This Halloween season, you may be thinking about spending time with friends and family and planning fun Halloween events with them. You may not be thinking about all the nuances of your retirement plan, but when you think about the costs of making mistakes with your retirement, it can spook you!

It’s all too common to make mistakes in retirement. After all, you can only get one shot at it – there are no do-overs, and correcting mistakes can be stressful and could require a lifestyle adjustment, putting you in a tight situation. That’s why it’s important to know some of the most common retirement mistakes so you can look out for them and address them.

Firstly, it’s important to be realistic about your future. To do that, you must take stock of where you’re at financially; look at how much you have saved, how much time you have left to grow your savings, how much you’re able to save from now until your retirement, and how much you’ll really need to cover your monthly or yearly costs. Based on those basic questions, you can be realistic about your goals and develop a plan that works specifically for you.

To plan for your retirement successfully, you’ll require a comprehensive and holistic view of your assets and income.

You’ll know the state of your IRAs, 401(k)s, and other retirement accounts such as how much they contain, what they are invested in, how they are managed, and how much control you have over them. That way, you can rollover accounts that don’t meet your financial needs, cost you high fees, or that are invested in assets that don’t match your risk tolerance.

You’ll know the state of your other assets, such as your home value, life insurance, or annuity plan. And you’ll be able to strategize how best to utilize these assets to help you cover costs or address certain risks you may be concerned with.

You’ll also know your Social Security timeline based on when and how your income from other sources will be structured. You won’t have claimed Social Security too early or claimed Social Security at a time you will be receiving a great amount of other income, putting you in an undesirable tax bracket. That way, there is a small chance you won’t be giving yourself too much income in a given year that is subject to taxes, and there is only a small chance of encountering a period where you didn’t provide yourself enough regular income to cover your costs.

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Finding and addressing all the possible retirement mistakes you could make is much easier said than done. But that’s why we’re here. With a team of financial professionals with years of expertise and knowledge of the tools to help you maximize your retirement, you can protect yourself from costly mistakes. All it takes to get started is to contact us at (540) 720-5656.


  • Source: Retire Guide