Retirement Income Planning
Will the money last?
It is the first question most people ask when they sit down with me, and it is the right one. You have spent a career building savings. What you may not have is a clear accounting of what those savings actually produce as monthly income once the paychecks stop.
My work is to give you that accounting in writing, and then to build reliable income around it.
Who We Serve
Clients within roughly ten years of retirement.
The financial questions that matter change at this stage. Growth was the objective for thirty years. Now the objective is certainty, and the two require different planning entirely.
Guaranteed Lifetime Income
Contractual income that continues for as long as you live, structured to cover essential expenses so that the household budget does not depend on market performance in any given year.
Principal Protection
Positioning a portion of assets so that a significant market decline does not become a permanent reduction in retirement income, while retaining a measure of growth potential.
Income Distribution Strategy
A written schedule of what arrives each month, from which account, and in what order.
Tax Efficiency
Sequencing withdrawals and conversions with the objective of reducing lifetime tax liability, so that a greater share of what you saved reaches your account rather than the Treasury.
Christopher JaffeSecure Well Financial
About
I came to this work as a teacher.
I earned a Master's degree in Education at Indiana University and expected to spend my career in a classroom. I started in financial services helping people work their way through Medicare, and that is where I learned that most of this work is teaching. You take something complicated and you make it plain enough that the person in front of you can decide for themselves.
That turned into training work. Over the past twenty years I have taught hundreds of insurance agents around the country how to do this properly, which is a useful thing to know about someone you are considering hiring. I have seen how the business works from the inside.
Articles
Things worth understanding before you decide anything.
Nothing here asks for your email address.
The order of your returns matters more than the average
Two retirees, the same average return, and a gap of more than two hundred thousand dollars. Why the first five years of retirement carry most of the risk.
6 min read → Social SecurityWhat claiming Social Security early actually costs
The reduction is permanent, the credit for waiting is larger than most people expect, and if you are married the decision is not really about you.
7 min read → AnnuitiesWhat an annuity actually guarantees, and what it does not
Where the guarantee comes from, the two numbers people confuse, what it costs, and the eight questions to ask before signing anything.
8 min read →Next Step
An initial review, at no cost.
Twenty minutes by phone or video. You will finish the call with a clearer understanding of where your retirement income stands, whether or not we go on to work together.