Pre-Retirement Fridays

[hrj]

Today's major task for "pre-retirment prep Fridays" was an appointment with a Fidelity financial consultant. An actual in-person appointment (in Walnut Creek), which meant that I could use his facial and body language to figure out when we weren't entirely communicating clearly. (I hate had HATE doing business over the phone with no visuals.) After the hour-long phone consult last week, I was under the impression that today's appointment was to decide upon the specific details of how to turn my 401K into retirement income. I'm not entirely sure what *his* idea about today's appointment was. I have a feeling that I fell in an awkward mid-point between "has no idea what she's doing" and "knows enough to be a financial planner myself and what do I need him for."

So a couple times during the discussion I found myself asking, "What is the end goal of the things you're asking me about and presenting me with? What are the next steps in the process?" Because it felt like he was working very hard to avoid making specific recommendations, but whenever I started to discuss concrete specifics, I'd get presented with a basic-level lecture on How Things Worked.

I mean, he kept circling around to "based on even the most conservative projections, you can afford to live to age 97 with 90% confidence." But then he'd pivot to, "So what other sources of income were you planning to pursue?" ("Other sources" besides my 401K, my tiny fixed pension, and my social security. We did discuss my writing income, both current and projected, but I said I didn't want to include that in my financial planning due to the variability and uncertainty.)

In the end, we did manage to pull in harness and come up with a tentative plan for a mixture of two different types of annuities and the rest in one or more managed funds. I was hoping to walk out of the office with everything set up, but it turns out we can't move my money from the Bayer 401K into my prospective choices until my Bayer account is "inactive", i.e., after my last paycheck. Sigh.

So we have another appointment set for 3 weeks from now to lay out the specifics and set things up to be ready for a "push-button start" when that happens.

(I just had a really crazy thought that I might pitch to him. If I took a fraction of my retirement account and simply paid off my mortgage, it might make financial sense, because what I'd save in mortgage payments far outstrips what I'd lose in investment dividends.)

Comments

[gurdymonkey]

I had a couple of very productive meetings via Zoom with the guy handling my inherited IRA accounts. We compared notes to make sure he had a clear picture of what I have where and he came up with not one, but two projections (the second included factoring in long term care costs), weighed risks and benefits to come up with a moderately conservative plan for growth and then I said, "Yes, let's do that. I liked him - enthusiastic about helping me, but also sensible and good at explaining things *and* staying on topic.

Definitely ask about pros and cons of paying off the mortgage.

[hudebnik]

On paying off the mortgage: that might make less sense if this year's Federal tax bill includes eliminating the cap on mortgage interest deductions (which is one of the things they're discussing). Might want to do the calculations with and without that.

[kareina]

I can say that I really, really love owning my house outright, and being debt free. I hope that it works out to be a good idea for you, and if it does you like it as much as I do.

[evil_macaroni]

This financial consultant doesn't seem like the bestest. Here's hoping the next session is more illuminating (with less requirement for brute force on your part).