Everyone says:

“they already have a guy”

When we meet with people and ask the question: “Have you reviewed YOUR RETIREMENT PLAN lately?”, we typically get the aforementioned answer…”we already have a guy”.  Hmmm…so why would someone give an answer to a question that we haven’t asked? We didn’t ask about “their guy”. We asked about their plan. It’s interesting, isn’t it?

So we dug a little deeper and we found almost nobody has a retirement planner…only a financial services representative….that they like of course. Let’s face it, you probably wouldn’t do business with someone you didn’t like! Would you? We also found that rarely do they have a plan…they have an account balance….that fluctuates wildly.

Familiarity breeds content. We’ve heard all of the cliches…If it ain’t broke don’t fix it…investing is for the long haul…diversify, diversify, diversify….etc. During the accumulation phase of your retirement,  this all make perfect financial sense. However, when you enter the Retirement RED ZONE (5 years or less before you expect to retire), you had better listen to some other strategies that put the odds of a happy successful retirement in your favor.

For example: If the market dropped 50% or more while you are in the RED ZONE, how much longer would you have to work in order to retire optimally? Also, did you realize that if you are with a fee-based brokerage account that every time you ask for YOUR MONEY that you are cutting your financial advisor’s paycheck?

Consider this? Do you know anyone during any market crash who got the call PRIOR to the crash that said “I think you should do me (your broker) a favor and cut my paycheck by selling some… if not all… of your market risk?”

Bottom line...here’s the how we are different:

Many people have financial products and can’t tell you what they are and why they have them. As consumers we are trained by Wall Street advertising to accumulate, accumulate, accumulate. Rarely does anyone stop to tell you that your assets are no good to you in retirement. Assets can be stolen, swindled, sued, divorced, or decimated in a market crash and are basically NO GOOD TO YOU UNTIL YOU SELL THEM. What you need mostly is INCOME…and no one wants to talk about changing your mindset from accumulate to spend. Hint: It’s ok to spend some if you can’t run out of money.

• Ask your advisor to help you with your Social Security choices.
• Ask you advisor to help you with your Medicare choices including your prescription Part D.
• Ask your advisor to show you EXACTLY how much income you will have during  retirement and not a percentage, hypothetical examples or an estimate.
• Ask your advisor to show you how to grow and protect your 401k or IRA without market risk or fees. If they can’t, you no longer need them.

Make the call!