Your Retirement Nest Egg - A Carton Full of Options

Author

Senior Tax Advisory Group

Posted on

Nov 18, 2020

Book/Edition

Colorado - Colorado Springs

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Many people refer to their retirement savings as a nest egg, but in theory, it should be made up of many sources of retirement income - many eggs. Even if Social Security and a company retirement plan were their only retirement savings sources, likely they havent thought about their withdrawal strategy. Its not as simple as just drawing down retirement income from one or two sources without a plan. Have the following been considered?

Taxable vs. Tax-Free income
How much of their money is available to spend in retirement?
Will money need to be put aside to pay taxes?
Are there other income streams?
Would investment advice produce better returns, even in retirement?
Is there a withdrawal strategy that will be better for me than liquidating only from one or two sources?

When considering these, having only one or two eggs doesnt seem like enough. As Americans, we have many options to save for retirement:

Tax-Sheltered retirement plans
Tax-Free retirement plans
Employer or Government employer-funded pension plans
Company profit sharing retirement plans
Insurance Products: Fixed-indexed annuities, Whole Life Insurance
Certificates of Deposit
Social Security

All these types of retirement savings options have different rules on taxation and when they can withdraw without penalty. Delaying Social Security, while taking withdrawals from other taxable retirement income sources, can greatly impact income. For this reason, a retirement portfolio must be adjusted and monitored, and a plan developed for withdrawing from each income source, and its taxation consequences. These make financial planning throughout retirement even more critical.
If you have multiple or only a few retirement nest eggs, now is an excellent time to discuss how taxes will impact you this year or in the future.
Editors Note: This article was submitted by Darian Andreson, of Senior Tax Advisory Group and may be reached at 719-596-4844 or by email at Info@SpringsTax.com

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