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Living in retirement
requires the careful balancing of income and expense,
much as it does
at any earlier period in your life. However, the equation in
your later years shifts, from employment income, to income that
can be earned from one’s accumulated financial assets, combined with
social security and any pension benefits that you may have earned
while working. Further,
for most people, retirement involves spending down
savings that have been accumulated during their years of paid
employment.
And all of this must be done within a context that includes
an uncertain lifespan and the unpredictability of long-term
healthcare needs.
While this challenge can be met, it requires an analytical
approach that is quite different from that employed during your
middle life when you had a significant recurring earned income and
you’re your investment goals were typically focused on long-term
growth in your investment portfolio. Furthermore,
this process requires more continuing attention now than
when you were younger, and it offers less margin for error, and
fewer opportunities to recover from mistakes and recoup
losses.
Getting the "big picture" and undertaking a
thorough planning of your financial future during retirement
requires taking stock of your current situation.
The
necessary first step is taking inventory of the various assets,
liabilities, |
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| A word about pronouns
-- The language throughout these Information & Tools
pages is generally consistent in referring to “you” or “your”
situation as an elder, that is, someone already in the
retirement phase of his life. In fact, we understand
that we may often be speaking to you, an adult child, who is
trying to help an elder parent or may even be seeking
information for your own personal planning.
So, in the one case, “you” make in fact be
you, who is either looking for ways to ease your personal
financial management chores, or perhaps are comfortably
managing in retirement, but want to prepare for the day when
your ability to manage financial tasks may ebb.
In the other case, you may be seeking
assistance in helping to manage the financial affairs of a
parent or other loved one. In either case “you”
in these pages refers to the person whose financial affairs
are being managed.
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