Real Wealth starts with Real Life. Don’t just plan your numbers. Plan your life.
At Kingsview Partners, we believe that retirement is more than just a financial milestone. It's a significant new chapter in your personal story, and an exciting opportunity to live life by design, not by default.
Through our unique 4D Client Experience – Design, Determine, Deploy, Develop – we create immersive, personalized financial plans that help you live your best life today while securing your tomorrow.
(OR SOMETHING ELSE FROM/CONSISTENT WITH YOUR NEW BRANDING)
If you’re ready to Get Real about your retirement, ask yourself:
Why wait?
You’ve worked hard, saved and invested wisely, and stuck to your financial plan through the inevitable ups and downs of the markets, your career, and your life.
If you have the means and the vision, Kingsview Partners is ready to help you use your Real Wealth to build your bridge into retirement.
Medicare eligibility starts at age 65. Early retirees need to identify their best option for covering their healthcare needs:
A Working Spouse’s employer-subsidized plan.
COBRA: Many companies will let you pay out of pocket to keep your healthcare coverage after retirement. But COBRA usually lasts only 18 months and you will have to pay 102% monthly premiums.
Healthcare.gov: Shop your state’s marketplace.
If you make withdrawals from traditional IRAs and 401(K)s before age 59 ½, you will probably have to pay a 10% early withdrawal penalty – as well as income tax.
If you have an early retirement goal, work with your advisor on a budget, spending plan, and withdrawal sequence (LINK TO BELOW?) that will help you live your Real Life goals without incurring any unnecessary penalties.
We encourage all retirees to retire TO something, not just FROM work. Early retirees will have extra years, and maybe even extra decades, of time to fill. Reflect on why you want to retire early and how you’re planning to spend your Real Life in retirement (LINK TO QUESTIONS BELOW).
It’s important to find an optimal withdrawal sequence that provides for your needs, minimizes your lifetime tax liability, and keeps your Real Wealth growing, such as:
Early Retirement: Use cash savings, brokerage accounts, pensions, and, in some cases, Social Security benefits.
Middle Retirement: Tap into tax-deferred traditional IRAs and 401(K)s.
Late Retirement: Let your Roth accounts grow as long as possible and make tax-exempt withdrawals when you need them.
However, every person is different, every Real Wealth plan is different. Your ideal withdrawal sequence will depend on what kinds of assets you have, what your personal needs are, and what goals you want to achieve in retirement.
In years when you will have lower taxable income, you’ll also pay lower taxes on conversions from tax-deferred accounts into a tax-exempt Roth IRA. Funds in your Roth account will grow tax free and will not be taxed when you make withdrawals later in retirement.
There’s no “right” or “wrong” time to take Social Security in and of itself. Making the most of your benefits requires a thorough analysis of several factors within the context of your overall Real Wealth plan:
Eligibility:
Earn 40 Social Security Credits. In 2025, you earn one credit for every $1,810 of income, up to a maximum of four credits ($7,240).
Pay Social Security Taxes on your earnings.
Be at least 62 years old.
The Benefit of Delaying:
The longer you delay taking Social Security benefits, the bigger those benefits will grow until you reach your full retirement age.
Social Security generally calculates your benefits based on your 35 highest-earning years after age 21. An extra couple years of high earnings will knock those low-earning early years off your balance sheet and increase your benefits.
Taxes: Up to 85% of your Social Security benefits could be taxable if you earn above thresholds that the IRS sets every year.
Married Couples:
Spousal Benefits: You may be eligible to collect benefits based on your spouse’s work record even if you did not work. If you do qualify for Social Security, you will receive the higher of your benefit or your spousal benefit.
Survivor Benefits:
Delaying Social Security benefits increases both each spouse’s eventual benefit and the survivor’s benefit they would leave for their spouse.
Surviving spouses may be eligible for 71.5% of the deceased’s benefits at age 60. That percentage increases for each year the survivor delays up to 100% at full retirement age.
Medicare is not free. There are also some important gaps between what is and isn’t covered that new retirees need to familiarize themselves with.
Eligibility: The first day of the month you turn 65.
Open Enrollment: From October 15 to December 7 of every year, you can change your Medicare plans for the year ahead.
The A, B, C, Ds:
Part B: $185/month (2025)
Part C: Optional, determined by the plan you choose during annual Open Enrollment.
Part D: Optional, determined by the plan you choose during annual Open Enrollment.
IRMAA: High earners may have to pay an Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount on top of their monthly premiums.
What Parts A and B May Not Cover:
In recent years, the government raised the ages for RMDs so that seniors have more time to grow their nest eggs.
RMD Ages by Birth Year
Before July 1, 1949: 70½
July 1, 1949 to December 31, 1950: 72
January 1, 1951 to December 31, 1959: 73
On or after January 1, 1960: 75
Your First RMD: By April 1 of the year following the year in which you reach your RMD age.
Applicable Accounts
Roth IRAs: While Roth IRAs do not have RMDs, beneficiaries may have to make RMDs from an inherited account.
Calculating RMDs: According to the IRS, “The required minimum distribution for any year is the account balance as of the end of the immediately preceding calendar year divided by a distribution period from the IRS’s ‘Uniform Lifetime Table.’”
In other words, let your financial advisor help you calculate.
Taxes: RMDs are considered taxable income.
The Penalty: If you fail to take an RMD in a given year, you may be subject to a 25% excise tax on the amount that you should have withdrawn.
Qualified Charitable Distributions: Once you reach age 70 ½ you are allowed to make contributions from your retirement accounts directly to a qualified charity. These QCDs count against your RMD for the year but do not count as taxable income, thereby reducing your tax liability on your RMD.
Legacy planning isn’t just for billionaires and folks who have complex financial holdings. No matter what size your estate will be, your Real Wealth legacy plan should include:
Last Will and Testament explaining your last wishes and how you want your estate to be distributed to beneficiaries.
Power of Attorney authorizing a person you choose to act on your behalf if you are alive but incapacitated.
Healthcare Directive explaining how you want to be cared for in the event that you become incapacitated.
Living Will designating a person you chose to be in charge of making important medical choices on your behalf if you are unable to.
As long as you are still living and mentally capable you can change your legacy plan at any time.
At least every year, we review our clients’ legacy plans and ask them:
Do you want to change any of your beneficiaries or the people entrusted with caring for you and settling your estate?
Do you want to change how your assets are distributed?
Have there been any major changes to your family (new grandbabies?), your assets (new cottage?), or your health that should be reflected in your legacy plan?
Do you and your spouse both understand how the other wishes to be cared for should either of you become incapacitated?
Have you shared the basics of your estate plan with your executor, beneficiaries, friends, and family to limit surprises after you’ve passed?
Just because you’re financially ready to stop working doesn’t mean you’re emotionally prepared. Ask yourself:
How am I going to fill my time during a typical week in retirement?
What are my big “bucket list” goals? Have I budgeted for them?
Will my new retirement schedule fill me with purpose?
Am I on a similar retirement timeline as my spouse, friends, and family? If not, with whom am I going to spend my time?
Do I have any health concerns or issues with my family history that could affect my healthcare needs later in retirement?
Click here to contact me and let’s start Getting Real about your retirement.
– Keith Demetriades, CFP®, CKA®