Jun 23, 2022

If you’ve ever planned a trip, planned a wedding, or planned your retirement you may have realized how fun the anticipation of the adventure was. We can’t always predict the future and a lot of pre-retirees are getting started early on their bucket list before they are in retirement.

On today’s episode, we’re going to explore Mark and Mona’s journey to retirement. Theories about retirement planning are great but sometimes it’s nice to hear a true-life story. They recently retired, going through various steps and weighing their priorities before making the big change. How do your dreams, plans, and priorities compare?

Both Mark and Mona enjoyed their careers and Mark liked his so much he didn’t really want to retire. Mona wanted to explore more hobbies in retirement and decided to retire a little sooner than Mark.

For Mark and Mona, we set up multiple contingency plans. We prepared them for what would happen if they retired sooner or later, depending on their wishes. Because of Mona’s interests and Mark’s desire to continue working she retired before her full retirement age and took Social Security. She decided taking less of the benefit from Social Security sooner was the best fit for her. Mark on the other hand would be able to wait until full retirement age, meaning he got the full benefit.

After they solved the Social Security piece of their retirement, they needed to address their retirement accounts. When Mark decided to continue working he went to his 401(k) company and explained that he no longer wanted to keep that money in the market.

The closer they got to retirement the more likely a market downturn would hurt their plan. While they didn’t let him take all of it, Mark took a big chunk out of his 401(k) and put it away in a safe account. He didn’t let greed mislead him and protected what he had worked for. In 2022, he was able to retire comfortably without worrying about the recent market decline.

Check out the full episode or use the timestamps below to hear a specific segment.

1:07 – Anticipation!

2:17 – Mark and Mona

3:11 – Background on their retirement plan

5:40 – Contingency plans and Social Security

10:07 – Addressing their retirement accounts

13:10 – How Mark traded risk as he got close to retirement

14:35 – The last years before retirement

For more, visit us online at http://flemingfinancialservices.com