Retirement
Creating Your Retirement Paycheck
Saving for retirement is a habit. Spending in retirement is a system. The switch from accumulating to withdrawing is where a lot of otherwise well-prepared retirees get uncomfortable.
This is the step-by-step system I use with clients to turn a portfolio into a predictable monthly deposit, refreshed once a year.
What the article covers
- Calculating your annual spending need
- Deciding which accounts to draw from and in what order
- Reviewing the portfolio and rebalancing at the same time
- Moving a full year of spending into a money market account
- Setting up the monthly auto-transfer so income arrives like a paycheck
- Checking total income before year-end for tax planning
Key takeaways
- 1Fund one year of spending at a time, then let a monthly transfer handle the rest.
- 2Withdrawals and rebalancing are the same job. Do them together once a year.
- 3A year-end income check is where most retirement tax savings actually happen.
Who this is for: Retirees and near-retirees who need to convert savings into income.
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