Retired (I Think)
For a variety of reasons, we are moving from Santa Cruz to an area where the cost of living will be much less. We are hoping to retire, however it is still not clear whether we can retire.
I have done a bunch of different spreadsheets. Most scenarios showed that we can retire comfortably, not extravagantly, but comfortably. I feel a bit nervous about this. I have read a couple of books on retirement planning and I think I got everything right. However, I am not a retirement expert. I don’t know much about the different social security options or medicare planning.
So we decided to get a retirement plan from a financial planner. We don’t want someone to manage our money, but someone to look over our plan or to create a new plan for us. We found names of several financial planners in the Santa Cruz area. Most did not want to talk to us. One was willing to talk with us, but was not available until after tax season. And they wanted $1000 for the initial visit! Yikes!
I mentioned this to a friend and he said that he said that he knew a couple who just got a financial plan. It cost them $7500 just for the plan! I mentioned this to another friend and she said that I should consider becoming a financial planner. She thinks that I would be good at this job. Another friend agreed and said that he would trust his money with me. Hmm. It is an interesting idea, however I am going to wait until after the move, before considering it. We have enough on our plates to get through the move.
We have a stock broker that we have worked with for 30+ years. She put together a plan for us. The first draft shows that we can retire pretty comfortably. Together with her, we made a bunch of adjustments to the plan and asked her to run the figures again. About a week ago, I asked for a meeting to see how the updated plan looks. I have not heard anything from her in the last week. Not sure what this means. Probably that she got really busy with other work. It is prime tax season. Of course I have a little fear that the plan came out so bad that she is nervous about sharing it with us. Sigh …
I have done a bunch of different spreadsheets. Most scenarios showed that we can retire comfortably, not extravagantly, but comfortably. I feel a bit nervous about this. I have read a couple of books on retirement planning and I think I got everything right. However, I am not a retirement expert. I don’t know much about the different social security options or medicare planning.
So we decided to get a retirement plan from a financial planner. We don’t want someone to manage our money, but someone to look over our plan or to create a new plan for us. We found names of several financial planners in the Santa Cruz area. Most did not want to talk to us. One was willing to talk with us, but was not available until after tax season. And they wanted $1000 for the initial visit! Yikes!
I mentioned this to a friend and he said that he said that he knew a couple who just got a financial plan. It cost them $7500 just for the plan! I mentioned this to another friend and she said that I should consider becoming a financial planner. She thinks that I would be good at this job. Another friend agreed and said that he would trust his money with me. Hmm. It is an interesting idea, however I am going to wait until after the move, before considering it. We have enough on our plates to get through the move.
We have a stock broker that we have worked with for 30+ years. She put together a plan for us. The first draft shows that we can retire pretty comfortably. Together with her, we made a bunch of adjustments to the plan and asked her to run the figures again. About a week ago, I asked for a meeting to see how the updated plan looks. I have not heard anything from her in the last week. Not sure what this means. Probably that she got really busy with other work. It is prime tax season. Of course I have a little fear that the plan came out so bad that she is nervous about sharing it with us. Sigh …
posted by Steve @ 9:11 AM
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