Help for retirement planning neophyte?

[Anonymous]

We are in our sixties. Both still working. We have a reasonable amount saved and a paid off house, but I am afraid to retire and live on a fixed income because my spouse and I do not see eye to eye on spending. Spouse has always refused to budget. I don't know how much we can plan to take out of retirement savings each month, how much we should set aside for healthcare (we do not have long term care insurance), whether and when to downsize and what are reasonable monthly housing expenses for us, etc. etc. We have a broker but do we need a financial planner? Any books that helped you get started with retirement planning? Thanks.

[Anonymous]

You can look over at the forums on bolgeheads.com and once you’ve poked around a little if you ask questions people will be very helpful.

You can also spend $400 or so and ask for help from planvision.

[Anonymous]

You two getting on the same page is no1 priority

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can look over at the forums on bolgeheads.com and once you’ve poked around a little if you ask questions people will be very helpful.

You can also spend $400 or so and ask for help from planvision.

sorry-- bogleheads.org

[Anonymous]

Thanks agree it would be nice to be on same page and will check out bogleheads!

[Anonymous]

If there's a way to track your spending from the past several years, at least that would be a start. Maybe if all cash flows through a checking account, you can download that data and see how much it is. Or on the income side, track your income and what goes to savings, taxes, etc. and figure the rest goes to spending - add in whatever is spent from investment/saving account withdrawals.

Take that figure and adjust if you have MAJOR spending changes expected - eg no more mortgage or big increase in travel. The resulting figure is your starting budget. Then figure out how much income you will get from pensions/social security/rentals etc., and subtract that from the budget. Take that figure and multiply it by 25 and that's the amount of savings you will need to retire.

There are lots of details that will follow - tax strategies, withdrawal strategies depending on where your savings is, etc., but the above will get you 80% of the way there, which is good enough.

[Anonymous]

AARP has lots of resources about this: aarp.org/money

[Anonymous]

I liked this book for its simplicity, and total lack of promotional spin:

Jane Bryant Quinn’s, “How to Make Your Money Last:the Indispensable Retirement Guide.”

It is not entirely curent, but the advice is pretty evergreen.

[Anonymous]

How old are each of you respectively? What do you save/spend? How much do you have saved? What do you expect from social security.

[Anonymous]

You might also benefit from one of the online retirement planners like Boldin. Theresa a free version but the paid one does a lot more, helps with rmd and tax strategies etc..

[Anonymous]

Another vote for bogleheads.org.

Also, you and spouse need to start keeping track of every penny you spend. You need to understand what you spend.

As mentioned, what will you receive in SS? Do you have any pensions?

I would start with something like Ficalc.com and input your information and run scenarios. (Outcome is only as good as the input.) Along with learning at Bogleheads.

Basically, spouse (and you) really need to do a deep dive into spending and what you anticipate in terms of expenses.

Bogleheads has a forum where you can input your details and they can help you figure it out.