Near Ready, Unsteady

By LuzAnna Malec

Like all stages in our lives, retirement is a time when change is constant. So acknowledging and planning for change is essential. It will keep your plan fluid and flexible – allowing for a new time horizon, ongoing expenses, portfolio fluctuation, inflation, interest rates and other factors.

My hope is that my book will serve as a “primer” and will help you navigate the years before and during your retirement. To be sure, writing this book was a collaborative effort – and I thank everyone, especially my clients, who helped inspire me and make this endeavor a worthwhile reality

• Language: English
• Publisher: LuzAnna Malec
• Release date: Jan 17, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301715336

Book preview

Near Ready, Unsteady

By LuzAnna Malec

Copyright 2011 by LuzAnna Malec

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Near Ready, Unsteady

Reviving that Dream of a Meaningful and Sound Retirement

Edited by David J. Jepsen

Design and illustrations by Katie Stahnke

E-book conversion by College Company LLC

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Forward

Introduction

1 - Visualizing Your Retirement

2 - Retirement Risk Factors

3 - Risk With a Gender Bias

4 - So How Ready are You?

5 - Managing To Retirement

6 - Managing Through Retirement

7 - Creating Order

Footnotes

About the Author

Acknowledgements

I’d like to thank David Jepsen for his editing and leadership skills.

His command of the language and knowledge of the industry helped to make this book better and kept me on track.

Katie Stahnke should also be acknowledged. A talented artist and designer, Katie was able to capture the essence of the book with her illustrations and design.

I would also like to thank my dear husband, Tom, for his unending support, encouragement and love.

Foreword

Why I wrote this book

The genesis of this book dates back more than twenty years. I was married, raising three young children and teaching nutrition and sports science at a local community college. Within the span of a year, two close friends lost their husbands at the age of forty. Not only did they have to deal with the loss and grief for themselves and their children, they faced the prospects of an uncertain financial future. Fortunately, their husbands left them with large insurance proceeds. Unfortunately, while bright and well educated, my friends were not familiar with the family finances let alone how to manage their assets to ensure their own and their children’s financial future.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but those events changed my life. It prompted me to become more involved in our family’s finances. I discovered I enjoyed the investment field, and more importantly, developed a desire to help people like my friends with their finances. I believed if I truly understood their needs, and had the opportunity to work with them, I could make a difference in their lives.

That was more than 20 years ago, and today I am enjoying a career as a financial advisor. My work revolves around helping people preserve, grow and accumulate their wealth – and eventually distribute that wealth later in life. As with everything in life, change is to be expected. My role as a financial advisor is no exception. With 1.8 million Baby Boomers turning 65 years old every year starting in 2011, my advisory role is shifting towards retirement planning and a relatively new category called retirement income, or helping people manage their finances in retirement.

The impact of this demographic wave is not yet fully understood as to the long–term effects of Social Security, Medicare, or other financial and lifestyle challenges never faced by previous generations. As the first generation to navigate these unchartered waters, we are without a manuscript or true compass to help us successfully manage our finances To and Through this new retirement era. Our challenges are further compounded by the low yields from the U.S. markets over the last decade as well as the global economic calamity that began in 2007 – and is still sorting itself out at this writing.

Of course, all of us are painfully aware of the risk of a financial storm. What is quickly becoming known as the Great Recession not only eroded our wealth, but our confidence in the economy and markets. No one could have anticipated the depth and consequences of this near calamity. Even the most prepared individuals were affected by this once-in-eighty-years event. This uncertainty and lack of confidence often causes the investor to overreact rather than respond rationally when making decisions that may affect their long-term future.

In working with my clients and prospective clients, I have found the newly retired – individuals who retired within the last five years or who plan to retire within two to five years – were affected the most by recent economic events. With retirement plans partially or totally derailed, retirement will have to wait. They may have to make some serious financial and lifestyle adjustments to ensure they will not out live their money.

I find this very disturbing and somewhat embarrassing. History tells us that markets are unpredictable and to expect bull and bear markets in varying magnitudes. But in this instance, most of our tried-and-true planning strategies didn’t work and many investors’ assets, including real estate, stocks, bonds and mutual funds, lost a third of their value or more. While the bull market of 2009 has helped us recover, it’s still worth asking what went wrong. Could we have planned differently? How can I as an advisor improve my planning process to help insulate investors from future financial storms? I believe the entire financial community needs to rethink traditional retirement planning methodologies.

It’s fair to say the financial community has done a good job helping investors build up their net worth, commonly known as the accumulation phase of retirement planning. This starts when you’re twenty-something and beginning to accumulate wealth, right up until you’re sixty-something and want to retire. The financial community has also done a good job