When it comes to saving and investing during your working career, CRNAs can find plenty of help and resources to get them to retirement. Unfortunately, there’s not nearly as much support to help you manage that nest egg and spend down your assets. This period, known as decumulation, is just as important as anything you do with your finances so let’s make sure you know what it takes to retire successfully.
Click the timestamps below to help you navigate through the many topics we discussed.
On This Episode:
As you move through your working career, CRNAs will find that there are plenty of resources out there to help you save and invest your money for retirement. The problem, however, is that support starts to dry up when it’s time to manage those assets and start distributing them once you’re in retirement.
This stage is known as decumulation and it’s just as important as anything you do over your lifetime because that fear of running out of money won’t go away if you aren’t planning during this time. So let’s talk a little about how to navigate this time in your life and share five things that you need to be doing to give yourself the best chance for success.
As you can probably guess, the primary concern that we hear from CNRAs is that they don’t want to outlive their money. How will you survive life’s ups and downs without that steady paycheck coming in? That’s something you’ve always been able to rely on, but now you’ve reached the point where you have to start spending the money you’ve worked all your life to save and that can be very difficult.
What’s the first step? It’s making sure you have the proper support. Is the person you’re working with, whether it be an accountant or advisor or whoever, experienced in all the different pieces that work together in retirement to determine the most optimal way to make your money last. Not everyone is familiar with this aspect of planning and it can be easy to overlook some things.
The second thing to know about decumulation is that the fear of spending is very real. We have many clients that aren’t comfortable spending down all the money they’ve earned and need help from us to ensure them their plan is built properly and there isn’t a need to worry.
One reason that solid plan is so important is that there is so much risk in retirement, and that’s the third thing you need to know. It doesn’t just go away once you’ve built your nest egg and transitioned out of work. The risks could come from life events, inflation, stock market volatility, and so much more. That’s why we take all of these into account when coming up with a decumulation strategy.
Another huge area of this planning conversation is taxes. Right now, we’re in a historically-low time for taxes and most experts expect for those rates to increase over time, especially as our national debt increases and medical costs rise. This period of your life might be the time where taxes will impact you the most and you need to be planning this out and considering options that could help limit those tax obligations later in life.
And finally, replacing that paycheck with income streams is the final thing to know. What steps are you taking to generate that income and making sure that it covers all of the expenses that will come with the lifestyle you choose to enjoy. Plus there’s the longevity side of the discussion as well. Typically we’ll project out to age 90 when we first meet a client. Then we look at the longevity in their family and get a better idea with what they’d be comfortable with. All of this helps us come up with the amount of money you’re going to need in retirement.
All of these things are vital to success so make sure you’re getting the help you need when it’s time to decumulate. If you want to learn more about your financial plan, connect with Jeremy at CRNA Financial Planning.
Check it out at the top of the page and use the timestamps to help you navigate through the many topics we discussed.
4:00 – The retirement topic we’re covering today
6:24 – Preparing for longevity
9:17 – Finding the right type of support for retirement
12:23 – Fear of spending money is a real thing
15:42 – Risks in retirement
18:43 – Taxes play such an important role.
22:08 – Jeremy shares a client story
24:07 – Replacing your paycheck
27:20 – What age should you start planning?
30:07 – Final thoughts from Jeremy
31:43 – Lightning Round
Find somebody that’s going to look at this, keep you up to date, review it each year, because one thing I’ve learned is man plans and God lasts.
-Jeremy Stanley, CFP®
