Over the course of your life, your retirement plan will change courses quite a bit. Whether you’re dealing with life events or just rearranging contributions, where you start will look much different from where you end up.

Another piece to your planning needs to be consideration for what stage of life you’re currently in. Someone fresh out of college opening their first IRA has completely different goals than someone approaching their retirement date. And since the goals are different, the strategy needs to be as well.

On this episode of Money Wisdom, Joel details the key areas you need to focus on when it’s time for retirement. You first have to start with Social Security and which age to begin taking payments. Conventional wisdom might not always be the best course of action for you.  

You also might settle for a large comprehensive plan that many bigger companies offer but if it’s not tailored towards your needs, it might not be helping as much as you think.

And finally, when will you be ready for retirement? Joel discusses whether your age or your assets should be the main focus when picking out a date.

To help you see how planning can impact your life, we have two clients stories on each end of the spectrum.

Here’s the list of main topics you’ll hear on this episode of the Money Wisdom podcast (Just click on the timestamp to jump to the specific clip):

[0:40] – Introducing today’s topic.

[1:00] – When should you take Social Security? It’s important to question conventional wisdom.

[3:34] – Be careful with comprehensive financial plans that big companies often offer.

[5:33] – Ask your financial advisor to show you their financial portfolio and credentials. Don’t take advice from someone that doesn’t have assets of their own.     

[6:35] – Many plans are mostly boilerplate.

[8:37] – How do you find that target retirement date? Is it age or assets?

[10:30] – Understand that there are so many factors going into retirement, not just a number.

[11:37] – How the Money Map retirement review helps clients figure this out. 

[13:28] – A story about a past client that had to find out they weren’t actually ready to retire.

[15:10] – A couple that was actually better off than they thought before meeting with Joel.

[15:05] – Retirement Myth #4: After I’m gone, my spouse will be fine. I’m not worried about it.