Retirement Planning with Clarity and Confidence

In 2021, I undertook a comprehensive evaluation of whether early retirement was financially feasible. Despite a wealth of available resources, I found that many retirement frameworks lacked the clarity and simplicity needed to make confident, well-informed decisions. Ultimately, I made the decision to retire from a 25-year career and focused my attention on developing a practical, structured approach to retirement planning.

That experience led to the creation of a Retirement Roadmap—a planning framework designed to help individuals and couples assess the feasibility of retirement and navigate the transition from accumulation to distribution. The Roadmap emphasizes simplicity, low maintenance, and empowerment.

Through my practice, I help clients evaluate their existing retirement strategy against this framework and provide personalized, actionable recommendations to improve alignment and efficiency.

Key components of the Retirement Roadmap include

* Delaying Social Security benefits until age 70 when appropriate

* Ensuring all estate planning documents are current, including a Revocable Trust, Health Care Power of Attorney, Financial Power of Attorney, and updated beneficiary designations

* Converting pre-tax retirement savings to Roth accounts in a tax-efficient manner

* Establishing a 5- to 7-year TIPS ladder to support inflation-protected income

* Maintaining equity exposure through a low-cost U.S. Total Stock Market Index fund

* Eliminating consumer and mortgage debt

* Consolidating retirement accounts to simplify oversight and reduce complexity