Financial planning comes with a lot of questions, and the answers often depend on how different pieces of your financial life work together.
This hub covers common financial planning questions and explains how we think through them at TrueStar Financial Partners. Explore the topics below for educational guidance on retirement, Social Security, taxes, saving for your family, investing, insurance, and other financial planning decisions.
Kenny Ginsburg, CFA®, CFP®
Founder, TrueStar Financial Partners LLC
Retirement Planning
How do I know if I can afford to retire?
Being able to afford retirement is less about reaching a specific dollar amount and more about determining whether your resources can realistically support the lifestyle you want over time.
Start by comparing your expected retirement spending with income from sources such as Social Security and pensions. Your investment portfolio will generally need to fill the remaining gap. Taxes, healthcare costs, inflation, market downturns, longevity, and major future expenses can all affect whether that plan is sustainable.
That’s also why there isn’t a universal “magic number” for retirement. A $3 million portfolio might support one household for decades while another household could spend through the same amount much more quickly.
Our complete retirement readiness guide explores how to estimate how much you may need, account for major future expenses, evaluate healthcare costs, stress-test your plan, and determine whether you’re financially prepared to retire.
Read the complete guide: How do I know if I can afford to retire
When Should I Take Social Security?
That depends more on your retirement plan and situation than it does to simply “maximize the benefit and wait til 70” or claim it when you retire. When deciding on when to take Social Security you should look at a number of factors like your cash flow needs, your other sources of income both stable and investment portfolio related, your longevity, and how your partner’s Social Security benefit fits into your overall plan. When you factor all of that in, what may make sense for you may not be the first two options listed there.
This leads to the better question:
How does Social Security fit into my broader retirement plans?
Yes it’s a stable source of income but when you take it should be a part of your entire retirement plan including when you actually retire, your withdrawal strategy for your accounts, and your tax strategy to name afew.
Read more in: When Should I take Social Security.
How Can I Minimize Taxes in Retirement?
Minimizing taxes in retirement often involves coordinating when and where you take income from throughout retirement. This can include deciding when to withdraw from taxable, tax-deferred, and Roth accounts; considering Roth conversions; managing capital gains; planning for required minimum distributions; and coordinating charitable giving.
The right strategy depends on your income, assets, spending needs, age, and goals—and sometimes paying more tax today can help reduce taxes later in retirement.
Read more in How Can I Minimize Taxes in Retirement?
Planning for Busy Families
Other FAQs
Check out our other FAQs in the link here.
