Photo taken in Nov 2014, New Zealand, Kaikoura, South Bay Marina
Many of my clients has a lot of concerns about their retirement when I first met them. They are concerns about – not saving enough, medical costs are too high, how much retirement income is enough, can they still afford to travel during their retirement and can they leave a legacy behind for their children.
When you put figures into all these concerns, you will have a definite Retirement Plan which will helps manage your retirement expectation. Because everyone has their own expectation regarding their retirement.
Our job is to balance up your present lifestyle and create a retirement lifestyle that you deserve. If your Retirement Expectation is moderate and we found out that you are saving too much now, we will tell you to pare down your savings a bit and enjoy a little more for your present lifestyle (like bringing your family to Europe instead of just South East Asia).
And we are here to assured you that it is fine to do so because we will work closely with you to meet your Retirement Plan that we have help you to create.
I met a prospect, Age 55, in 2013, he has $1 million in cash, CPF & investment and would like to retire at 60, expecting at least $200,0000 of Yearly Retirement Income.
After analysing his situation and applying all the figures I have collected, I told him that he will not be able to meet his retirement requirement and he should either lower his expected Yearly Retirement Income from $200,000 to about $50,000 or to save aggressively and delay his retirement age to 65 instead of 60 and probably he can achieve about $80,000 per year of Retirement Income.
As you can see, this guy has too high an expectation for his retirement that I need to bring him back to reality and show him a few options on how he can build a more realistic retirement plan.
I have another retired couple who is Age 62 & 60, they have about $4 million in cash, CPF and a few Investments. As they are afraid that they may not have enough to last through their retirement, they are currently only spending about $40,000 per year. They are also concern that there may not be enough money left for their children.
After planning for them, I have created an immediate Yearly Retirement Income of $80,000 and 5 years later, their Yearly Retirement Income will increase to $160,000. On top of that, they still hold a sizable amount of liquid cash.
I assured them that they are only spending on the dividends paid-out from the assets they invested and most of the assets values will still be maintained which allow them to leave a sizeable legacy for their children.
Due to the fear of losing the $4 million, this Retired Couple has set a very low Retirement Expectation, hence, they are not living a Retirement Lifestyle they deserved.
My job is not to help my clients grow their money during their Retirement. My job is to help my clients maximize their Retirement Income and raise their retirement expectation so that they will enjoy a retirement lifestyle they deserved.