, medium, and long term funding needs
• Adjusting his investment allocation to support the withdrawal plan that would provide him with a reliable retirement income stream

By the time the plan was built and Jeffrey was ready to move to the implementation phase, he felt extremely relieved to have a much deeper understanding of his finances.

Jeffrey was reassured to understand what spending limitations he would need to live within if he wanted to take advantage of his early retirement and not be required to go back to work.

He felt confident that with that knowledge and a retirement road map in place that he and his partner could lean into his early retirement and succeed!

Jeffrey feels reassured that his financial plan is monitored and adjusted proactively, and that when adjustments need to be made, he is treated like a financial partner rather than a child.