Choose Your Path
5 Years or Less Until
Retirement
Choose Your Path
5 Years or Less Until
Retirement
This is the red zone. Execution matters.
At this stage, hope is not a strategy.
Timing mistakes, tax errors, and poor withdrawal decisions can permanently damage retirement.
This phase is about control, clarity, and confidence.
Your Primary Goals
What We Focus On
Withdrawal Strategy (Order Matters)
- Which accounts to tap first — and why
- Tax-efficient sequencing (taxable, IRA, Roth)
- Avoid selling assets at the wrong time
Risk Management Gets Real
- Reduce volatility without parking everything in cash
- Income and buffer strategies
- Planning for bear markets before they happen
Social Security Optimization
- Claiming strategies (not just breakeven ages)
- Spousal and survivor planning
- Tax interaction with other income
Healthcare & Medicare Planning
- Medicare timing and cost projections
- IRMAA mitigation strategies
- Long-term care planning conversations (yes, we actually have them)
Outcome
You don’t “retire and hope it works.”
You retire with a clear paycheck, tax plan, and playbook for whatever comes next.
Skipping planning at any stage is like skipping bloodwork at your annual physical. You might feel fine — until you don’t.