What Retirees Really Want

“RICH PEOPLE ARE JUST POOR PEOPLE WITH MONEY”

– ANONYMOUS

Throughout my career, I’ve been blessed with great experiences. Most of these experiences come from the nature of my job. As an “advisor” I get a seat at the table to talk about life’s taboo topic… money.

My role as an “advisor” has changed throughout my career. It first started as a tax advisor to small business owners and then evolved into a wealth advisor. The first part of my career was spent as a tax advisor. In this role, I mostly worked with business owners.

I was lucky to work with many business owners who transitioned from building their wealth to living on their business success.

The financial success of our business owners varied significantly. Some would transition to retirement with some investments plus Social Security. A few would harvest generational wealth by selling a business or real estate. Most would harvest enough for themselves plus an inheritance. 

I loved working with families transitioning to retirement. I found the quantitative and qualitative aspects of this transition to be fascinating.

Eventually, this fascination led me to transition from tax advisor to wealth advisor. After making this transition I was able to connect with families at a deeper level. A few years after focusing on wealth advising I sought out an opportunity at a local Private Bank. During the first year at the big bank, I worked with 127 different families. What was great about this is that I was able to exponentially increase my sample size of retired families. 

It was somewhere within my 2^nd year at the big bank where I had an epiphany.

Everybody wants the same thing from their retirement portfolio.

Whether I was working with a family who retired with a small investment account and Social Security. Or working with a business owner after a $40 million business sale… everybody wanted the same things from their retirement portfolio.

And no… it’s not just “more money.” 😊

Everybody wants their retirement portfolio to:

• Maximize Cash Flow early in retirement
• Maintain consistent cash flow throughout retirement
• Minimize short-term drawdowns (aka portfolio losses)

It didn’t matter if they had a little, a lot, or something in the middle. Everyone who was financially independent wanted the same thing from their retirement portfolio.

This realization has shaped everything I do in wealth planning. Building your wealth isn’t the same as living on your wealth.

Living on your wealth requires different financial and emotional solutions. These are the solutions that are outlined in this whitepaper.