So how do you help determine if each individual client is, is really, truly emotionally ready to retire.

Yeah, I mean, you've got, you know, every day is a Saturday in retirement.

And I have a ton of retired pilots here in Houston that we've worked with.

And typically what they have is they have what's called a pension.

And pensions are very nice to have and can take away a lot of stress when it comes to the retirement planning process because you get that extra check each and every month for the rest of your life and your spouse's life if you have a spouse.

So that can relieve a lot of stress.

We need to know exactly where everything is going to be coming from.

And more importantly, what happens when those expectations maybe don't necessarily line up with reality, Michael?

And again, some of the mistakes that could come along with that, that can trigger another one of these tax time bombs, can it?

They're all tied to each other.

So, you know, when we talk about Medicare, there's a lot of listeners out there that are paying IRMA surcharges.

The fact that the reason why they're paying IRMA surcharges is because they don't have enough in their Roth to draw down from their Roth to offset their expenses and pay themselves on a tax free basis.

It plays a major factor.

there really are some sweet spots out there when it comes to retiring, tax planning, right? If we're 72 and we're going to be 73 in the next year and you're wanting to start doing Roth conversions, well, your ship has sailed for the most part in most cases, because the fact of the forced to take those RMDs, whether you like it or not, at age 73 and pay taxes on your money.

And if we do start doing Roth conversions into those RMD years, those withdrawal years, 73, 74, 75, 76, we have to understand what ramifications, what's going to happen to us, because that could obviously increase our tax bracket, increase our IRMA bracket.

And more importantly, what happens when those expectations maybe don't necessarily line up with reality, Michael?

32 and of course a lot of these politicians are long gone by then and your social security check could end up being sliced by up to 25 and that leads to the real question michael if we do see a reduction in benefits what are some other income sources our listeners should think about really strengthening now if they are relying very heavily on social security at the time

Well, I mean, we can only realize a gain when we sell off something, right? And nobody out there can time the market perfectly.

Our crystal ball is broken, and so is everybody else's.

So we need to be able to turn our investments into paychecks, right? We need to take those 401ks, we need to take those IRAs, and we need to take our savings, and we need to figure out which Right.

Mm-hmm.

It's just not.

It's not enough income.

So let's talk about the importance of preparing for that possibility now, long before you're also dealing with a crisis as well.

Yeah

... just for this simple reason.

Market volatility is gonna be there.

The fact that we may have a market correction soon could happen.

We could lose 5%, 10%, 20%, 30%, depending, who knows? Nobody has a crystal ball, or our crystal balls are, are broken.

But we need to have a plan when that time comes.

All of my clients, and I mean all of them- know that we have a plan for risk and know that we can weather the storms if something happens, it's not going to be a major issue because we do have a plan for risk.

But Michael, when it comes to emotional decisions, right, I know it, it's human nature, right? You see the headline, you read something on social media, you wanna make a panic, rash decision, but ultimately it comes down to sitting down with someone like yourself, having all these plans in place where you can kinda tune out a lot of this noise and, and not, you know, do something that could have a lasting impact for years to come.