Find the Gaps in your Retirement Plan

How do you know you have the right type of retirement plan for you?

Some people tell me their CPA set their retirement plan up for them. Others tell me they had a certified financial planner set up their plan, while still others tell me they got theirs through work.

Whatever plan you have, at least you have something, right? Unfortunately it's most likely not enough. If you are like most other people, you likely have huge gaps where your retirement plan can fail, which means it probably will fail.

The mindset I want for you is: failure is not an option. So let’s discover where you the gaps in your retirement plan are, and then let’s fill those gaps.

The best way to determine whether or not you have gaps in your plan is to ask yourself these questions:

• Will your retirement plan provide you with enough money to last throughout retirement? If not, what will you do if it runs out of money?

• Will your retirement plan provide you with the necessary funds to pay for long-term care expenses? If not, how will you pay for long-term care expenses?

• Will your retirement plan provide you with tax-free income? If it’s not tax-free, how will you know if you’ll have enough money after taxes? The truth is you can’t know, because no one knows how high taxes will go.

• Will your retirement plan lose money when the market crashes? We all know it will crash, we just don't know when. If it can lose money, how much do you want to lose? If your answer is you don't want to lose any money, why is your money in the market? What happens if you lose too much money?

• If you die before your spouse? Will your retirement plan continue to provide for your spouse? Will it be enough?

Did you find any gaps in your plan? How many gaps did you find?

It doesn’t take a big hole for all of the water to leak out of a bucket, it just takes a hole. Better to find the holes and plug them today, rather than when you’re in the middle of retirement when it’s too late.

You're physicians, you tell your patients, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." It's good advice, and I'm giving you the same advice.

The tools you need for retirement success are all right here. All you need to do is take a little bit of initiative and be proactive. If you have gaps in your retirement plan, or if you have questions, send an email to David@TheAlemianfile.com. Check out my website www.PhysiciansRetirementPlan.com. Make sure you come back here next week to Physicians Money Digest for another edition of The Alemian File.