Turn your savings into a retirement income strategy.
I coordinate your investments, Social Security, taxes, healthcare, and spending as one plan, so you can weigh the tradeoffs and decide with clarity. You get a spending number to plan around, with guardrails that say when it should change.
Your monthly paycheck
Your spending, bracketed by guardrails, so you know the number and what would move it. Figures shown are an example, not a projection.
A plan you can act on, not a score you have to trust.
"You have an 82% chance of success."
A number and a shrug. It does not tell you what to spend this month, and it goes quiet the moment markets move and you need an answer.
"You can spend $9,170 a month."
A number to plan around, with limits either side of it. When markets fall or your life changes, the adjustment was decided in advance, so you know what happens next.
The questions retirement planning is for.
Most of these are decisions rather than calculations, and each one moves the others. Planning is how they get answered together.
- Can I retire when I want?
- How much can I spend?
- Where should my income come from each year?
- When should I claim Social Security?
- Which accounts should I withdraw from first?
- If I need a large sum this year, where should it come from?
- Would Roth conversions help?
- How could taxes, inflation, healthcare, longevity, or a market decline affect the plan?
- What should I do now?
A retirement strategy, from your last paycheck to your legacy.
Every part of your retirement planned together rather than one decision at a time. What yours includes depends on your circumstances.
Readiness and a spending number
A projection of whether you can retire when you want, and the amount to plan on each month, with upper and lower guardrails that say when it should change.
Year-by-year income and big purchases
Where each year's income comes from, which accounts to draw on first, and how required minimum distributions fit, mapped out year by year. When you need cash outside the plan for a home, a car, or a gift to family, I show which accounts to draw from, what it costs in tax, and how to stay under the bracket and Medicare lines that matter.
Your whole picture, one page
Every income source, asset, expense, and goal on a single connected view, including pension elections and the sale of a business where they apply.
Stress tested against real history
Your plan run through 2008, the dot-com crash, and worse, alongside higher inflation, a longer life, and a change in spending, so you see how it holds up.
Social Security and pensions
Claiming ages compared across both spouses, from 62 to 70, next to your other income, plus the pension election if you have one to make.
Healthcare and Medicare costs
What coverage is likely to cost, and the income levels that quietly raise your Medicare premiums, planned around rather than discovered later.
Stop guessing what you can spend.
The last thing you should worry about in retirement is whether you can afford the life you planned. So I put two limits around your spending: an upper limit that signals when there is room for a raise, and a lower limit that says when to ease back.
Between those limits, you spend without second-guessing. If your balance crosses one, the adjustment and its size were decided in advance.
- A specific monthly number, not a percentage
- Clear signals for when your income adjusts, up or down
- Adjustments sized in advance, so changes stay small
- $3.16MUpper guardrail: raise to $9,630 (+5%)
- $2.75MToday: $9,170 / mo
- $2.06MLower guardrail: trim to $8,710 (-5%)
Between the guardrails, you spend without second-guessing. Point at a line to see what happens there.
Answer the hard tax questions, before they cost you.
Once you have a spending number, the next questions are which accounts to take it from and whether to convert some to a Roth. I map the order, year by year and after tax, and show what each choice would mean over the life of the plan.
That includes the details most plans miss: the income levels that raise your Medicare premiums, the bracket you are filling, required minimum distributions, and what your heirs would inherit. The aim is that neither you nor they pay more tax than the plan requires.
- The right order to draw from your taxable, pre-tax, and Roth accounts
- Roth conversions weighed against your tax bracket and Medicare premiums
- Lifetime tax view, not just this April
Each step down is the same retirement with a better plan for taxes. Point at a bar.
Your entire financial life, on one page.
Decisions are easier when everything is in front of you. I bring every income source, asset, expense, and debt together on a single connected view, so you can see how it fits and how it changes year to year.
Then the milestones that make it yours: selling the business, the home you might downsize, the trip you keep postponing, what you want to leave behind. The plan is built around your life, not a template.
- Income, assets, and expenses connected in one view
- Life milestones placed right on your timeline
- See how each decision ripples through the plan
Every income source, asset, and expense in one view, so you see how each decision ripples through.
Your exit is a retirement decision too.
For many business owners, the sale is the largest tax event of their lives, and it lands right at the start of retirement. I plan the transition years together: the sale year, the years before Social Security and required distributions begin, and the decisions that are easier to make before the deal closes than after.
- Sale proceeds built into your spending plan from day one
- Medicare premiums planned around the sale year, since they look back two years
- Lower-income years after a sale used for measured Roth conversions
- Installment payments, earnouts, and consulting income mapped year by year
- Gifts of appreciated shares or a donor-advised fund timed to the high-income year
The sale year, the years before Social Security, and what each sets up, planned together. Point at a row.
One filing decision, years of difference.
When and how you claim Social Security is one of the larger decisions in retirement, and one of the easiest to make in isolation. I compare claiming ages across both spouses, from 62 to waiting until 70 for a larger benefit.
You see the comparisons side by side under different life expectancies, and how each choice interacts with your taxes, your withdrawals, and your Medicare premiums, rather than being decided on its own. Each strategy is judged by what it does to your monthly spending number, not just the total benefit collected.
- Household claiming ages compared side by side
- Claiming early versus waiting for a larger benefit
- Coordinated with your tax and income strategy
- Tested against a possible future cut to benefits
Claiming ages, first spouse / second spouse
Each strategy judged by your monthly spending number. Point at one.
The right coverage, and the income limits around it.
Choosing Medicare comes down to three questions: where you live and travel, your health needs, and your comfort with financial risk. I walk you through each, then what a plan covers, how to enroll, and the steps that fit your situation.
Just as important, I watch your income. A single extra dollar can push you over a line that raises your premiums for the whole year, so withdrawals are planned with those lines in view. Medicare looks back two years, so the income you create this year sets your premiums two years from now.
- Plan selection matched to your care and budget
- Income limits that affect your premiums, mapped against your plan
- Enrollment steps and timing handled with you
- The two-year lookback planned for, so a big income year doesn't surprise you later
- $2,600Headroom before premiums rise
- +$2,297/yrIf crossed, Parts B and D, couple
- Defer $3KThe fix
Withdrawals planned with the premium lines in view. Point at a line.
"What if the market drops 30 percent next month?"
The answer was decided before it happened. If a drop pushes your balance past the lower guardrail, your paycheck steps down by the amount set in advance, and new guardrails are set from there. When the balance recovers and crosses the upper guardrail, raises follow the same way. Markets are uncertain; what you would do about them does not have to be.
Watched every month, not once a year.
Your plan is rechecked every month against current conditions, so your guardrails stay current without waiting for a review meeting. When your balance nears a guardrail, I am alerted and reach out with the adjustment we already agreed on. Annual reviews are still where we revisit the bigger picture. The watching happens in between.
- Plan rechecked monthly against current conditions
- I reach out when a guardrail is near, before you have to ask
- Annual reviews for goals, tax law, and life changes
- $350,000Room before an adjustment
- $9,170 / moPaycheck
- No changeStatus
Rechecked every month against current conditions. Point at a line.
Three steps, in order.
Understand
Your goals, your resources, the income you need, and what concerns you. Nothing useful gets decided before this part.
Analyze
Income, taxes, benefits, investments, and risks examined together, because a change to one of them changes the rest.
Decide
A coordinated strategy with specific decisions, the tradeoffs behind them, and what to do first.
A strategy you can act on, and the reasoning behind it.
Recommendations are personal. Depending on your circumstances they might mean saving more, adjusting spending, moving the retirement date, delaying Social Security, converting measured amounts to a Roth, changing the withdrawal order, building cash reserves, reducing a concentrated holding, or revising how much risk the portfolio takes.
- A recommended retirement strategy
- The assumptions behind the analysis
- Alternative scenarios, and what changes under each
- The tradeoffs worth knowing before you decide
- Clear next steps, in priority order
- Ongoing reviews as markets, tax law, health, family, and goals change
Before we start.
When should retirement planning begin?
Most of the decisions that shape retirement, like conversions, claiming ages, and how accounts are positioned, are easier to act on years ahead of the date. Five to ten years out is a good time to start, and planning still helps once you are already retired.
How do you estimate sustainable spending?
From your own income sources, assets, taxes, and expected expenses, projected forward and then tested against a poor market, higher inflation, and a longer life. The result is a spending number with guardrails, not a fixed percentage.
Can you help with Social Security and Medicare decisions?
Yes. Claiming ages are compared across both spouses next to your other income, and Medicare coverage and the income levels that raise premiums are planned alongside your withdrawals.
How are taxes considered?
They run through everything: which accounts fund each year, whether to convert to a Roth, when required distributions begin, and which income lines to stay under. I do not prepare returns, and I coordinate with your CPA.
How often should the plan be updated?
Your plan is rechecked every month, and I reach out when a guardrail is near. Beyond that, we meet at least once a year, and whenever something changes: a market move, a change in the law, your health, your family, or your plans. A plan that is not revisited becomes a document rather than a strategy.
How is retirement planning priced?
You can see exactly how I charge on my Fees page.
Let's chat.
See how your savings, benefits, taxes, and investments can work together to support the retirement you want. A complimentary 30 minute conversation, relaxed and with nothing to prepare. I am here to listen, not to sell.
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