The month of March is basketball tournament time, and the theme for this time in the season is ‘Survive and Advance.’ In order to continue playing and prevent the season from being over, you have to win to move on to the next round. In today’s ever-changing and volatile financial world, your retirement plan has to be set up to survive and advance as well.
Your working years are very similar to the regular season in basketball. While saving for retirement, you may be able to afford some up and down years in the market as you have time to recover and to continue to build your nest egg. But in your pre-retirement and retirement years, the theme is the same as the tournament.
Your first objective is to survive. Your retirement plan has to be able to survive the volatility and severe downturns in the market. It also has to survive congressional law changes, tax law changes, economic changes and many other threats to your nest egg that can have major impacts on your overall plan.
Unfortunately, you cannot stop at just surviving. You also have to continue to advance your retirement plan as well. You need to continue to grow your money to battle longevity, inflation and the increasing costs to live. You also need to become more tax efficient to protect yourself from increasing tax rates in the future.
Just as it is tournament time for basketball, it is tournament time for your retirement plan. Visit The Prepare Institute website to find a retirement course to take in order to learn how to set up and maintain your retirement plan to survive and advance. Content is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended to be used as the sole basis for financial decisions, nor should it be construed as advice designed to meet the particular needs of an individual’s situation. You should contact your retirement and tax professional before utilizing any of the information in this article