Imagine you're 62 years old with a couple million dollars in your portfolio. You're probably starting to wonder if you can retire and if so, how much might you be able to spend when you do? That's the exact situation today's couple find themselves in. We're going to take a look at their plan to see what are the things they need to be mindful of, where are the common roadblocks in front of them, and then what are the specific action items they can take to make the most of what they've worked so hard for? And as we go through these numbers, please keep this in mind. It does not matter if you actually have $2 million in your portfolio, much more or much less, these strategies, the framework that we're going to work through is what you need to understand if you want to make the most of your retirement strategy. So let's take a look. And before we do, here's the before and after with a few very basic

changes that this couple made. This is what their portfolio looked like. And what we're going to

show is how this is what their new strategy looks like. Their new portfolio projection looks like,

not because they're working longer, not because they're doing some crazy thing that can actually impact their bottom line, but because they're avoiding some common pitfalls and making a couple strategic changes, they'll make all the difference in their retirement strategy. So with that in mind, with that outcome in mind, let's take a look at where they are today and show you the three things they need to be mindful of, the three things you probably need to be mindful of if you're in this situation, so that you can make the most of this. So here's an overview of Michael and Lisa. And as we go through this, this is for educational purposes only. This is not a guarantee. None of this is intended to be advice, just to illustrate how a couple of these concepts work and practice. Michael and Lisa have a couple million dollars. You can see between their joint account, 401ks, IRAs, IRAs, then they also have their property. Their property is $800,000 or so of equity in it. Now, unless they sell that property, of course, that's not going to change in any type of retirement income, but still something we want to factor in for plain purposes. Their initial goal,

their first goal is to retire at the age of 65. So number one, can we do it? And then number two, how much can we spend if we do? As we start to work through how much can they spend, we need to start with an understanding or an expectation of how much might you want to spend. And 14,000 is the number that they gave. And where that really comes from is $10,000 per month. Keep in mind, this is after taxes, but $10,000 per month for them to be able to maintain their lifestyle. And then an additional $4,000 per month, $48,000 per year, they want to spend on travel. So these were their numbers. Now, keep that in mind because there's a very important change we're going to make here that doesn't actually impact your lifestyle, but it's going to dramatically change the projection of what's possible. So 14,000 per month. And on top of that, we're going to assume that they have funds that they need to set aside for health care. So they're both going to be continuing to work. They have coverage through their current plans until

Medicare age, but once they do retire at 65, they'll be on Medicare. So they're Medicare Part B and Part D premiums. And then in addition to that, we're planning for $4,000 per year for each of them of out-of-pocket expenses. Today they have income. That income, of course, is going to go away when they're done working, but they will have Social Security. Both of them intend to collect at age 70. You can see that here in the software. Between now and retirement, they're both going to continue putting 10% per year into their 401Ks. They have a little bit of a match. But what we want to see is fast forward in three years, as we look at their plan, can they do this? Do they have

enough money not just to last for the first few years of retirement, but to last all the way

throughout retirement? And then once we know the answer to that, how can we optimize that

and give them some strategic action steps to take to make the most of all this? So this is always

what I like to do when helping someone to understand if they can retire.

The lifeblood of anybody's retirement plan is in their tax strategy, not their estate strategy,

not even how they're invested.

It's what will their cash flows look like.

So this cash flows page, what we're looking at is all the various income sources Michael

and Lisa will have from now throughout retirement and all the various expenses they will have now throughout their retirement. Now, I'll mention this a couple times, but if you want access to the same software, you can get so in the Retirement Planning Academy link. Link is in the show notes below, but if you want to follow along as we do this, you are more than welcome to do so through that software. As we go through this, this is just a breakdown of what will their income source be? For the next three years, salary. You can see Michael's salary, Lisa's salary, that's going to

cover their needs for the next three years. Then that goes away. Once salary goes away,

Social Security kicks in, but not right away. As you can see here, there's going to be a bunch

of zeros until Social Security starts at the age of 70.

So going back to summary, here's their total income flows.

And what we want to compare that to is what would their expenses be?

Their expenses are broken down into a few categories.

One, this is just that basic living expense.

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