There are many significant challenges to this important stage of life:

• It could be 15 to 25 years in length.
• During this time you will transition through 5 specific phases.
• Taxes, Fees, Inflation and market volatility will have the greatest impact on your savings and investments during this time.
• "When" you retire will have more to do with your long term retirement success than any other factor.
• Close to 80% of your total lifetime health care costs will occur in the last 10 years of your life.
• Most people can not afford to make any mistakes during this time.  You need to get it right the first time.

In most instances people will know that they have enough money for retirement based on the size of their investment portfolio and their desired average annual rate of return.  Assuming that they are able to earn the ideal investment return consistently over time, they will be ok.  In reality, however, due to the typical volatility we see in the financial markets, most people will need to have 15% to 20% more total investment value than what they actually need.  This may mean that "retirement" for most people is an impossible dream.

Alternatively, it doesn't really matter what you have, it only matters what you keep.  It doesn't matter how large your investment portfolio is if you pay a significant amount of fees or taxes when withdrawing income.  The higher the taxes and fees, the higher the return needs to be in the portfolio.  The higher the return of the portfolio, the more risk in the portfolio.  Who wants more risk in retirement?  By reducing fees and taxes you can generate the same or more income with less overall risk.

Tax Efficient Retirement Income Planning begins with identifying your ideal lifestyle going forward, your ideal basic after-tax monthly income needs and your enhanced lifestyle wants.  Next we focus on tax efficiency to ensure your income is as tax efficient as possible.  Next we create a benchmark by considering something that we call the 100% Guaranteed Solution.  All other retirement options are compared against this approach so as to effectively measure the pros and cons of any alternative course of action.  Next we focus on the portfolio by measuring your personal risk profile and identifying the risk profile of the ideal portfolio for you at this stage in your life.  By following these steps we will find the most ideal tax efficient retirement income approach.

All of this information is contained in my book "Master Your Retirement", a copy of which can be ordered from my on-line store.  This is an independent, fee based service that can be provided to you once, as you plan your retirement, or updated as frequently as you desire.

If you like what you hear and are looking for a more enhanced way to plan for retirement, send me a note and we can talk further.

The traditional retirement approach places the greatest emphasis on the portfolio and the before tax portfolio return.

The tax efficient retirement income strategy focus' first on the "tactical after-tax income allocation" so that the portfolio is best positioned to address the income goal in a low risk, consistent and reliable manner.