#261 - How to Live Without a Paycheck: Keeping Your Buckets Full

Now that you have your buckets full do you think the retirement planning is over? Sorry, but no, it’s not. 6 months later you have to do it all over again. The problem is life keeps changing. Expenses keep changing. So how do you overcome this? How do you constantly adjust? Constantly adjusting to new conditions is what retirement is. Agile retirement management means you can’t put financial management on autopilot. Learn how to set yourself up for success so that you can make the best of the only life you have on this episode of Retirement Answer Man.

How to set yourself up for success in managing change

Working with an advisor is like working with a doctor who is trying to diagnose an ailment. The doctor is really smart and well trained to try and figure out what is wrong and what the best course of action may be. But only you know your body. The same is true with your finances. A financial advisor is very well trained and can help you plan your future, but only you know what is truly right for you. When you abdicate everything to an advisor it can lead to poor solutions that aren’t in your best interests. Financial advisors have never dealt with the baby boomer generation before, so they are working with a blank slate.

Delegation vs. collaboration

One way to take more control of your finances is to collaborate with a financial advisor rather than delegate all the financial decisions. Collaboration means that you aren’t handing over all the control. It means that your retirement planning is an ongoing project. The client works alongside the advisor in a collaborative role. You are the expert in you. You know what your needs, wants, and fears are. And only you understand your changing priorities. An advisor has gained wisdom over time. They are the expert in the journey, you are the expert in you. Don’t delegate your retirement planning, collaborate.

What happens once you begin to drain the cash reserves that you have set up?

It is important to make sure the wind is at your back. Your cash reserves don’t have to be just sitting there doing nothing. They could be in a high-yield money market account, CDs or high-quality short-term bonds. You should also think about the different tax types of accounts from which you will fill your bucket. You have much more control now over which tax bracket you will be in. Filling your buckets from the right sources is important in controlling how much you will pay in taxes, not just now, but in the years to come as well.

How do you refill your buckets?

It is important to refill your buckets twice a year. Its good to revisit your finances in retirement every 6 months since this is all new to you. After a while, you might find your sea legs and fine tune your spending. But life has a way of throwing us curve balls just when we think we have things all figured out.

How do you refill your buckets if the markets are performing poorly? If the markets take a nosedive it is important to mitigate the damage. There is a reason that you count the costs as needs, wants, and wishes. If the markets aren’t doing so hot you can slow down your discretionary spending. You can also decrease how often you refill the buckets in order to let the markets bounce back. Learn how to manage your money in retirement so that you don’t just survive retirement, but rock retirement on this episode of Retirement Answer Man.

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE RETIREMENT ANSWER MAN HOT TOPIC SEGMENT

• [5:23] How to set yourself up for success in managing change with an advisor
• [9:50] Delegation vs. collaboration

PRACTICAL PLANNING SEGMENT

• [12:40] What happens once you begin to drain the cash reserves that you have set up?
• [17:32] You have much more control now over which tax bracket you will be in
• [21:14] When should you refill your buckets?
• [23:00] How do you refill your buckets if the markets are performing poorly?

THE HAPPY LAB SEGMENT

• [25:56] Add some time in your calendar

TODAY’S SMART SPRINT SEGMENT

• [28:17] Schedule sometime next week to work on you

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Rock Retirement Club

Roger’s YouTube Channel - Roger That

BOOK - Rock Retirement  by Roger Whitney

Work with Roger

3-video Series: 5 Minute Retirement Makeover

Roger’s Retirement Learning Center

The Retirement Answer Man Facebook Page