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BUIldING YOUR RETIREmENT PlAN FROm ThE FOUNdATION UP

had money wired to Bernard L. Madoff securities, this is a big

NO NO! For example, the name of my company is Freedom

Financial Group, and I’ve actually had many new clients ask if

they should make checks out in the name of my company. DO

NOT DO THIS!

Always make sure there is a 3rd party custodian where your

money is being sent. A few examples of third party custodians

are: Fidelity Investments, Charles Schwab, T.D. Ameritrade,

Scottrade, etc. My company’s custodian is Fidelity Investments,

one of the most well-respected firms in the world. This assures

our clients that if I woke up one morning and decided to become

a mastermind criminal, I’d have to start by knocking off the gas

station across the street from our office, because I couldn’t get

my hands on our client’s money if I wanted to!

Now that we’ve discussed some (but by no means all) of the really im-
portant questions that must come first, let’s dig a little deeper into the
specifics of good retirement planning. I’ve listed below the four main
areas of retirement planning and the key questions that should be an-
swered before we can structure the best plan possible for your situation.

1. Income Planning: Income planning is the foundation of a good
   retirement plan. The first thing we have to concern ourselves
   with in retirement is how we are are going to replace our pay-
   check. In order to do that we need to know the answers to the
   following questions: What does it take to support our lifestyle?
   In other words, how much do we spend every year? I normally
   insist our clients print the previous twelve months of bank state-
   ments to use in determining how much actually goes out the
   door every year. This is quick and accurate because the bank
   statement will catch every dollar that was spent. This gives us
   a basis for how much will be required in retirement. Without
   bank statements to eliminate the guesswork, I’ve frequently had
   people report expenses of 20-30% less than the actual amount
   spent annually. A foundation that is off by 20% is not stable and
   could very easily cause your plan to be unsustainable. The next
   question is, what sources of income can we count on? These
   are usually things like Social Security or a pension. It’s also
   important to understand how the death of your spouse would