Approaching Retirement

Ages:

Jerry (58), Regina (57)

Why They Reached Out:

Approaching the home stretch towards retirement –
need to refocus on their future now that kids are finishing college.
Organize and Optimize their investments including accounts that
are with their employers.
Make sure they have “enough” assets to last the rest of her life.
Look at how much they are saving and determine if it is enough.
Start brainstorming what “retirement” might look like.

Jerry and Regina’s Story:

Jerry works for the federal government and is approaching 30 years as a Psychologist. Regina is

a physical therapist at a local small business.

Both Jerry and Regina have focused the last 20 years of their lives on their professional growth

and raising their family so they can afford to send their kids to college. They were able to help

their children graduate from undergrad debt free and were able to save modestly over the years.

However, they realize that it is time to focus on themselves for the next 10 years.

Jerry and Regina are not very interested in money but recognize that Jerry’s pension will only

support a small part of their retirement. While Jerry has a FERS pension and TSP, he wants help

looking at which pension option to choose when he retires and to talk about the federal long-term

care plan. Regina has had 6 employers in the past 20 years and has old retirement plans spread

out. They were honest and don’t know how each account is invested.

Jerry and Regina’s Questions

Jerry and Regina want someone to guide them towards a successful retirement. They know that

they have some catching-up to do but are willing to listen to good advice. They need an

“accountability partner” to push them but also help answer some questions they have:

Can you help us organize and consolidate all of our accounts that are spread out at
various financial institutions?
Can you educate us about how we are invested?
Are we taking advantage of our employer benefits?
Are we able to support our children for a year until they get on their feet after college?
We have some debts (car loan, mortgage) and aren’t maximizing our retirement plans.
Now that we have extra money, what should we do with it?

The Results

Jerry and Regina met with 3 advisors, one was a large national firm that promised they are the

best investment manager but doesn’t provide comprehensive advice and in-person meetings. The

second advisor just wanted to sell more life insurance. They wanted someone to listen to them

and take time to get to know and educate them before they committed to a long-term

relationship. They wanted to feel that the advisor was focused on them and not his own interests.

After several meetings, we helped Jerry and Regina organize their entire financial situation. We showed them what they are doing well and where we think they could improve.

We had several conversations about what is important for the next 10 years of their lives.

After understanding what gives them joy in life, we developed a short term and long-term plan for how to spend their cash, how to save and how to simplify their financial lives.

We helped them pay-off the “bad” debts and save more for the home stretch to retirement.

We meet 1-2 times per year since they are busy at work but we schedule regular check-in calls to hold each other accountable and make sure progress is being made.

We helped their children setup their first retirement accounts at work and talked about how to invest and maximize their employer benefits.

Today Jerry and Regina are grateful they reached out to us. They are still working and have

about 3 years until retirement. Regina doesn’t worry about finances and knows that if something

happened to Jerry, we can help her. Jerry is focused on getting his last promotion.

Our relationship is built on trust, not transactions, and they know that whenever they have a

question, they can call our office anytime and have a return call that same day. They know that

we proactively schedule meetings and phone calls just to check-in and know all about their

family and their dreams for the future.

Most importantly, as their advisors, we encourage them to live life to its fullest.