What do you want to accomplish during your retirement years? Travel? Volunteer or work part-time? Pursue hobbies? To financially prepare for your retirement, you need a clear idea of your retirement and lifestyle goals. This course begins with quick, individual exercises to help you begin thinking about non-financial retirement planning. Today, many pre-retirees see themselves living their retirement years in a much different way than their parents did. As a result, the entire planning process has changed. This more progressive approach is explored throughout this course.

What are your retirement expectations? According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 7 out of 10 respondents are very or somewhat confident they will have enough money to “live comfortably” throughout retirement. However, only about 52% of workers have tried to calculate their costs. This course contains exercises to help you determine how much money you will need to retire in the future. If you are quickly approaching retirement, we examine whether you can retire today based on the annual income you desire.

In this section, we identify the 10 biggest retirement planning mistakes and ways to avoid them. The highlight of this section is 11 strategies for saving money on this year’s taxes.

This section investigates the many ways to save for retirement and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each. You learn whether you should convert your IRA to a Roth IRA, and if so, whether it is to your advantage to make the conversion over one or multiple years. Finally, we look at employer-sponsored retirement plans and Social Security benefits to examine important choices you must make.

This expanded section addresses the crucial decisions people must make about their retirement plans when they actually retire. In most cases, these decisions cannot be reversed. We discuss strategies that allow you to take money out of your retirement plans while maintaining financial flexibility during retirement. Above all, we compare retirement plan distribution choices to help you make an informed decision. 

You also learn strategies to help minimize taxes on your retirement income and avoid tax penalties of up to 25%. Finally, we explain rules for early access to your retirement funds.

In the most extensive section of this course, you learn about savings vehicles, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, exchange traded funds, individually managed accounts, tax-deferred annuities and important considerations before you invest. The highlight of this section is 5 strategies for managing investment risks.

This section addresses strategies designed to protect you from a large financial loss prior to or during retirement. You learn what questions to ask before buying insurance coverage. We investigate many aspects of long-term health care including: the chances you will need it, how much it can cost, who should purchase insurance and alternatives to purchasing coverage. We also compare the different types of life insurance and discuss how to select coverage so you and your family can make an informed decision.

Estate planning isn’t just about money and includes much more than planning for your death. It involves personal decisions that affect you, your family and loved ones even while you are still living. As a result of recent tax law changes, estate planning is a moving target. We discuss ways to plan for today and for your future.

You learn strategies and techniques to minimize or eliminate income, gift and estate taxes, expenses, delays, legal challenges and a shortage of liquid assets following your death. We also address the best way to hold joint ownership of property (or other assets) based on your situation.