Retirement and a Gift Box

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The Story
Ginger has always been good at being thrifty. It’s who she is. Though she had significant sources of income and had saved well, it was challenging for her to feel confident that her savings were sufficient to live on for the rest of her life. This is true for a lot of people: it is difficult to interpret the implications on day-to-day life by looking at one lump sum of one’s worth.
Ginger came to us wanting to know that what she had meticulously saved throughout her life would simply be enough.

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What if Retirement Talk Comes too Late?

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The Story
Bill and Mary have both led full, successful careers. Their combined salaries support a high standard of living. They consistently contribute to retirement accounts and have assumed that this is enough to carry their standard of living through retirement. When the couple began discussing retirement, they assessed their accounts. The money seemed like a healthy amount. But for a second opinion, they sought our professional advice. When we translated the sum of savings to a monthly budget, Bill and Mary were stunned. The monthly amount was not nearly what they’d thought it’d be.

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Retirement For a Person Who Loves to Travel – and Will Work to Get There

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The Story
Alicia and her husband, Leon, both found careers in real estate. She’s a broker; he worked with mortgages. But if you met them at a party and were to ask them about themselves, this is not the first thing they would tell you. Instead, they’d likely tell you about their bike tour of The Netherlands last month, and their planned trip to the French Riviera they are currently planning. For them, work has always been a means to an end – not the end itself. This is where our conversations with the couple started.

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Retirement When You Love What You Do, But Want to Slow Down

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The Story
Paul is an attorney. That is who he has always been – it is how he, and those around him, have defined his identity. Throughout his career, he’s put in the long nights and extra miles. Eagerly. He loves what he does; he loves the craft of it. Now approaching the next decade of his life, things are changing. He and his wife, Lucille, began asking: What does retirement for us look like?

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Why Right Now Is the Time to Start Planning for Retirement

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Retirement marks significant life change. For generations, the expectation for turning the page to this chapter of life has been this: after working nine-to-five until your mid-60’s, you stop and spend the next 8 to 10 years winding down. This trajectory accounts for a lifespan of about 72 years and one career-long, full-time job. A few decades ago, that trajectory made sense, mathematically. Life expectancy was about 72, and people tended to hold the same job and contribute to the same pension for their whole career. But now, we are living longer. We are working differently. The way we retire must change, too. 

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