“Securing Your Retirement” is more than a byline at Oxford Financial Group, Inc. It means that retirement planning is more than accumulating assets that can be used to generate income during retirement years.
It means our team helps our clients create Retirement Plans with the objective of protecting them from the six deadly Retirement Risks that can destroy financial security and independence whether they live 5 or 45 years after retiring.
Securing Your Retirement means that a significant part, or all, of your retirement income can continue as long as you live and has the potential to increase over those years to help you keep up with inflation It means that your Retirement is designed to provide peace of mind no matter how long you live.
None of us looks forward with anticipation to a time when we need assistance in order to perform the activities of daily living. But, we are living longer than any previous generation and as we age the possibility of becoming more frail increases. The majority of us will need some form of assistance before we leave this life.
Extended care has multiple costs: physical, personal, and financial. They are not just borne by those needing care. Loving spouses and families can provide some levels of care. Doing so changes their lives, not always in a positive way. Providing care to a chronically ill person often makes healthy caregivers chronically ill. The financial cost of providing extended care can be overwhelming. Once it begins, it does not stop. It can consume not only emergency funds but also income producing assets if there is no preparation to address these costs.
Fortunately, there are seven ways to prepare for the possibility of extended care. At Oxford Financial, we help our clients understand their options and the implications of each. Helping our clients create a secure retirement plan means we can help them create a personal Extended Care Plan as part of their retirement plan. Planning for Extended Care is part of Securing Your Retirement.
Securing Your Retirement means that the risk of inflation during retirement cannot be overlooked when determining the nature your retirement income. Inflation is a fact of life. If not planned for, the increasing cost of goods and services will consume more and more of your retirement income and you will experience and ever decreasing lifestyle and standard of living.
The good news is that inflation protection can be part of securing your retirement income. There are ways to structure your retirement income so that it can increase over time and help you offset or keep ahead of inflation. Your Retirement Plan is not just about accumulating assets that can produce income, but structuring the income you will receive in such a way that it protects and enhances your lifestyle and standard of living.
Previous generations retiring at age 65 only had to fund their retirement into their 70’s. That was their life expectancy. Increased longevity has changed that. Most people retiring today can look forward to living well into their 80’s or 90’s. Each additional year we live requires that much more income.
The likelihood that a non-smoking 65 year old woman will live to 90 is 44%. One in three non-smoking 65 year old men will live to 90. But the odds that at least one of a couple, each non-smokers and age 65, will live to age 90 is 62%!
At Oxford Financial, Securing Your Retirement means that your Retirement Plan can include lifetime income, like a personal pension plan. It can provide income for as long as you, or your spouse, live. Your retirement income may not only continue as long as you live, but may also be designed to increase over time to help you offset or keep ahead of inflation.
Most retirement plans are invested in the stock market. This is a proven and excellent way to grow retirement assets. Over time, money in the market has steadily grown through wars, pandemics, depressions, and many other disasters.
During the years when we are accumulating retirement assets, the ups and downs of the stock market actually help money grow faster than if the growth was a constant upward movement from year to year. The sequence of those hills and valleys doesn’t matter as long as the market is up when we are ready to retire. But, when we begin withdrawing income from our retirement funds, the sequence of the ups and downs becomes critical. Unfortunately, it cannot be predicted. Beginning to withdraw income during down market years causes the balance in our account to decrease even more, making it more difficult to recover when the market bounces back. This is Market Sequence Risk.
The consequence of Market Sequence Risk is that if we retire in the wrong year, live too long, or withdraw too much from our 401k, 403b, IRAs, and other similar retirement plans, we may deplete the assets that generate our retirement income. Stated another way, we can run out of assets and income before we run out of time! At Oxford Financial, we recognize the advantages of the market, but also the consequence of market sequence risk and we understand ways to provide income security in retirement.
Social Security is the cornerstone of retirement income for many retirees. Figuring out when and how to file for benefits can be confusing, especially for couples who will have different benefits, life expectancies, and other factors to consider.
Filing for benefits at the wrong time can be very costly. At Oxford Financial we add clarity to your Social Security income decision by helping you explore your options and the potential benefits offered by each. The difference between options can mean thousands, and sometimes hundreds of thousands, of dollars over your lifetime.
Heading into retirement brings a slew of new topics with which to grapple. One of the most frustrating can be Medicare. Figuring out when to enroll in Medicare and which parts to enroll in can be daunting even for the savviest retirees. There's Part A, Part B, Part D, Medigap plans, Medicare Advantage plans and so on.
While Medicare covers your health care, it doesn’t cover all expenses. There are deductibles, co-payment requirements, and other gaps. Medicare does not cover routine dental or eye care, and some items such as dentures or hearing aids. It also does not cover Long Term Care expenses.
Non covered health care expenses can prove to be one of the largest expense categories during your retirement. There are many different ways to deal with non-covered expenses. Addressing these issues as part of your retirement plan, instead of waiting until you encounter actual expenses, is another example of Securing your Retirement. Our Medicare Planning department is here to assist you.
As we approach retirement, we will need to decide what to do with, and how to use, the money in our company-sponsored retirement plan to generate income.
You can generally maintain your participation in the plan with your former employer, or you can roll it over into an Individual Retirement Account.
You can generally maintain your participation in the plan with your former employer, or you can roll it over into an Individual Retirement Account.
Rolling your retirement plan to an IRA is a tax-free event, and thus preserves the tax benefits of your employer plans while giving you more investment options. But there are also cases when it makes sense to keep your money in the employer’s plan. We help you understand the pros and cons of each plan, investment options, and evaluate your options in the light of your circumstances, now and in the future.
