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If you are retired or you are planning on retiring, then you are not gonna wanna miss this episode where we cover the seven most important questions that you should ask yourself so that you can maximize your retirement. All that more on today's episode of The Retire One Show.

Hello and welcome to the Retire Wants Show. The show designed to help you get to retirement, but most importantly, stay retired. I'm Yos Jonathan Rankin. I'm the founder and CEO of Theor and Wealth Management, and I'm joined as always by my lovely co-host. Hi, I'm Melissa Rankin. Thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you for being here. It's a new year. Hopefully your new year started off a little bit better than the Rankin household. We. Passed around, you know, sinus infections, ear infections, all that good stuff. So hopefully your ear is, uh, off to a healthier start than our family . That's right. If you remember a couple episodes ago, Melissa's cough that interrupted our entire show.

Sorry about that again. So, Uh, you know, we are happy that everybody is here and we have a great show for you today. Uh, but before we jump into that, what do we want people to do? We want you to describe, we want you to never miss one of these episodes. Follow along. Not at all. Don't miss a single one. Hit that button.

Make sure you hit the little bell so you're notified at time. We put out a video. So with that, let's dive into the seven questions to ask yourself about retirement. And this is important because we typically get one question, one or two. How much do I need to retire? How much do I need to retire? Always, I mean, understandably so, but it's always about the money.

It is always about that main question or some variation of it, or how much should I look to spend in retirement? But outside of that, there are so many other things that you want to be consider. And so that's why we put together this list of seven questions to ask yourself about retirement and hopefully this helps you maximize your retirement success.

So let's go ahead and we'll dive right in here. Absolutely. Cuz again, the financial part very important, but we wanted to cover the other side of that. So starting off, number one, what does retirement success mean to you? . Yeah. I, I, we have this on here because like we talk about re retirement success. Is it just about that dollar amount?

Is it about knowing, okay, I need X amount of money per year, or this portfolio value at a million or 2 million, or whatever that number is. Or is it about creating the lifestyle that you want? A level of comfort and ease, I guess, if you will. Peace of mind. Peace of mind. That's a, that's a great way to put it.

And that's what, you know, when we talk to people about retirement, I think that's the first thing that we always try to focus on is what is retirement success? Because retirement success isn't necessarily that number. It really is about how do we create or recreate the lifestyle that you have today without you having to go to.

And it's gonna look different for everybody. I mean, that's the important thing to remember, is that it's not really a one size fits all. There's no cookie cutter, if you will, for, oh, this is your happy retirement. Here's your cookie. It doesn't look like that. Yeah. Everybody's is different. And so that's the first question that you want to ask yourself is, what is a successful retirement to me?

What does that mean? And having a plan for that part of it, because that's gonna help you shape what you should be striving for anyway, what you should be planning. If a successful retirement is I get to spend time with my family, if they're spread throughout the US and I get to go travel and see them, or you want to take certain trips per year over overseas, or you just wanna stay at home and you wanna golf, whatever that retirement success lifestyle looks like, then you can start backing into the portfolio number.

But focus on what does success really actually mean? Which is kind of a perfect way to start it off because then the next question number two for us, we think is what part of retirement causes you? Yeah, this here, the goal for this question is to identify what could lead to any potential emotional decisions down the road.

So if you think about, you know, you've been planning for retirement for what, 10, 20, maybe 30 years. , there's, if you have no stress during that entire period, congratulations, then you're doing something right. , yeah. But if there's something that has ever kept you up, uh, has got you concerned about your overall retirement success, whether that's the investment part, I mean, obviously there's a lot going on there lately, but over the past 30 years we've had a lot of, we've had a number of bear markets that have not been fun to go through.

So is it the investments, is it just the spending aspect? Are you worried about running outta money? , it's about identifying those potential issues early so that way you can help find a way to alleviate those in retirement. Absolutely. So we've, we've covered what it means to have a successful retirement.

What causes you stress? Those kind of go hand in hand. Once you know what you want your retirement to look like, it's a whole lot easier to figure out, okay, well what would prevent me from achieving that? Mm-hmm. , I think is the, the important takeaway from number two. Yeah. So if you have, let's say that you are stressed out about the investment.

Well, then you find a partner for that. Find a financial advisor that can help you with that. Or investment manager, if you're fine with that. You say, you know what? I understand the market is a long term, a long term thing, but I worry that I'm spending too much or that I might run outta money. Or how you, how can I pay for large expenses in retirement?

Well then you want to maybe find a planner that can help you put together a comprehensive financial plan to, to alleviate that stress. So, you know, it's just important to understand your own investment behavior and investor behavior, so that way you can have a partner going into it. Again, very personal for everybody.

Looks completely different, but that leads us into number three, kind of a, a big one that we think causes, or that we hear at least causes a lot of stress. Number three, how will you handle stock market volatility? Yeah, as we know bear markets happen. They've happened, you know, every couple years for the past a hundred plus years.

They, it's going to happen and it's going to happen again when you're. But how do you handle that? What's your strategy going to be? Uh, are you going to utilize something like the bucket strategy where, you know, you need to have that sense of security for your first one to three years of spending that's just kept in cash?

Is that gonna help you feel more comfortable so that way you're not making emotional decisions? Or do you know that it is a long-term strategy, that you're okay understanding that volatility's gonna happen, understanding how you're.  you'll react to That is going to be very important to have retirement success, which is another good reason that if you know that it's something that already causes you stress, that's probably where you want to find somebody to partner with.

Yeah. To help you kind of through those rocky times. Yeah. Remember what's going on, right? How you felt, you know, this past year. Remember how you felt in 2020 when the market was hitting a low. You know now if you're five or 10 years out from retirement and you realize, okay, 2020 was hard, I, I made it through because the market quickly barely mounted.

I think we all barely made it through  last year was tough because the market sold off and hit another rough one,  another rough one. So if you go through those periods and you realize, you know what, this, I'm not gonna be okay if I'm no longer getting a salary and I'm having to use my investments to support my life.

And, you know, going into that, how you handle previous bear markets, it's important to get an understanding of how you're gonna handle them moving forward. Absolutely. The, the way that you've handled that in the past is absolutely a good barometer of how you may handle it in the future. So , because it's only gonna become more emotional at that point.

You know, you don't have that salary to fall back on, and it's only going to, you know, cause more and more stress. And so having that, Years in advance before our, because I guarantee you this, I've told everybody on this show at some point the market's gonna reach a new all-time high. I've said that. He has said that he has

I just don't know when. I think that was on our predictions episode. You mentioned it was, but I also know this, at some point we're gonna go through another bear market also. True. It's going to happen. The market's going to sell off at some point. It always does, but then we reach new all time eyes at some point.

So, uh, knowing that you're gonna experience that. , you wanna have a plan for that. So in continuing with the fun topic of stressors,  number four, how will you pay for medical costs? This is an important one because a lot of people believe that Medicare is going to pay for everything, which is not true. I mean, Medicare doesn't pay for simple things like hearing aids, dental bills, vision.

I mean, I think there's a huge misconception around. Medicare, I mean there, there is, and plus it also has, you know, pretty high deductibles and, and co-payments that you have to pay. And so you want to understand what options you have available to you. Is it going to be supplemental plans or Medicare Advantage that you take, that you utilize, uh, and you have to budget for those additional expenses.

Because I know we've covered it here before, but Fidelity has that study that says that a retired 65 year old couple should expect to spend on average about $315,000. Not retirement on medical expenses. So I mean, just again, let's, let's say that number again, $315,000. That's a lot of money. It's a house,  a house.

I mean, you know, I dunno about these days, if it's a house, well, it could be a little one , but I, you know, it kind of reminds me of, uh, the studies that show how much it costs to raise a kid. And then I just look at our two kids and I. Yeah, I don't even read those studies. I don't even wanna see do that.

Those are just keep scroll, just scroll, keep going, keep going. We don't wanna see those things. So just have a plan for, you know, incorporating medical costs into your retirement plan is going to be important, uh, because you don't wanna be caught off guard, you know, when you're in your seventies or eighties, that you know, how are you gonna pay for these things.

Absolutely. So taken away from the stressors. Now let's go to the, the flip side of that, if you will, now that we've covered all the stuff that might keep you up at night.  number five, what will your plan to review your retirement plan itself? Investments and spending be? Yeah. We look at this as we've talked about before, the importance of stress testing your retirement, not just before your retired, but during retirement.

And so how often are you going to do that when you are retire? You want to create a habit around that. So is it going to be annual? Is it gonna be, you know, two times a year or quarterly or maybe even monthly where you're just checking in and checking in on your spending? How are your investments doing?

You know, are you at any danger of running outta money? Is there longevity risk that you have to, uh, worry about either? The last thing you want to do is retire not lucky retirement plan for five or six years, and then look up one day and go, oh wow. Going to run outta money if I keep this up. We absolutely do not recommend the ostrich poach.

No, do not. This is, this is not the year of the ostrich like we talk about. Yeah, I think it's the year of the rabbit. I think so. Oh, I should know this. You, he should know this. I think it's the rabbit. But again, we definitely do not recommend the ostrich, poach. Keep track of things. Know where you're at.

Stress test constantly. And this goes back to getting a partner. If you don't like doing it, if you don't like the idea of having. , you know, check your spending and, and make sure that you're planning for your retirement. L. Find someone who's going to help you. Uh, whether that could be an advisor like us, could be a friend, family.

It should be us. It should be us. But, you know, if you wanna find someone on your own, that's okay too. Just having a plan for how you're going to go back to your retirement plan, you know, how often are you going to address that, because I've seen it way too often.  where somebody does a retirement plan, gets themself to retirement and they don't look at it again or come back to it, kind of look at it like, why I did that?

I already did that. I did that. I, I know I'm gonna retire cuz I, because I am, I quit my job. I am retired. I don't go into work every day. But they don't realize that there might not be a problem this year or next year, but, In seven or eight or 10 years from now, there might be a big problem about running outta money if spending is, is kept up the same way it is today.

So just having a plan around that, which is actually a perfect segue into number six, who is going to be there to help you when you can no longer manage your own finances? This is really important because we know that people put together their estate plan that includes things like power of its attorneys.

Directives, all that fun stuff. Yeah. But creating a team that's just going to help you with your day-to-day stuff. You know, at some point there might be the point where you just don't want to handle this stuff or you can't. Uh, we also see now that more and more, uh, more and more scams are targeting seniors.

Uh, absolutely. There's a study that showed that over three and a half million older adults are victims of financial exploitation each. And they, that costs a total of over $3 billion. And they actually found that seniors who are targeted suffer an average loss of $34,200. That's awful. And so who's going to be there to help you start identifying that early while you still have the capacity?

To manage your finances. This doesn't mean that you have to give it all up immediately, but it's just identifying, is it a child? Is it, you know, a family member, a friend? Is it a financial advisor, a CPA who's going to be that team that's around you to help, to help you not be one of those people? I mean, if you get an email from, you know, a long lost relative that you've never known and they say, Hey, please send me some money, I mean, Maybe don't do it, but you probably want people there to, to be looking out for you.

Yeah. I don't think the Saudi princes are going to be looking for you to help bail them out of a certain situation. So, you know, we don't need that. I mean, this is a pretty common one, . It is. And you know, I look at it as we're the, we're the support team for a lot of our clients. You know, we're part of their support system, and if we got, let's say, a wire request or a distribution request from a client, , you know, they want to wire money to some random person that we don't, you know, we've never heard of.

We're going to ask a lot of questions, and that's all you want. You want someone there on your behalf that's going. Ask those questions, you're looking out for you and making sure that you're not one of those three and a half million people per year, because that's a lot that is, and that's just unfortunate.

So we don't want you to be one of those people. Which leads us to number seven. What will you do to stay busy now that you've deleted all of those emails from, you know, the, the request for money. That's right. Uh, we talk about retirement fulfillment and being happy in retirement and how it is more than just money.

Mm-hmm. . But we also did a video on the health risks of retiring early that you could check out right here. We'll link to. But very good episode. Having that plan to have a social life, uh, to stay healthy, you know, to active, be fulfilled. I mean, you know, I told my dad that I might have to buy him a little tiny dog so he can just go around the block on a walk every now and again.

It's important to just, uh, stay healthy. Doesn't mean you have to be in the gym power lifting, but how are you going? , stay social, stay engaged, you know, with community and, and also stay healthy. I mean, it's, it's something that I feel like a lot of people don't think about. They think once I retire great.

I'm retired, I have all this time to do stuff. It's gonna be great. But there's a real part of it that you want to be fulfilled. You want to have an idea going into retirement, what that looks like for you. I mean, if it's bird watching every morning while you drink your coffee, I mean, Something I've learned that I actually like to do.

Oh, hey look, there's that red bird again. I mean, I, I, I just found this out and we're gonna have a conversation after the show about this bird watching thing, but yeah, I hear it's popular . I, I do hear it as popular and I didn't realize that she engaged in that, but, uh, I, it is important to keep your spouse surprised  plan for more than just how much you need to retire and live off of.

That's absolutely, that's, that's really the essence of that is just how do you plan to do everything that's not the. And so, which is a, a lot to think about. I mean, cuz most people, that's their first thought. The money. That's right. So let's jump through the, the seven again. Let's just highlight those for everybody so that you remember to ask yourself those questions.

Hopefully you were following along and you actually were answering those as we were going, but uh, in case you weren't, in case you were, let's just start with. Number one, what does a, a successful retirement look like to you? Number two, what part of retirement planning causes you stress? Number three, how will you handle stock market volatility?

Number four, how will you pay for medical costs? Number five, what will your plan to review your retirement plan, investments and spending overall? The number six, who will be there to help you when you can no longer manage your own finances? And number seven, a very big. What will you do to stay busy? Those are the seven questions to ask yourself about your retirement, and I've got one question to ask yourself.

Are you subscribed? And if not, hit that button. Why not ? With that, I'm Jonathan Rankin. And I'm Melissa Rankin. Thank you so much for joining us.

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