Over the next few weeks, we will be writing about the different elements of a successful retirement income plan. We still use the word “retirement” to describe our years after our main occupation but, of course, the definition of retirement is much different today than in the past. Maybe a better way to think of retirement these days is to think about what it takes to plan for successfully living on the income from your investments from the time you stop earning until your life expectancy. That is what “retirement” really means in the context of financial planning.

Here is a preview of what the next few weeks will bring:

• Asset Allocation – Jon will discuss the importance of a proper asset allocation at, and through, retirement. We may think of retirement as the time we ‘cash in’ on our well-earned savings, but we need to stay invested while properly balancing the need for protection (by owning bonds) with the need for growth (by owning stocks) and need to make sure we are holding the correct types of investments in those asset classes.
• Plan Monitoring – Charlie will discuss why the ongoing monitoring of your plan may be more important than the initial design, as it offers flexibility and adaptability throughout your non-working years. Our initial assumptions will never turn out to be perfect, so we need to have a process in place to adjust as we see reality play out in the markets and in your specific situation.
• Bucketing – Lyle will discuss why we use a ‘bucketing’ approach in a retirement income architecture plan, where your assets are segmented from a risk perspective, including the behavioral economics around that strategy and how we have seen it play out in real time for our clients.

Whether you are well into retirement, on the brink of it, or don’t even have it on your roadmap, this series will give you insight into the theories and practical applications that inform a well-designed retirement income plan.