The 5 Years Before You Retire: Retirement Planning When You Need It the Most | Next Book Announcement

My next read will be Emily Guy Birken’s The 5 Years Before You Retire: Retirement Planning When You Need It the Most. Not 30 years. Not 6 months. What do you need to know and do if your timeline for retirement is roughly 5 years out? If you would like to get your own copy and read along with me, please let me know!

Sometimes we get people who come into our office and say, “I just retired! I’d like to talk about what I need to do.” It’s not uncommon that what they need to do is go back to their employer and ask for their job back. Without a sufficient amount of time to prepare, it’s like jumping out of an airplane and then checking if you have a proper parachute.

And while having sufficient funding via retirement savings is usually item #1, there are many other things to coordinate for a retirement just on the financial side (insurance, taxes, estate documents, etc.) – this says nothing about the relational and emotional preparation that should occur (Am I just retiring because I can afford to? Are my spouse and I ready to spend 100 waking hours together per week? How many of my interpersonal interactions happen through the workplace? Will I have a purpose if I’m not working to serve other people?).

As Brockmann Financial continues to focus on serving those near or in retirement (as detailed on our website here), I look forward to the insights Birken’s book will offer so we can serve our clients and fulfill our mission: helping you fund a happy and successful retirement.

To get an idea of the layout of this book and what’s to come, here’s the table of contents:

• Part One: The Nitty-Gritty of Retirement Finances

  • Chapter 1: How Far Away Are You?

  • Chapter 2: Saving and Budgeting for the Next Five Years

  • Chapter 3: Income in Retirement

  • Chapter 4: Find the Right Financial Planner

• Part Two: The Government Giveth (and Taketh Away)

  • Chapter 5: What to Expect from Social Security

  • Chapter 6: Taxes and Your Retirement Income

  • Chapter 7: What to Expect from Medicare

  • Chapter 8: Planning for Health-Care Expenses in Retirement

• Part Three: Home, Family, and Other Considerations

  • Chapter 9: Housing in Retirement

  • Chapter 10: The Family Fortunes

  • Chapter 11: Creating a Budget on a Retirement Income

  • Chapter 12: Common Retirement Pitfalls

  • Chapter 13: If You Don't Have Enough Saved

Let us know

• If you are retired, what were the five years before your retirement like?

• If you are not yet retired, which of the three sections or which of the 13 chapters above are the biggest source of concern?

  
  

Until next time, happy reading!