• There are three phases of everyone’s financial life: Accumulation, Preservation and Distribution. When entering retirement, you are moving from the “Accumulation” phase of life into the “Preservation” phase of life.
• Do you need your investments to produce income outside of pensions or Social Security? Do you hope to pass the bulk of your money on to your loved ones and beneficiaries? Determining a proper risk to reward ratio in retirement is a pivotal part in protecting your assets and producing reliable income in retirement

Management fees…12B-1 fees…administrative fees…expense ratios…turnover cost…where does it end? Chances are, if you have your money invested anywhere on Wall Street, you are paying a cost or fee. In the “risk” world, you can’t escape fees. The “safe*” stuff is a bit more transparent. In most cases, you have to dig deep within your prospectus or account statements to find what you are actually paying to hold your investments. Unfortunately for you, most advisors and brokers do not have to fully disclose the fees you are paying. At Elevation Capital Strategies, we know that fees are a part of investing in “risk” money. By taking alternative investing paths and using lower cost vehicles, you can lower your fees to a certain extent. There are also “safe*” investment options that offer little to no cost to you. When investing in “risk,” you need to understand whether or not you are receiving value for the fee you are paying.

Planning for sufficient retirement income requires you to map out what you spend in retirement, not what you have saved. You should factor in your basic living and joy expenses to determine how much money you need per month to live comfortably. This number may be affected by future inflation or cost of living, so you should consider that, too. Planning for lifetime income should be your No. 1 objective.

• Simple things like proper account titling, power of attorney, trusts and wills are all things that must be in place if you are to truly avoid a drawn-out legal fiasco.
• By having the proper estate strategy in place, you can eliminate probate and make it easier for your family during their time of grieving. The last thing you should hope for is a legal obligation while your loved ones are mourning their loss.

Excess estate taxation can be avoided by simply titling your accounts correctly or changing the way you invest entirely. To succeed, you have to have an advisor who will help guide you through the third phase of your financial life, “Distribution.” When developing a written investment plan, your estate should be considered equally as important.

• Unfortunately, greed plays an integral part in the mind of the common investor. All too often, bad behavior takes over, forcing the right decision to take a back seat to greed. In order to avoid losing the money you desperately need in retirement, you have to remove some risk from the equation.
• The biggest step in determining a proper risk to reward ratio is to know how much risk you can afford to take. Without an income plan in place for your retirement paycheck, how do you know if you are overexposed?

Simply setting up a systematic monthly withdraw from your account could get you trouble. You need laddered, inflation-adjusted income — using safe* and reliable accounts — to come in each and every month on the schedule you set yourself. An income plan provides scheduled income starting on a specific date, either now in the future. By positioning safe* assets, you can eliminate any chance that you will run out of money during your retirement. Each step up the ladder will increase your income to keep up with inflation.

Planning for sufficient retirement income requires you to map out what you spend in retirement, not what you have saved. You should factor in your basic living and joy expenses to determine how much money you need per month to live comfortably. This number may be affected by future inflation or cost of living, so you should consider that, too.