Personal Financial Planning

I am happy to announce my completion of Kansas State University’s Financial Therapy graduate certificate program. “Financial therapist” is a little bit of a weird term so I’d like to clarify: I am not a therapist.

You graduated from dental school in your twenties and spent the next few decades growing your practice and investing in a retirement portfolio, knowing one day your hard earned money would support you through your retirement. You may not know when your official retirement will begin, but if you’re approaching your 70th birthday the time to start thinking about withdrawals is now.

Investing in retirement takes a different approach than investing to build wealth. In retirement, investing for income becomes much more important.

The following is a primer to help readers better understand their investments. Mission Financial Planning coordinates with clients' money managers as part of a comprehensive advice-only approach. 

There are many milestones on the way to – and through – retirement.  Starting at age 50 with the opportunity to make additional catch-up contributions to IRAs and

It's the time of year to be thinking about year-end deadlines.  Here’s a quick checklist – not all-inclusive, but hopefully helpful:

If the 4% withdrawal rule was created with a 65 year old in mind, what happens when you want to retire earlier?  How much would an early retiree have to reduce their withdrawal rate to accommodate a longer retirement?  Research has been done that suggests that you don’t have to reduce the 4% withdrawal rate too dramatically, even for very young retirees.

It’s good for young kids to have exposure to money, learning the  consequences that come with different financial decisions while the pain is relatively mild. 

The hurricane has me thinking about how to be prepared for emergencies.  I imagine families trying to contact each other, computers and file cabinets under water,  and businesses unable to function.  If you are somewhere that was not impacted by the hurricane, use it as a motivator to be prepared should a disaster hit closer to home. 

A client reminded me of some good budgeting advice this morning; I thought I’d pass his comments along.