Do you ever wonder if your income will be enough to retire and enjoy your lifestyle?
News 3's financial expert Carl Carlson, CEO and founder of Carlson Financial, said we should be designing, building and executing an income plan for our retirement.
He added that we should start to plan now. It’s never too early and it’s never too late, even if you’re already retired, Carlson said. The more time you have to plan for your retirement income, the more time you have to build that confidence that your plan will work and you will, without a doubt, have the lifestyle you want in retirement.
He said it is best to have help from a financial professional who has the tools and the expertise to guide you through the process. What you want to do is to gather all your income and expense information - things like pay stubs and Social Security statements - into one spot and then begin putting that info into an Income Planning System/Model/or spreadsheet.
The system that we use is very important; it needs to take into account a lot if different things over time and have the ability to test many, many different things like inflation rates and rates of return on investments and different expense levels and much more. But, Carlson said, most importantly, you will want to nail down what you expect your necessary and your discretionary expenses to be in retirement.
"Be sure to keep in mind how those expenses may change throughout retirement, like your home mortgage paying off or more money for trips and fun things in the early years and less as you get into your 80s. Then, you want to figure out what you’re guaranteed income streams will be in retirement. These are things like Social Security and pensions. And then make sure, by testing many different scenarios, that you have enough guaranteed sources of income to be able to pay, at a minimum, your necessary expenses. But I would even say have enough to cover all of your expenses," he said.
To get help with these steps, you can call Carlson Financial 844-CARLSON or reach out through our website carlsonfinancial.com to see if you qualify for our free Retirement Review.
