Preparing for Retirement
If you’re like most people, your retirement income is a puzzle with many different pieces. You might have tax-deferred savings accounts, like IRAs, plus employer retirement benefits and matching contributions to a 401(k). There’s Social Security, perhaps a pension, investments, or maybe the thought of selling an Oakland or East Bay home and downsizing.
Putting all the pieces together and figuring out how to make them add up to a retirement free from money worries can be challenging. A retirement financial advisor from Marin Wealth Advisors can add it all up and help you understand what you’ve got and the steps you need to take to secure your future.
The Key to a Stress-Free Retirement
Money is an anxious topic for many, and sometimes people avoid looking at their financial situation. The information can be confusing, leading to more stress. Fortunately, you don’t have to face your financial future alone. An experienced retirement financial advisor can give you a clear picture of your resources, your options, and the next steps in your retirement planning.
Whether you’re just starting your career and want to seed a retirement account, or you’re nearing the end of your work life and wish to save aggressively, Marin Wealth Advisors can help you develop a financial plan that meets your current goals and enables you to work toward your aspirations for retirement.
Financial Advice to Fit Your Life
What will your retirement look like? You might want to save for a round-the-world trip or enjoy carefree days at home indulging in personal passions. Retirement goals can include being closer to family, starting or joining a charitable endeavor, volunteering, spending time in nature, or living on a cruise ship — the possibilities are endless. The only thing that’s certain is that your retirement doesn’t look like anyone else’s.
Your MWA financial advisor starts by asking questions and listening deeply to your answers. Then we create a retirement plan to fit your unique circumstances. Our advisors bring decades of training and experience helping people in the East Bay plan and execute retirement savings strategies that match your risk profile and financial circumstances.
Understanding Retirement Planning
Your Oakland retirement advisor will break down your plan into concrete, easy-to-understand steps that put you in charge of your retirement dreams.
What Do You Want Out of Your Retirement?
The beginning of your retirement journey is goal setting. You’ll work with your MWA financial advisor to set clear, definable goals and determine the financial requirements to meet them. With those goals in mind, your advisor will research the best options to meet them and show you what you can achieve. It’s probably more than you realized.
Your retirement plan is a living document, and you can change your plan as new retirement visions emerge. Marin Wealth Advisors will work with you to keep your plan up to date as your situation shifts, ensuring you keep working toward your retirement savings targets.
Risk vs. Reward
Oakland retirement planning encompasses a range of investments with varying levels of risk and return. Your advisor will craft a plan that matches your risk tolerance and helps you navigate changes over time. For example, if retirement is far in the future, you might choose higher-growth investments because you have time to weather potential ups and downs in the market. As you near the end of your work life, it may be wise to choose slower growing but more stable investment vehicles.
Make Your Retirement Plan Your Own
At Marin Wealth Advisors, we don’t have anything to sell you, so there’s no pressure, and we answer all your questions — ask us anything. You take charge of your savings plan, confirm that it works within your means now, and ensure that you understand and are comfortable with all aspects of your plan.
Planning with Marin Wealth Advisors
Retirement planning doesn’t happen in isolation. As you put away money for retirement, you also need assets to meet other goals, such as buying a house or paying college tuition. Your financial advisor will look at your complete financial picture and help you meet long- and short-term visions for your life.
Building wealth enhances your life by creating financial security and enabling you to spend on the things you value most. That might include more time with family, a second home, or adding an ADU as an extra income source in retirement. Marin Wealth Advisors is here to help you with your dreams, whatever they are.
When Should I Start Saving for Retirement?
It’s never too soon to open a retirement savings account. Small contributions near the beginning of your career can become hefty savings by the time you reach retirement age. And a healthy investment plan, begun early, could allow you to join the trend of people choosing to retire before age 65. Whatever the distance between today and when you get to step back from work, planning is the key to a successful retirement.
Employer Contributions
Part of planning for retirement is making the most of your employer’s retirement benefits. A MWA retirement financial advisor can help you discover and make the most of all benefits you’re eligible for. That can include employee stock compensation, employer-sponsored retirement plans, and profit-sharing or matching contributions to your retirement savings.
How Much Do You Need for a Comfortable Retirement in Oakland?
How much income will give you a secure retirement can vary widely. You may need more or less to live comfortably than your next-door neighbor, even though you live in the same East Bay city.
Here are some of the factors to consider:
- Do you own your home or rent? If you own, when will you finish paying off your mortgage?
- Do you have children or other dependents you’ll need to continue supporting?
- What are your priorities for your retirement? Do you need a budget for travel or hobbies?
- Will you work part-time after retiring from your primary career? Do you own a business that will continue to provide income after you retire?
- Do you have additional income sources such as a pension, rents, or royalties?
Your MWA advisor will consider all these elements and build a retirement portfolio that meets your financial needs.
The Advantage of Tax-Deferred Savings
For many people, building wealth involves a mix of tax-deferred and taxable investments. However, tax-deferred plans such as IRAs allow you to maximize your savings as your investments grow without the bite of taxes until you’re ready to draw down your account. You’ll likely be in a lower tax bracket at that point, so you save on taxes again.
All IRAs aren’t alike. For instance, you put after-tax dollars into a Roth IRA and don’t pay taxes when you take money out (as long you opened the account at least five years before the first withdrawal and meet the age requirement). Your investments grow free from taxes, but you’ve prepaid the income tax.
At Marin Wealth Advisors, we educate you on your tax-deferred retirement account options and help you understand which type of account will give you the most significant savings advantage.
Optimizing Your Retirement Financial Plan
As a fiduciary, your MWA advisor must provide investments with only your best interests in mind. The fee-only business model ensures you get the most from your Oakland retirement with help from a trusted professional. We aim to help you build wealth and create the foundation for a delightful retirement.
Living Longer, Living Better
Retirement planning is more critical than ever. Not only are many people in the East Bay retiring earlier, but we are also living longer. Worrying about outliving your savings is a stressor you don’t need.
To ensure you have what you need into your retirement years, your retirement advisor can help you update your plan even after you stop working. The best retirement is one where you live a long life without financial worries.
Your Oakland Retirement Financial Advisor
When you choose Marin Wealth Advisors as your retirement financial advisor, you add one of the Bay Area’s best financial planning providers to your team. We have offices around the Bay, including in Oakland, so you can visit us at an office near your work or home. Our proven track record of building client wealth and our deep knowledge of the markets allow us to help you stay one step ahead in turbulent financial times.
Marin Wealth Advisors provide fee-only financial advice with no commissions, ever.
Our Responsibilities as a Fiduciary
We at MWA practice placing our client’s best interests first. From this principle we commit to the following five fiduciary principles:
- We will always put our client’s best interests first.
- We will act with prudence; with the skill, care, diligence, and good judgment of a professional.
- We will not mislead you. We provide conspicuous, full and fair disclosure of all important facts.
- We will avoid conflicts of interest.
- We will fully disclose and fairly manage, in your favor, any unavoidable conflicts.