20 Retirement Mistakes to Avoid

Mistaking Journalists for Financial Advisors

Most of these people majored in English or Journalism, not Finance. They give general advice targeting a general audience. There is no attention paid to your specific situation or wants needs, and desires. You need to sit down with a professional Financial Advisor to properly address those concerns.

Retiring without Liquidity or Diversity

“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” … Yes, they were talking about your investments too. You need to address any number of possible market situations and personal situations and make sure to have funds readily available to deal with them.

Living on the Interest without Touching Principal

This locks you in to one distribution strategy that may not be appropriate under every circumstance. Some prudent management of multiple sources of income may give you more flexibility in dealing with changing circumstances.

Retiring without any Real Goals

If you have no idea what you want to do with the rest of your life it will be difficult to determine what your needs will be. This kind of uncertainty can be troubling.

Assuming you will be in a Lower Tax Bracket when you Retire

This assumes that Congress would never raise taxes. This may not be a reliable assumption.

Trusting a Calculator to tell you When to Retire

“Retirement Calculators” are designed for a general audience and may give you a general idea of what you may need. They also give very little direction on how to provide sufficient retirement income to meet your needs.

Retiring early only to Reduce your Social Security Benefit

Taking Social Security benefits early but needing a part-time job to fill the gap may cause the benefit to be reduced as well as permanently losing increased benefits available to you by delaying retirement.

Drawing Income form the Wrong Assets

If you have choices between multiple streams of income, which when should you choose and in what proportion? You may need to consider many factors including Taxation, Liquidity, Reliability, and Returns. A detailed analysis may be a good idea.

Choosing the Wrong Beneficiary

When you pass away, who will receive your remaining wealth? IRAs, Pensions, Life Insurance policies, Annuities and other financial instruments may all have beneficiary designations that need to be reviewed periodically to make sur e that they are up to date and align with your intentions.

Retiring without Estate or Insurance Planning

How do you protect the transfer against “Creditors and Predators”? How do you avoid taxation? How do you avoid Probate? You may want to consider careful Estate Planning to make sure your financial affairs are in order before that time.

Retiring on Hope

You should have an idea of what your expenses will be in retirement, how much you will need to save, when you can afford to retire, and how long your savings should last.

Ignoring Inflation

Prices for goods and services don’t stay the same. They may increase over time, especially Health Care costs, which have been rising faster than most other costs. You usually need more Health Care as you get older.

Making Seat-of-Your-Pants Money Decisions

What looked good today may not look so good tomorrow. One bad mistake can damage your retirement plans badly. Getting experienced, objective advice from a professional Financial Advisor can help you make more informed decisions.

Handing your Heirs Tax Problems

Proper Estate Planning can help ensure that your heirs maximize their inheritance instead of passing it along to the Government in the form of taxes.

Dismissing the Need for Long-Term Care

Contrary to popular belief, Medicare does not cover much on Long-Term Care expenses. You will have to come up with most of the funds yourself. Have you planned for this?

Being Talked into the Wrong Investments

Are you being sold a particular investment or are you being provided with options that are appropriate for your situation. You should insist on financial advice that is based on what is in your best interest.

Losing a Big Chunk of your Retirement Money in One Wrong Move

There are many decisions to make on moving money around at retirement including distributions options and rollovers. These need to be done properly to maximize your retirement benefits and to avoid undesirable outcomes.

Thinking Tomorrow will be just like Today

Past performance is not an indicator of future results. You may need to periodically reposition assets to address liquidity, stability, and income needs.

Retiring without an Investment Strategy

Investing in Retirement can be far different than investing before Retirement. You will be living off of savings during Retirement instead of trying to grow your portfolio. This needs a new strategy to be considered.

Set Goals as you Save and Invest

What are you trying to accomplish? Fund Retirement? Save for College? Build an Emergency Fund? Saving and investing based on well-defined goals can give you more focus on strategy and planning activities necessary to achieve your desired outcomes.

Conclusion

Proper planning can help you avoid mistakes that can lead to undesirable outcomes. You should meet with an experienced Financial Advisor to get some help. You can also get some more detailed information on this topic by requesting a free copy of our eBook “20 Retirement Mistakes Retirees Make and How to Avoid Them” by emailing to info@SWRetire.com.

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