FINANCIAL FOCUS
Countdown to retirement Getting ready financially
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or most of your career, you’ve dreamed of and worked toward the day when you say goodbye to the routines of 9-to-5 and hello to more “me time.” Travel beckons, hobbies and new pastimes await, and the promise of a brand new chapter to write for yourself is just over the retirement horizon. If 2022 is the year you’re ready to say, “I’m retiring,” you’ll want and need to spend some time preparing for the big event.
By Robert May Assistant Vice President Frost Commercial Banking
22 | Mv | January + February 2022
• Decide what you’ll do in retirement. Though you may have spent years building a retirement nest egg, it’s not likely that you’ve spent as much time defining exactly what retirement looks like for you. Work part-time? Travel? Take classes? Try out new pastimes or interests? Something else? Give some thought to what excites you about a new season in your life and what you’d like to achieve in retirement. Doing so, say financial experts, can help you more precisely define your future financial needs and enable you to outline at least a rough retirement budget. • Visit with your financial professionals, including your wealth advisor, CPA,
and if appropriate, your tax attorney. They can provide guidance about specific actions to take and decisions to make as you prepare to leave full-time work life behind. They may also be able to suggest professional resources who can discuss retirement benefits, such as Social Security and Medicare. • Talk to your employer about retirement benefits to which you may be entitled, such pensions and retiree health insurance, and employer-sponsored retirement savings plans in which you participate to understand how they work in retirement. Many large companies offer preretirement counseling through their human resources department to help
