Category: Articles

You don’t hear that question every day! I can hear some of you saying, “Of course I purposely save!” …. Or …. “Sure. I save what I can.” …. Or …. “Kinda. I am in my employer’s 401K. Doesn’t that count?”

While not terribly common, there is some good food for thought in considering your saving habits, and what you are really saving for.

So, what are you saving for? It could be for education for you or a family member, your retirement, an emergency fund, a very special vacation, a generous Christmas, a new car (or any major purchase). The question is what exactly am I saving for? Just saying “retirement” is not good enough. What is it you want in “retirement”? Be specific. Break it down. Clearly understanding your detailed priorities for saving is worth careful consideration; because some goals will take many many years to save for and many years to figure out in many cases.

Why are you saving? To avoid taking out loans on big purchases? To ensure you can sustain your standard of living in retirement? To ensure grandkids get a good education? To avoid worrying if you can afford a vacation home someday? Pulling out the “why’s” and then reflecting on them can help ensure that your savings reflects your values. It is also good to do this exercise every few years, as life has a way of changing our priorities over time.

Everyone’s answers to these questions will be different. That’s good!
Everyone’s answer, if thought through well, will be as unique as we all are unique from each other.

Having a friend or partner to share your goals with may help you refine and clarify what you really want to do with your savings at some point. You may want to buy a place in Florida someday. However, your partner is more of a mountain person! Clarifying your goals with your partner may help you get very specific as to how you solve this dilemma. Maybe the solution is not buying that place in Florida but having varied vacation destinations where both of you would enjoy and therefore support each other’s savings goals.

Then there is identifying exactly how much you are saving. Are you counting your work’s 401K? Are you counting your annual contributions to IRA’s or ROTH IRA’s? Are you counting the education 529 contributions? Sometimes we forget that those automatic payroll deductions into the company 401K is a significant part of the “saving” equation. It is not just what we manage to put into a savings account with every paycheck.

Can you save more? Do you need to save so much? While there is no magical percentage of your income that is just right, or too much or too little, having a detailed understanding of all your monthly expenses is a key part to understanding if you are saving too little or too much. Maintaining a “budget” can help you clearly see how you are spending your money and can help you prioritize spending versus saving priorities.

Be sure to give me a call if you would like to discuss any of these topics. I am confident I can help you understand if your savings are invested well and to help you understand if you are on a path to meeting your goals and priorities.

You might think financial advisors discourage “fun” purchases – but that’s not entirely true. At least, I don’t. Many of you know that, as part of our client reviews, I always ask you about the big-ticket items and the bucket list things that you intend to do in the next year. But why does it matter?

Well, first –remember you have been saving and investing for a while now. So, when you want to buy that new car, second home, boat, or go on your dream vacation, it’s important the spending is included in your planning goals. There are lots of “fun” reasons to spend your money, and that is totally expected, as all of them will create memories for you and your family. In order to make these fun things happen though, it may mean cashing in some of your investments. We need to account for these purchases in your financial plan. A few of you may think to yourself, “wait, do I have a plan?” If you are my client, you do. I create financial plans using software called MoneyGuide Pro. When we meet in the next few weeks, part of our review process is always reviewing the plan, your budget, your goals, and making sure everything is on track.

Why do I use financial planning software? Well, I have been using MoneyGuide Pro since 2005 and I have found it to be an amazing and intuitive software. MoneyGuide Pro helps us account for every dollar you intend to spend, and how those dollars affect your long-term goals. Part of the plan is to help us determine when it’s the right time to make the “fun” purchase, and part of the plan is to tell us where the money will come from to do it. Most of my clients hate to pull money from their investments, but, the timing of when we do this is just as important as the amount.

In your plan, I do try to keep cash, of which the amount will vary depending on where you are in life and the general state of the world. With that said, sometimes it actually makes more sense from a planning perspective to finance the “fun” purchase. With the Fed’s recent low-interest rates to incentivize consumers to spend, financing could be a valid option. Will interest rates always be low? Not likely. But while they are low, there could be pros to borrowing to make your “fun” purchase happen, rather than selling your investments. By selling your investments, you’ll lose your return potential AND have to claim the gain or withdrawal on your taxes. (Remember, it’s ALWAYS best to speak to a financial professional about choices like these to make sure they are suitable for your specific situation).

Most retirees watch T.V. with their extra time – is that your dream as well?

I have written before about the importance of a retirement plan, which I do for every client to have a course of action for when their paychecks stop. What you may not know is that the most important part of the retirement plan is determining what clients will (and will not) do in retirement with their time. With that being said, I thought now would be a great time to talk about time (ha!) and what to do with yours in retirement. Since the end of summer typically means less travel and more hot cocoa – it felt like a good topic to cover today. So here we go!

An interesting statistic I found on retirees is that they spend 9.5 hours of their “extra” time a week on recreation with the majority of it spent watching T.V. To some, this could be the retirement of their dreams. And I can see that, as most retirees worked a structured schedule during their career, so watching T.V. is easier than scheduling their day, which could feel too much like work.

But what is there to do besides watching T.V.? I have found that my most active retirees focus more on recreational activities, travel, and volunteering. In fact, some mix all of those together to fill their days with the things they love, and love to do, the most.

There are also those who know they want to retire from their career, but feel that they still want to work in some capacity. This may mean part-time employment, or turning a hobby into extra income, or just driving an Uber on Saturday nights for fun and to meet new people. Maybe it does not pay as well, but it keeps them engaged, with other people, and provides some with a greater sense of value.

Clearly there is a big self-awareness aspect to this. What did you really like to do when you were working full time, besides go on vacation? What is it that you truly enjoy doing that fulfills you?

Said another way, your real retirement is what happens during the extra hours you are given each day. How creative you are with that time will determine how fulfilling your retirement will be. For the most part, you and I have likely had conversations around this aspect of your retirement plan, as it is an important piece of your goal spending, but if we have not, and you have questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

The largest wealth transfer in the history of the world is currently in process. It’s estimated that around $68 trillion will switch hands over the next 25 years. Baby Boomers are currently retiring, and many of them will pass of the scene within the next few years. Much of this wealth will be tied up in family homes. This brings up the question of what to do if you inherit your parents’ house.

Move-In

Some heirs will benefit from moving into their family’s homestead. Many retirees may have no mortgage. Therefore, those who inherit a home will likely have only the property taxes and insurance to pay to stay in the house. This can become an excellent benefit for those who might have a mortgage or a rent payment to make each month. If you own a house and have equity built up, moving into your parents’ house could provide a great opportunity to sell your own home and access the equity. The money you’ll access could allow you to make some improvements to your inheritance and bring it up to a more modern standard. Moving in can make more sense if you don’t have to share the estate with any siblings. If your parents owned a nicer or bigger home than you currently do, moving into your parents’ house could allow you to move up in your standard of living. Additionally, you would not have to deal with real estate agents, increased debt, and contract negotiations.

Rent It Out

Another way to benefit from inheriting your parents’ house can come when you decide to rent it out. Renting out could be a better option than moving in if you have siblings that will inherit a share of the home. If there isn’t an outstanding mortgage, every dollar you bring in over any property taxes, insurance, and repairs, is a dollar of passive income you could use for something else. You could save or invest the rental income. You could also use it to pay for everyday living expenses. If you have siblings, you might have to split up the income, but it’s still passive income rolling in every month.

Sell It

The third option for dealing with an inherited house is selling it. Once you inherit the house, you’ll want to maintain insurance on the property until you sign over the deed to another party. This will protect the value of the home in case a catastrophic event occurs. You’ll have to agree with any siblings if they also inherited a share of the house. Even if a house has increased in value, you’ll likely inherit the home on a stepped-up basis. This will allow you to avoid having to pay capital gains taxes. If you decide to sell, you might want to make a few updates that could improve the selling price. Shag carpet from the 1970s and floral wallpaper do not tend to sell well in today’s market.

Your parents likely worked hard to provide for you as a child. Over time, one of the assets many Baby Boomers have been able to accumulate is a home. As an heir, you should mourn the loss of your parents, but you should also consider which option works best for you when it comes to dealing with their home.

What IS the question? When should I …? or Will I have enough to …? or something else?

So many of us ask ourselves this question: “Will I have enough to retire?” This question is more than a question, it is really a significant worry for many. We are really worried that we will NOT have enough to retire.

Then there are those of us who ask the question: “When can I retire?” This question can also morph into a worry, but most of the time we are questioning how long we must work full time to save enough to retire comfortably.

There are variations on these themes of course. Some of us combine the questions into something like: “When will I have enough to retire?”.

Let me reword the question to get to the heart of the matter: “When will I be able to retire based on my savings, investments, and spending needs?”

I could go on. The point is that all these questions are valid, important, and need to be honestly answered. In order to get a good understanding of your readiness to stop full-time work, many facets of this “retirement questioning” need to be asked.

Personally, I think the questions that need to be asked and answered, all have to do with what you plan to do WHEN you decide to retire. What will you do with your free time? Are you going to play golf every day? Are you going to spend your free time with those grandbabies? Are you going to travel 6 months of the year? Are you going to volunteer your free time to your church or local charity? Are you going to build that dream vacation home? Maybe you will start a business based on your passions or interests? Maybe a combination of all the above?

The answers to these questions help to define the vision you have for your retirement. This is important to do years BEFORE you retire. Why? Because it is in answering these questions that you can start building a financial needs assessment of the income you will need to fund those plans and dreams. You need to have a feel for your spending projections during retirement in order to know if you are saving enough and investing properly. You need to have the end in mind in order to know “when will I have enough to retire”.

Of course, you can change your mind along the way. But seriously trying to define that vision of retirement will help you know if you are on a path that is potentially successful or if you need to adjust. Either adjust your savings and investing or adjust your retirement expectations. Either way, it is peace of mind.

Let me know if I can help you build such a plan! I look forward to brainstorming and thinking this through with you!

The 401k legislation passed in 1978 and refers to the section of the Internal Revenue Code. These 3 numbers ending with the letter “K” have become synonymous with a company-sponsored retirement plan today. So much so, that most companies today do not offer another version of a retirement plan. So, understanding your options with your employer’s retirement plan is super important.

At first, 401K plans had just one flavor: Tax-Deferred. What does this mean? Essentially it means that with every paycheck, you can allocate a percentage to contribute to the 401k without paying income taxes on it. So that means that all the money you contribute to the 401k is not taxed while you are saving. No taxes are due on the growth of that money either. Taxes are paid when the money (and its growth) are withdrawn as ordinary income. For more information on Tax-deferred vs. tax-advantaged money, check out this post on my blog: Should I Convert to a Roth IRA?

In 2006, Congress allowed employers to offer a Roth version of the 401k as well as the original tax-deferred version. This Roth version was different by the way it is taxed. Every paycheck you still designate a percentage of your paycheck to the Roth 401k, but it is taxed as ordinary income upfront. After taxes are taken out and the money is in the Roth 401k account, it will never be taxed again, including the investment growth (with few exceptions).

While it is widely accepted that you should participate in your company’s 401k retirement plan (especially if your company offers to add to your contribution), deciding which 401k flavor to contribute to is not as straightforward.

There are several topics to consider when deciding between these two paths. Here are a few:

Pick a tax-deferred 401k if:
– Want to minimize taxes today versus in the future
– Likely to donate to charities after you turn 72 (which you can do without paying taxes)

Pick a Roth 401k if:
– If you believe tax rates in the future will be higher vs today
– If you will be in a higher tax bracket in the future
– Want to avoid Required Minimum Distributions (RMD’s) and the associated taxes
– Want your heirs to inherit money tax-free

Remember that you can always switch (or contribute to both) mid-way or towards the end of your career. For example, if your tax-deferred 401K balance has grown to the point you are concerned about taxes due to RMD’s, you can always switch your future savings to a ROTH 401K. Once you commit to a path, you can change your strategy based on your current savings and other life situations.

Is the honeymoon over for the historically low tax rates? A lot of us are asking this question. President Biden is proposing higher taxes to pay for new and expanded government programs. We can discuss if these programs are good or not, but we won’t be doing that here! Nonetheless, there are serious discussions about taxes increasing in various parts of the US population by our government leaders.

So, what does raising taxes have to do with considering a conversion of tax-deferred money (like Traditional IRA’s) into a Roth account? Let’s get some basics out of the way first.

Tax-deferred money (401K, Traditional IRAs, SEP-IRAs, Deferred Annuities) are investment vehicles that are funded typically out of our paycheck BEFORE taxes were paid, and then allowed to grow over time. After 59 ½, we can withdraw this money without penalty, but we do have to pay income taxes on the withdrawals. The general idea is that we can postpone paying taxes on these savings during our working years and then withdraw money during retirement when we are not drawing a paycheck and then theoretically pay fewer taxes on that money. Also, the government makes us start withdrawing money every year from these accounts starting at age 72, being forced to pay taxes along the way. (Required Minimum Withdrawals or RMDs)
Tax-advantaged money (Roth IRAs, Roth 401ks, etc.) is money that was taxed before it was placed into the account, then allowed to grow without ever needing to pay taxes on it again. Even better, there are no RMDs for Roth accounts.

Even if the tax rates do not go up from here, there are plenty of scenarios where after we turn 59 ½, that methodically moving money from the tax-deferred account to a Roth can save us both taxes paid to the government AND can result in more money in our accounts in our later years. Heirs do not have to pay taxes on inherited Roth money either, where that is not the case generally for inherited IRA money. If tax rates are going to go up later this year or January 1 of next year, the case for converting gets even stronger. Let’s look at a couple of examples:

Example 1: Joe is 62 and married. He has a total portfolio of $2.1Mil, and $1.8Mil of this is in tax-deferred money due to his long-term contributions to a 401K. He since left that job and started a new one; allowing him to convert that 401K money to a Traditional IRA, giving him more control and options. Joe is in good health and plans to work until his full retirement age to start his Social Security at 67. He is making $95K per year and lives without any unusual amounts of debt. For 6 consecutive years starting at 62, he moves $200K per year from his Traditional IRA into a Roth IRA. The result:
At age 90, he saves $1.9M in federal taxes paid and increases what his heirs inherit by $119K (versus not converting). At age 80, he saves $1.3M in federal taxes and has $480K more in tax-free money versus not converting any deferred money.

Example 2: Nancy is 73 and married. She has a total portfolio of $3.1M, and $2.5M of this is in tax-deferred money. She retired 8 years ago and lives on $70K per year after taxes. She is in good health and started Social Security at 65 for $1800/month. For 5 consecutive years starting at 73, she moves $400K per year from her Traditional IRA into a Roth IRA. The result:
At age 90, she saves $1.1M in federal taxes paid and increases what her heirs inherit by $190K. At age 80, she saves $690K in federal taxes and has $450K more in tax-free money versus not converting any deferred money.

Why? There are several reasons, but in both examples, the RMDs are generating more tax revenue for Uncle Sam versus converting to a Roth IRA and paying the taxes earlier in their lifetimes, but not for as long because of the conversions. Remember that once converted, Roth IRAs grow tax-free and are inherited tax-free.

Note that these examples were calculated with TODAY’s tax rates. If tax rates increase, these numbers only look more attractive.

Your situation may not be as clear-cut as this. If you’d like this analysis done for you or have questions, please feel free to reach out. I’d be happy to discuss.

As we think of our goals and priorities, this can involve getting an estate plan together. If you want to leave part of your estate to your stepchildren, you must make this specification in your will. If a stepparent dies without a will, the children will not get any part of the estate even if the deceased stepparent wanted them to. Stepchildren do not have automatic inheritance rights possessed by adopted and biological children.

Legally speaking, stepchildren are not entitled to any inheritance unless they are specifically named on the will. This fact can be traced back to the colonial days when America was under British common law. Due to the prevalence of negative stepparent stereotypes at the time, the centuries-old legal system did not encourage strong legal relationships between stepchildren and stepparents.

Blended Families and Estate Planning

What are blended families? The term blended family refers to a family situation where either the husband, wife or both, have children from a previous marriage. Blended families can take any of the following forms.:
– Families where both spouses have children from an earlier marriage.
– A family where the husband and wife have children from previous marriages and biological children as a couple.
– Married couples where either the husband or the wife have children from an earlier marriage.

Blended families often have to deal with complex issues when it comes to estate planning. Problems can arise between the parents or the children and their spouses. Some of the challenges individuals from these families face include:
– Scuffles over the division of responsibilities or authority.
– The need to protect their estate from previous spouses.
– Potential delaying of the stepchildren’s asset perhaps until the death of the parent’s spouse.
– The possibility of stepchildren being disinherited by the living spouse.

Estate Planning Asset Protection Strategies to Protect Stepchildren

The number of blended families continues to rise as divorce rates in first marriages, and remarriages grow. On average, about 50 percent of marriages and 60 percent of remarriages end in divorce in the US. With the help of an estate planning attorney, these families can develop some form of asset protection to make sure that the surviving offspring remains a part of their estate.

Stepparent Will

The stepparent should make sure they have a will that specifically names the stepchild/children as a beneficiary. If a stepparent dies without a will, his/her estate will be inherited by the legal spouse or the closest living relative but not the stepchild.

Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (ILIT)

ILITs allow stepparents to provide for their children through life insurance and use the remainder to provide for their spouse. The parent purchases a life insurance policy using the child’s name and pays the premium for the rest of his/her life. The child will receive the inheritance upon the death of the parent. An irrevocable life insurance trust is an excellent way to ensure that stepchildren are not disinherited.

Bloodline Trusts

A bloodline trust is intended to benefit your child and his/her offspring. The trust protects a child from creditors and former spouses by keeping the money in the family. The child is the trustee.



Sources

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/us-divorce-rate/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rbcwealthmanagement/2015/06/23/estate-planning-tips-for-your-blended-family/#9dc54944f4a2
http://www.n-klaw.com/the-blended-family-dilema/
http://www.kwgd.com/estate-planning-for-blended-families

After a stressful 2020, you’re thinking more-and-more about retirement. While the bulk of your retirement prep work and heavy lifting has been completed by the time you’re a couple of years from retirement, there are still a few boxes you’ll want to check off before finally saying adios to the workforce. Let’s go through them.

1. Social Security Decision
You’ll need to decide when to collect Social Security benefits. The earliest age is 62. Unless you’re retiring early and need the benefits to help cover expenses like health insurance, it’s advantageous to wait. At 62, your benefits would be reduced by 25% or more. You won’t collect 100% of your benefits until you’re 66 or 67, depending on what year you were born. When you wait to collect, keep in mind that benefits increase by 8 percent/per year up until you’re age 70.

2. Get Your Finances Simplified
Do you have multiple brokerage accounts, savings accounts, checking accounts, 401(k)s, IRAs, and other retirement savings accounts? Perhaps, you’ve lost track of an account?
First, simplifying and consolidating your various small financial accounts into a larger one will make it easier for your heirs to step in to control if you had a medical emergency, needed long-term care, or passed away.

Second, you can reduce paperwork, possibly save some cash, and better keep track of your set income to expenses ratio by having everything neatly confined. For example, aggregation with a single provider can offer some economies of scale-like cheaper expense ratios.
Lastly, if you’ve lost track of an account, then you’re missing a piece of your financial pie that could make a big change in how retirement tastes. missingmoney.org and unclaimed.org are good places to start tracking lost and unclaimed funds.

3. Give Your Portfolio A Health Checkup
Ideally, your portfolio at this point should be moderate-risk. It should be about half and half stocks and bonds. If the stock market is causing you any worry, then consider a move to more steady stock funds like VEIPX or TWEIX, who’ve both held up well in previous downturns.
A bucket system may help protect you against your biggest retiree risk – forced sells during plunges. During plunges, the bucket system allows you to have enough cash and bonds that you won’t be forced into selling stocks to pay your debts. You’ll divide your nest egg into three buckets:
• Bucket one – cash for living expenses not otherwise covered in the next few years.
• Bucket two – short and intermediate-term bonds to cover the money you’ll need in the first ten years of retirement.
• Bucket three – diversified stocks for money needed in the distant future.

4. Make A Plan With HR
Schedule a time to speak with your company’s human resources department about your retirement. Topics you’ll want to ask about include:
• Are unused vacation days paid upon retirement?
• Is receiving profit-sharing payouts, bonuses, 401(k) match, or any other income aspect impacted by your planned retirement date?
• If retiring before Medicare-age, what retiree health benefits are offered?
• If a 401(k) is left as-is versus rolling it over into an IRA, can distributions still be taken? How? Is there a fee?
• If a pension is available, what are the options for payout?
One note on lump-sum pensions to keep in mind is that extending your retirement may not increase your pension. Lump-sum pensions are calculated based on interest rates. The higher the interest rate, the lower the pension. Extending your retirement when interest rates are rising can actually result in your pension going down, not up.

5. Study Medicare Closely
Medicare is a difficult beast to navigate, and the sales pitches you get from supplement insurers only adds to the confusion. So, you’ll want to start studying now, understanding how it works, what coverage gaps exist for you, and what you need versus don’t need in supplements. Here are some highlights you’ll want to consider:
• Upon turning 65, Social Security beneficiaries are automatically enrolled in Medicare parts A (hospital care) & B (doctor and outpatient visits.) If you’re delaying your SS payment, then it’s up to you to enroll on your own.
• If delaying your SS claim and still covered by your employer’s health plan, then you’ll likely find it beneficial to go ahead and sign up for part A at age 65 since there’s usually not a premium.
• You may want to opt-out of part B since it charges you a monthly premium for service.
You may also want to opt-out of part D, which covers prescriptions. The caveat here is your employer’s offered insurance is as good as what Medicare offers. If not, and you select to opt-out, then you’ll face penalties when you sign up in the future.
• To ensure you’re not left without coverage, plan to sign up for part B around six weeks prior to retirement. You have eight months after leaving your job to sign up for part B without penalty.
• Be deciding if you want Medicare Advantage. This is basically a combination of parts B & D with a supplemental Medigap plan to cover the copayments, deductibles, and other traditional healthcare costs that Medicare doesn’t include. These plans provide private insurers medical and drug coverage within a network, meaning you’ll need to carefully research your plan options and determine if your preferred health care providers are in the offered network of a plan.

6. Should An Annuity Be On The Agenda?
Without a traditional pension, an immediate annuity might be a good option for you. A common strategy is to calculate fixed monthly expenses – car notes, mortgages, insurances, utilities – and buy an annuity that gives a congruent payment. Basically, you give an insurer a lump sum of money in exchange for them paying you a monthly amount each month for either the remainder of your life or a specified amount of years. If you choose a joint-and-survivor annuity, that payment continues through your spouse’s life should he/she outlive you.

Another strategy is a deferred income annuity. Ideally, these are bought at least 10 to 15 years out from retirement since they take 10 years to mature. However, if you’re taking an early retirement or expect your expenses to be greater in the next decade, a deferred annuity may be a good option. They’re much less costly than an immediate annuity, but they also have a major risk versus reward. Your heirs get nothing if you pass away before payments begin. The fix is to opt for return-of-premium benefits, but this reduces your payout quite a bit.
In closing, the finish line is just around the corner, but now isn’t the time to slack just yet. You’ll want to make sure these important boxes are checked so that you can retire in the peace and confidence you’ve worked all these years to afford.

This year has forced some to think about retiring early. When it comes to retiring early, some of the benefits are obvious! You get to live your life without the constraints of work and can pursue your own interests. But there are other good reasons for retiring early, and there are some reasons why retiring early is not the best idea.

Your Dedication is Gone

One of the right reasons to retire early is that you are simply not dedicated to working anymore. When you are no longer emotionally interested in working, your performance deteriorates, and your company suffers.

There are good reasons for retiring early, and there are some reasons retiring early is not the best idea.

Working Took its Toll

In some professions, such as construction and law enforcement, the job’s physical and emotional demands can become too much over time. After a few years in a high-risk profession, your body and mind have simply had enough, and it is time to go home and rest.

Your Finances Become More Flexible

Most people do not realize how expensive it is to work until they are no longer working. When you work any job, you incur expenses such as wear and tear on your car, transportation expenses such as gas or bus passes, work clothing costs, daycare, and miscellaneous medical costs for work-related injuries. If you have planned your finances to retire early, you will find that your money goes much further when you are not working.

Your Health Could Suffer

For some people, retiring early means abandoning the daily physical activity working required and giving up a big piece of their identity. Retiring early can cause physical and mental problems that could become very serious over time.

You Lose Your Social Circle

After years of working, you tend to take for granted the notion that you will see most of your friends at work five days out of the week. Even people who think that the people they work with are only acquaintances suddenly find that the loss of the social circle they developed at work is devastating.

You Didn’t Plan Well

When you retire before the age of 65, you risk losing out on health insurance. Medicare automatically kicks in for every American when they turn 65, but what would you do until that age? Did you plan your retirement finances right, or will you run out of money? Many people forget to take inflation into account when they plan their retirement, which makes retiring early financially dangerous.

There are two sides to every story, and that includes the story that goes with retiring early. The idea of walking away from work before the age of 65 can sound appealing, but there are plenty of variables to consider before you make that decision. If you want to retire early, talk about it with your family, and then we will get together and check if you have structured your savings properly to live without a paycheck for the rest of your life.