How to Quality Check Your Retirement Plan

Retirement Answer Man

Roger Whitney, CFP®, CIMA®, RMA, CPWA®

Lifeplanning, Retirementplanning, Financialplanning, Saving, Careerplanning, Self-improvement, Education, Retirementpodcast, Investing, Business, Investmentmanagement, Retirement

4.7 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 18 June 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

💬 Show Notes

In this episode, we tackle the intricacies of retirement planning and the importance of trusting your financial projections. Join us as we explore the concept of 'productive paranoia' and how it can help you avoid costly errors in your retirement strategy. We'll also hear a heartfelt travel story from Scott, who shares how he embraced international travel after a significant life change. Don't miss this enlightening discussion that will empower you to take charge of your retirement journey!

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE RETIREMENT ANSWER MAN

(00:00) This show is dedicated to helping you have the confidence to rock retirement.
(01:15) How do you have confidence in your retirement plan?
(04:44) How do you quality check your plan?
(05:07) Let’s start by talking about the concept of productive paranoia from Jim Collins’ Great by Choice—a mindset of staying hyper-aware, building buffers, and zooming out for perspective to strengthen your retirement plan even when things seem to be going well.
(07:09) Quality checking a retirement plan means making sure the inputs and results align with your goals.
(08:33) What are the most common unforced errors?
(12:21) What are some of the obstacles to quality checking your plan?
(13:30) How do we quality check a retirement plan using metacognition?
(19:30) What is the benefit of reading your goals out loud?
(22:45) Another tactic is running your plan through another system.

INTERVIEW WITH SCOTT

(24:40) Roger continues talking about traveling in retirement.
(26:20) Roger reads an email from his client Larry, an avid RV traveler.
(28:30) Roger introduces Scott for a conversation about international travel.
(34:30) Scott shares thoughts about both solo and group travel.
(39:30) Scott talks about traveling after his wife of 30 years passed away.
(41:25) Some people feel intimidated being the third wheel even when they're invited
(43:50) Roger says he is really interested in the micro communities of people who are comfortable enough to travel together.
(47:55) Roger asks Scott what advice he would give to people to embrace single traveling.
(50:30) Roger reflects on how we often overlook the beauty of our own surroundings and asks Scott what deeper meaning travel holds for him in retirement.

SMART SPRINT

(53:20) In the next seven days, quality check your plan of record using some of the tools we talked about.

BONUS

(53:50) Roger reads the last entry in his grandfather’s WWII journal.

REFERENCES

BOOKS

Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck- Why Some Thrive Despite Them All- Jim Collins

TRAVEL WEBSITES

Free Range Fun Hogs- Travel Blog
Rick Steves

FOLLOW US ON SOCIALS

Transcript

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0:00.0	So you and or your financial planner have counted the cost of all the different goals you have.
0:07.4	You've entered those.
0:08.3	You've entered all of your resources into a retirement planning tool or spreadsheet.
0:12.5	And it gives you the results of whether you can achieve those and whether they're feasible or not.
0:19.5	Well, how do you know you can trust it?
0:27.3	Welcome to the show dedicated to helping you not just survive retirement, but to have the confidence
0:31.9	to lean in and rock it because you're doing the right work.
0:36.0	This show has actually spurred from a conversation we had in the club where a member
0:40.4	said, Roger, we've entered all of our goals or base great life, all the discretionary
0:45.3	wants we have and some wishes.
0:47.0	And we've entered all of our assets and did a feasibility assessment.
0:51.8	It is a lot better than we thought it was.
0:56.3	So maybe I can retire now,
1:05.4	but the problem is, how do I know I can trust I did it right? That is a normal question and feeling by people that are doing retirement planning, even if they have a planner doing it.
1:11.3	How do they know it was all done correctly? How can they put some confidence that they didn't
1:15.7	put garbage in, so we got garbage out? And we're making life decisions about this stuff, right?
1:21.1	So that's a normal feeling. And it makes sense when it's an unfamiliar domain for you.
1:27.0	But the truth is, this is my professional
1:29.9	nightmare that we build a plan. A client is dealing with a major decision and we walk through it
1:36.7	with the client. They make the decision. And then I wake up in the middle of the night and it's like,
1:40.2	wait a second. I think I forgot something. And I go back and check and it's different.
1:45.4	That's a nightmare. So professionals could do this too. About five, six years ago, I think it was. I actually had this happen to me.
	...

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