The Complete Retirement Planner Blog

Continuous improvement is the goal of TCRP and for 2022 we have added several new features that will only help to enhance our leadership position in personal financial planning tools. As always, this annual update includes the most current tax laws, retirement account contribution limits, I.R.S. divisors for RMD's, and Medicare costs, but there are also several feature additions that easily make this our most advanced planning tool to date:• Both spouses may now choose the age at which Traditional 401k/IRA distributions should begin. They can use the default age of 60, or specify an age from 55 to 72....

The bigger question is not when should you start planning for retirement, but why haven't you started already? Any professional financial adviser will tell you what you've already heard elsewhere a thousand times - start saving as early on in your career as possible, consistently save as much as you can, and invest it wisely in accordance with your risk tolerance. This is, of course, to encourage you to be financially responsible, and to help you to achieve financial security. While this is great advice (though, "save as much as you can" needs clarification), it is missing some essential information....

Financial planning, including investing, is like flying a plane - at a minimum, you want to maintain a safe altitude (preserve capital), but the ultimate goal is to climb up to a target altitude that will allow you to reach your destination (financial goals) efficiently and with minimal turbulence. At the same time, fluid and uncontrollable environmental conditions (stock market gyrations, unexpected significant expenses) can cause you to rise or fall with little or no notice, requiring continuous monitoring to keep you on track. Even the plane itself requires regular maintenance to ensure that it remains in optimal mechanical condition...

It's one thing to plan for retirement by saving diligently year after year, but quite another to shift your focus to how much of those savings you will need to actually spend each year once you retire. Bills will always need to be paid no matter how much you are able to reduce expenses, and seeing your savings balance decline instead of increase can cause a bit of a shock. The immediate question then becomes, "How much can I withdraw each year and still not run out of money?". There's no shortage of articles offering advice about solving that riddle,...

One of the most crucial parts of creating a financial plan is determining the expected return rates on your investments. How much income those investments will be able to generate both before and after retirement will be integral to determining how long your savings may last, but you have to be realistic. To calculate the returns on your investments, most calculators and planning tools allow only one return rate to be entered for all years. Unfortunately, this assures that the results will be skewed, and not in your favor (explained below). For this reason, if you have the opportunity to...