The Complete Retirement Planner Blog

The number one rule of financial planning for retirement - don't guess, don't hope, don't pay attention to generic advice or benchmarks. Be prepared with a reliable, detailed, written financial plan! You, and your unique financial situation and needs, are not generic and they require individualized attention. It may not be a task that's at the top of your to-do list, but it should be. Yes, it can be complex and confusing. Yes, it can be tedious to gather all of the information you need to do it correctly (in reasonable detail). Yes, you will need to try to predict the...

IRMAA is an acronym that stands for Medicare's Income Related Monthly Adjustment Amount. If you are unfamiliar with IRMAA, and how it may affect you, it could end up costing you a lot of money. This "adjustment" can cause an increase in your Medicare premiums for Part B and Part D. It is based on your most recent tax return supplied to Medicare by the I.R.S and specifically looks at your Modified Adjusted Gross Income. In most cases this may be a tax return from 2 years ago (or 3 years ago if the return from 2 years ago is...

Health Savings Accounts (HSA's) are becoming more widely used as people discover all of the benefits that they have to offer. No doubt, the continually rising cost of health care is also helping to push people to research the best options for paying for it all, both for pre-retirement, and, especially, for post-retirement. While health care expenses will vary greatly from person to person, and even from year to year, these accounts can be used at any age and actually offer the greatest advantages when you think long term (more on this below). However, before we get into the many...

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. Essential 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...

As you create a financial plan, major concerns about how much to save, how much you will be able to withdraw from savings each year, how long will your savings last, etc. often take center stage. One consideration that doesn't get as much attention is how much of your savings should be kept in cash. Before you retire, a common rule of thumb is to always have at least six months expenses in cash. This is mainly to help protect you if you should lose your job, or incur significant unexpected expenses. But is this enough after you retire?The good...