About The Book

Talking about retirement planning can give many people anxiety. What do you do? How do you approach it? What’s the difference between a retirement specialist and an investment advisor? Who does what? Or, the really big question: What do I want out of my retirement? A quick Google search will give you hundreds, if not thousands, of websites, many of them advertising their services. It’s an information overload. That’s why I wrote this book, to provide a bit of clarity, to help you understand the vocabulary, and to provide a foundation of the basics.

Let’s start with the difference between a retirement specialist and an investment advisor. An investment advisor is someone who helps you manage your finances and make sound investment decisions, usually during your career. A retirement specialist is, by default, a financial planner, but is highly specialized in the field of retirement. They assist you in putting together your life after you’re done working. These plans include income planning, tax reduction, and focusing more on preservation of capital, but a retirement specialist puts together more than just that. The main difference between investment advisors and retirement specialists is their focus. Investment advisors are more general and can help you with various financial planning tasks, while a retirement specialist is focused specifically on retirement planning.You may have been working with your investment advisor for years. Maybe he or she was there when you bought your first house, or maybe they came to your daughter’s wedding. In which case, the idea of going to someone else for help in planning your retirement seems ridiculous. After all, he’s done good by you so far, but staying with an investment advisor your entire life is like staying with your pediatrician into adulthood. Or going to your general practitioner for brain surgery. When you have a back problem you can go to a chiropractor, an orthopedist, an acupuncturist, or a physical therapist—they all deal with backs within their specialty. When you are thinking about retirement in total rather than building wealth, you need a retirement specialist.

This book deals with the specific things you need to consider that are different from wealth building.
• Social security—When is the right time to pick your options?
• Pension options—What is pension max, and is it a good alternative? Is lump sum an option? Income—Where and when do you take income, and how?
• Health care—One of the biggest expenditures in retirement.
• Legacy planning—What about your kids and the charities you care about?
• Taxes—Another one of the biggest expenditures in retirement. You may be paying a lot more than you think or than you need to. Did you know that taxes are voluntary to a point?!

The process of planning your retirement may seem completely overwhelming, but if you’re armed with solid information, it can be really exciting as well. After all, it is another step in your journey!I hope, with this book, that I’m able to answer important questions and give you the tools you need to plan for what comes next.