How to use this checklist
Work through it once on your own, then again with an advisor. Anything you can't answer in one sentence is a gap worth a conversation.
1. Income
- Do you know your required monthly spending, not your budget guess, but the last 12 months of actual outflow?
- What is your total guaranteed monthly income (Social Security, pension, rental, annuity)?
- What is the gap between those two numbers?
- Which specific account funds that gap in year one? In year ten?
- If the market fell 30% in your first year of retirement, would your income change?
2. Social Security
- Have you pulled your statement at ssa.gov in the last 12 months?
- Do you know your benefit at 62, at full retirement age, and at 70?
- For married couples: have you compared claiming strategies, including the survivor benefit?
- Do you know how working before full retirement age reduces your check?
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