Before heading out on vacation you'll take the time to plan where you are going, how you will get there, where you'll be staying and the activities you want to participate in. You may plan a wedding, plan for a new baby, plan out your education, get architectural plans to build a house.
When you stop and think about it, you plan out a lot of stuff in your life every day, but what about a plan for your money and your future?
A large majority of Canadians have no plan and when you consider the reality that most retirees are faced with retirement before they have time to create a plan, due to being downsized or forced to quit their job to look after aging relatives, failure and mistakes are inevitable.
Stop and think for a moment. What would a wedding be like without a plan? What would your vacation be like without a plan? What would a new house look like without a plan?
Most Canadians going into retirement have no plan.
They have a hodgepodge assortment of investments and a foggy idea of how to put it all together. The majority of financial advisors at the big firms only take clients with large accounts of $1,000,000 or more and only focus on investments that are 100% exposed to the stock markets. If you have the misfortune and working with your local bank, you are now waiting on hold for hours to speak with someone, or you have a revolving door of inexperienced advisors more interested in selling you a credit card or overdraft protection than giving your proper drawdown strategy. They may be able to input your data into a computer, but cannot explain it to you.
There are many items that make up a successful retirement income & investment plan. Like, reducing taxes, maximizing government benefits, proper health benefits, long-term care, estate considerations, insurance, and final expenses, to name a few.
There is nothing more important to you than taking your income in the right order.
This is the only way you can reduce taxes and ensure that you will not run out of money. We carefully analyze your financial situation and we run various retirement projections to determine the best way for you to start your various sources of income so that you will pay the least amount of taxes over your lifetime. This will enable you to know with certainty how much money you can spend each year and if it will last your whole life through. As Calgary's only fee-only planners, we actually create for you a retirement income plan.
Having a multitude of financial products spread over a dozen companies is no way to prepare for the most exciting time of your life. That's why we create individual plans that work as a set of blueprints so you can then decide what products you need to reach your goals and bring it all together in a plan that gives you the best possible outcome with investments that can produce predictable income for life.
Taking the time to work with a qualified retirement planner can save you thousands of dollars in lifestyle cash flow and can save you a lot of time and pain from the pitfalls most people make.
Most people transitioning into retirement want to know:
- If they have enough money to retire and maintain their lifestyle.
- What is the correct drawdown strategy to save taxes?
- A sustainable level of income to take each year.
- If there is any concern with running out of money.
- Should they consider an annuity and how do annuities work?
- When to start taking government pensions.
Your financial future should not be left in the care of inexperienced amateurs.
How to proceed from here?
Simply book an introductory meeting time in our calendar to get started with unbiased, objective advice.
Willis J Langford BA, MA, CFP
Nancy Langford CRS
Retirement Income, Investment & Tax Planning
Langford Financial Inc is a private practice specializing in flat-fee retirement income planning for everyday people.
587-755-0159