Category: Celebration

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Celebration

Retirement Income Visions Celebrates 5-Year Anniversary!

It’s hard to believe that it’s been five years since Retirement Income Visions™ made its debut.

As stated in the August 16, 2009 post, the importance of retirement income planning as a separate and distinct discipline was magnified during the October, 2007 to March, 2009 stock market decline. This was true for both my clients and for me. This is what motivated me to expand my expertise and develop proven conservative retirement income planning solutions for my clients that would stand the test of time in any type of market.

My goal in writing this blog remains the same as it was five years ago: to bring to your attention innovative planning strategies that you can use to create and optimize your retirement income, and in many cases, reduce your exposure to adverse financial market conditions. Per my August 16, 2009 post, the customization and implementation of these strategies for your needs by an experienced retirement income planning professional should enable you to visualize and live a more fulfilling and less stressful life.

Living a more fulfilling and less stressful life doesn’t happen by accident. It’s a goal. Like all goals, you need to create and systematically follow a plan in order to achieve it. Achieving this particular goal during one’s retirement years is especially challenging. As evidence of this challenge, simply take a look at the list of categories in the right-hand column of this blog for some of the issues that need to be analyzed and addressed in a retirement income plan.

While the basic goal of retirement income planning has always been, and will continue to be, not to outlive our assets and income, none of us knows how long we’re going to live. Unlike other financial planning goals which have definitive start and end dates, this isn’t the case when it comes to retirement income planning. Increased longevity compared to our ancestors adds more potential years of planning on the back end.

Included in the category of financial challenges, although not always considered in many plans, is health care. This expense, if not properly planned for, can single-handedly reverse one’s planning efforts and ultimately lead to financial devastation. Proper planning for routine health and unpredictable extended care needs is critical to the success of any retirement income plan.

As I always tell my clients, there’s much more to retirement income planning than the financial aspects. Assuming that your goal is living a more fulfilling and less stressful life, you need to plan for how you will spend your time each day. This can be especially difficult for someone who has worked outside of the home most of his/her adult life and hasn’t cultivated any meaningful hobbies or non-work related activities.

As I’ve done in all of my annual celebration posts, I want to thank all of my subscribers and other readers, clients and non-clients alike, for taking the time to read Retirement Income Visions™. If you also read my MarketWatch RetireMentor articles, a double thank you to you. Here’s to a more fulfilling, joyful, and less stressful life!

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Celebration

Retirement Income Visions Celebrates 4-Year Anniversary!

Thanks to my clients, subscribers, and other readers, Retirement Income Visions™ is celebrating its four-year anniversary. Retirement Income Visions™ published a weekly post each Monday morning beginning four years ago through and including the March 11, 2013 post.

Beginning with the March 25, 2013 post, Retirement Income Visions™ changed to a biweekly publication schedule. This was in response to my acceptance of another retirement income planning writing gig as a Wall Street Journal MarketWatch RetireMentors contributor. I continue to do all my writing on Saturday mornings, enabling me to fulfill my primary goal of providing outstanding, timely service to my clients.

Even with its reduced publication schedule, Retirement Income Visions™ continues to boast a fair number of followers. It has had over 72,000 pageviews in its four years of publication, including over 4,000 in the last 30 days.

In addition to becoming a RetireMentors contributor, I further distinguished myself as a retirement income planning expert when I became one of the first recipients of the Retirement Income Certified Professional® (RICP®) designation from The American College on July 1st. The RICP® educational curricula is the most complete and comprehensive program available to professional financial advisors looking to help their clients create sustainable retirement income.

This past year, Retirement Income Visions™ deviated from its themed approach whereby it historically featured a long stretch of weekly posts focusing on a single retirement income planning strategy. After completing a lengthy series of weekly posts about fixed index and deferred income annuities from August 20, 2012 through November 5, 2012, I began mixing it up with a variety of educational topics.

The November 12, 2012 post, The Smooth COLA, straightened out some misconceptions about Social Security retirement benefit cost of living adjustments. The November 19, 2012 post, Black Friday – Think Roth IRA Conversion, proved to be a very timely post for those who did Roth IRA conversions at that time since they have benefited from a 23% increase in stock prices as of Friday, combined with a significant tax increase that went into effect on January 1st for higher income taxpayers.

The November 26, 2012 through December 17, 2012 posts featured two two-part miniseries about two important Social Security topics, Social Security as a deferred income annuity and considerations when choosing a Social Security starting age.

The January 7, 2013 post, The 2013 Tax Law Schizophrenic Definition of Income – Part 1, was timely, as it was quoted extensively and linked in Robert Powell’s MarketWatch January 11, 2013 Now is the Time for Tax-Efficient Investments article. The January 7th post and the January 14th, 21st, and February 4th posts, which included Part 2 of the January 7th post and a two-part miniseries, New Tax Law – Don’t Let the Tax Tail Wag the Dog, provided readers with a comprehensive understanding of the new tax laws that went into effect on January 1st.

The next four posts, beginning with the February 11, 2013 post, The Almost Irrevocable Retirement Income Planning Decision, through the March 4, 2013 post, Insure Your Longevity Risk with Social Security, featured a series of four timely Social Security topics.

Retirement Income Visions™ really began mixing it up, beginning with the March 11, 2013 post, Consider the Future Purchase Option When Buying Long-Term Care Insurance, through the July 29, 2013 post, Immediate Annuities – Where’s the Planning? The eleven posts in this stretch presented a number of different topics, including long-term care insurance, retirement income planning considerations and strategies, fixed index and immediate annuities, Medicare, longevity insurance, budgeting, and personal financial management systems.

As I’ve traditionally done in previous “anniversary” posts, I would like to conclude this post by thanking all of my readers for taking the time to read Retirement Income Visions™. Once again, a special thanks to my clients and non-clients, alike, who continue to give me tremendous and much-appreciated feedback and inspiration. Last, but not least, a big thank you to Nira, my incredible wife, for her enduring support of my blog and MarketWatch RetireMentors writing and other professional activities.

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Celebration

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays from Retirement Income Center!

Happy Holidays from Retirement Income Center!

It has been a great year, and Retirement Income Visions™ is now taking a well-deserved rest for the holidays. I wish you and your family happy holidays and a Happy New Year. I look forward to continuing to bring you innovative strategies for creating and optimizing retirement income  beginning on January 7th.

If you miss our weekly posts, please visit Retirement Income Center (www.RetirementIncomeCenter.com) to learn more about how to plan, manage, and protect your retirement income.

Thank you for your continued support. It is much appreciated.

All the Best Always,

Bob Klein

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Celebration

Retirement Income Center Website Makes Its Debut

The long-awaited release of Retirement Income Center’s website is finally here. In the works since the beginning of the year when Retirement Income Center (RIC) succeeded Financial Design Center (FDC), RIC’s website, www.RetirementIncomeCenter.com, made its official debut on September 1st.

Robert Klein, President of Retirement Income Center, and the creator and author of Retirement Income Visions™, a weekly blog featuring innovative strategies for creating and optimizing retirement income that recently celebrated its three-year anniversary, designed and wrote all of the material for the website. RIC’s site is hosted by TypePad® which also hosts Retirement Income Visions™ blog.

Bob said, “I’m extremely excited about the launch of Retirement Income Center’s website. It provides me with yet another tool to demonstrate my passion for retirement income planning. More importantly, it enables me to offer a much-needed educational resource for clients and non-clients alike to help them learn about and appreciate the complex world of retirement income planning. When linked with Retirement Income Visions™, I would dare to say that this combination is one of the internet’s leading providers of independent authoritative information on this subject.”

RIC’s website promotes Retirement Income Center’s motto: Planning, Managing, and Protecting Your Retirement Income™. Per “Looking for a Retirement Income Planner?” on the home page of RIC’s site, “Planning, managing, and protecting retirement income is no small task. Very few firms offer all three services. Investment advisory firms’ services are generally asset-based. They rarely offer or recommend sustained income management solutions that are an integral part of any retirement income plan.”

The website is easy to navigate, with the firm’s motto dictating the site’s three main menu choices: PLANNING, MANAGING, and PROTECTING. Unlike many websites that are often static, RIC’s site, similar to retirement income planning, is dynamic. This is evidenced by the home page which features Retirement Income Visions™ current blog post in the left-hand column and a customized Twitter feed of “Retirement Income Planning News” and links to “Recent Retirement Income Visions™ Posts” in the right-hand column.

RIC’s website provides a portal to the firm’s Retirement Income System. The system is Retirement Income Center’s retirement income planning, management, and protection system for its clients. It serves as a highly secure, up-to-date window into clients’ entire financial world that’s accessible at anytime from anywhere with an internet connection or mobile device.

As stated in the title of the first page in the PLANNING section, “Retirement Income Planning Isn’t Optional.” Per this page, “The consequences of not having a dynamic retirement income plan that’s managed and protected from unforeseen events can be costly at the least and potentially financially and emotionally devastating. This applies to the individuals who fail to plan as well as to their family, and, potentially to their living and unborn heirs.”

Robert Klein, CPA, PFS, CFP®, CLTC is the founder of Retirement Income Center, a Registered Investment Advisor. The firm is located at 5020 Campus Drive in Newport Beach, California.

Categories
Annuities Celebration Fixed Index Annuities Retirement Income Planning

Retirement Income Visions Celebrates 3-Year Anniversary!

Thanks to my clients, subscribers, and other readers, Retirement Income Visions™ is celebrating its three-year anniversary. Retirement Income Visions™ has published a weekly post each Monday morning, the theme of which is Innovative Strategies for Creating and Optimizing Retirement Income™.

As stated in the initial post on August 16, 2009, Retirement Income Visions™ Makes Its Debut, the importance of retirement income planning as a separate and distinct discipline from traditional retirement planning was magnified during the October, 2007 – March, 2009 stock market decline. Just ask anyone who retired just prior to, or during, this period that didn’t have a retirement income plan in place when he/she retired.

With increasing life expectancies, record-low interest rates, traditional pension plans going by the wayside, soaring health and long-term care costs, and the potential for inflation, retirement income planning is no longer an option. It has become a necessity for anyone who wants to ensure that he/she will have sufficient income to meet his/her expenses for the duration of retirement. Recognizing this fact, The American College launched its Retirement Income Certified Professional™ (RICP™) program earlier this year in which I was one of the first enrollees.

Since its inception, Retirement Income Visions™ has used a themed approach, with several weeks of posts focusing on a relevant retirement income planning strategy. This year was no exception. The weekly posts, together with the customized Glossary of Terms, which currently includes definitions of 137 terms to assist in the understanding of technical subject matter, has contributed to a growing body of knowledge in the relatively new retirement income planning profession.

While the first two years of Retirement Income Visions™ presented a variety of retirement income planning strategies, fixed index annuities, or “FIA’s,” have been the sole focus of virtually every weekly post for the past 13 months. Continuing a theme that began on July 11, 2011 during the second year of publication with Shelter a Portion of Your Portfolio From the Next Stock Market Freefall, the inner workings of FIA’s, including their unique benefits as a retirement income planning solution, has been discussed in detail. As a result, Retirement Income Visions™ has become an authoritative source of information on this important and timely topic.

Although FIA’s has been the theme of almost every post for over a year, the posts have been organized by a number of sub-themes. Following the July 11, 2011 post, the introduction to the FIA strategy continued with the next five posts, Looking for Upside Potential With Downside Protection – Take a Look at Indexed Annuities (July 18, 2011), Limit Your Losses to Zero (July 25, 2011), Do You Want to Limit Your Potential Gains? (August 1, 2011), When is the Best Time to Invest in Indexed Annuities? (August 8, 2011), and How Does Your Fixed Index Annuity Grow? (August 22, 2011).

The next twelve posts, beginning with the August 29, 2011 post, Indexing Strategies – The Key to Fixed Index Annuity Growth, through the November 14, 2011 post, How to Get Interest Credited to Your Fixed Index Annuity When the Market Declines, presented a thorough discussion of the various traditional fixed index annuity indexing strategies. This included an introduction to, and comparison of, the following indexing methods: annual point-to-point, monthly point-to-point, monthly average, trigger indexing, inverse performance trigger indexing, as well as the fixed account that’s included as one of the strategy choices by virtually every FIA.

Moving beyond the base product, the subject of the next nine posts was an introduction to the income rider that’s offered by many FIA’s. The income, or guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefit (“GMWB”), rider is the mechanism for providing guaranteed (subject to the claims-paying ability of individual life insurance companies) lifetime income with a flexible start date that is essential to so many retirement income plans. This kicked off with the enlightening December 5, 2011 and December 12, 2011 posts, No Pension? Create Your Own and Add an Income Rider to Your Fixed Index Annuity to Create a Retirement Paycheck. The introduction to income rider series also included two two-part series, Your Fixed Index Annuity Income Rider – What You Don’t Receive (December 19, 2011 and December 26, 2011) and 5 Things You Receive From a Fixed Index Annuity Income Rider (January 9, 2012 and January 16, 2012).

Following two posts introducing fixed index annuity income calculation variables on January 23, 2012 and January 30, 2012 (10 Fixed Index Annuity Income Calculation Variables and Contractual vs. Situation Fixed Index Annuity Income Calculation Variables), a five-part series ensued revolving around a topic often misunderstood by the general public — premium bonuses. The posts in this series included 8 Questions to Ask Yourself When Analyzing Premium Bonuses (February 6, 2012), What’s a Reasonable Premium Bonus Percentage? (February 13, 2012), How Will a Premium Bonus Affect a Fixed Index Annuity’s Value? (February 20, 2012), How Will Withdrawals Affect Your Premium Bonus? (February 27, 2012), and How Will a Premium Bonus Affect Your Fixed Index Annuity Income Distribution? (March 5, 2012).

The next five posts delved into the inner workings behind the variables and interaction of variables behind the calculation of income withdrawal amounts from FIA income riders. This included the following posts: Income Account Value vs. Accumulation Value – What’s the Difference? (March 19, 2012), How is Your Fixed Index Annuity’s Income Account Value Calculated? (April 2, 2012), How Much Income Will You Receive From Your Fixed Index Annuity? (April 9, 2012), and a two-part series, Don’t Be Fooled by Interest Rates – It’s a Package Deal (April 16, 2012 and April 23, 2012).

When Should You Begin Your Lifetime Retirement Payout? was the subject of a two-part series (May 7, 2012 and May 14, 2012) followed by another timing question, When Should You Begin Investing in Income Rider Fixed Index Annuities? (May 21, 2012).

The May 28, 2012 through June 18, 2012 four-part series, Fixed Index Annuity Income Rider Similarities to Social Security, was a well-received and timely topic. This was followed by a second five-part comparison series beginning on June 25, 2012 and continuing through July 23, 2012, FIA’s With Income Riders vs. DIA’s: Which is Right for You?

The last two weeks’ posts have addressed the topic of valuation of a FIA’s income rider stream. This included the July 30, 2012 post, What is the Real Value of Your Fixed Index Annuity, and the August 6, 2012 post, Why Isn’t the Value of Your Income Stream Shown on Your Fixed Index Annuity Statement?.

As I did in my August 9, 2010 and August 15, 2011 “anniversary” posts, I would like to conclude this post by thanking all of my readers for taking the time to read Retirement Income Visions™. Once again, a special thanks to my clients and non-clients, alike, who continue to give me tremendous and much-appreciated feedback and inspiration. Last, but not least, thank you to Nira, my incredible wife, for her enduring support of my blog writing and other professional activities.

Categories
Annuities Celebration Income Tax Planning IRA Retirement Income Planning Roth IRA Social Security

Retirement Income Visions™ Celebrates 2-Year Anniversary!

Retirement Income Center

Thanks to all of my subscribers and other readers, Retirement Income Visions™ is celebrating its two-year anniversary. Since its debut on August 16, 2009, Retirement Income Visions™ has published a weekly post each Monday morning, the theme of which is Innovative Strategies for Creating and Optimizing Retirement Income™.

As stated in the initial post two years ago, Retirement Income Visions™ Makes Its Debut, the importance of retirement income planning as a separate and distinct discipline from traditional retirement planning was magnified during the October, 2007 – March, 2009 stock market decline. Although the stock market experienced three positive and encouraging days this past week, the market volatility the last three weeks has only served to emphasize the need for a comprehensive retirement income plan.

Add to the mix the increasing instability of the Social Security and Medicare programs and the rapid decline of traditional pensions as a source of retirement income. Not to mention increasing life expectancies, soaring health care costs, and an economic situation ripe for inflation. Retirement income planning is no longer an option – it has quickly become a downright necessity.

Since inception, Retirement Income Visions™ has used a themed approach, with several weeks of posts focusing on a relevant retirement income planning strategy. This past year was no exception. The weekly posts, together with the customized Glossary of Terms, which currently includes definitions of 99 terms to assist in the understanding of technical subject matter, has contributed to a growing body of knowledge in the relatively new retirement income planning profession.

Going back a year, the six August 16 through September 20, 2010 posts completed a 36-part series on Roth IRA conversions. This was a very timely topic with the January 1, 2010 availability of this strategy to all taxpayers regardless of income level, combined with the ability to defer 50% of the reporting of income from a 2010 Roth IRA conversion to 2011 and the other 50% to 2012.

The September 27, 2010 post, Plan for the Frays in Your Social Security Blanket, began a 25-part educational series about Social Security. The first two parts discussed some of the historical events in connection with changes to the Social Security system affecting benefit amounts and delay in the commencement of receipt of benefits. The October 11, 2010 post, Do Your Homework Before Flipping the Social Security Switch, began a five-part series regarding various considerations in connection with electing to begin receiving Social Security benefits before full retirement age (“FRA”).

The November 15, 2010 post, Wait Until 70 to Collect Social Security? examined the opposite end of the spectrum, i.e., delaying the start date of receipt of Social Security benefits. The follow-up three-part series, Pay-to-Play Social Security, presented the “do-over” strategy, a little-publicized strategy for increasing monthly benefits in exchange for repayment of cumulative retirement benefits received.

The “file and suspend” and “double dipping” strategies for potential maximization of Social Security benefits were addressed in the next two two-part posts from December 13, 2010 through January 3, 2011, Breadwinner Approaching Social Security Retirement Age? – File and Suspend and Working? Remember Your Social Security Spousal Benefit When Your Spouse Retires.

Income taxation and associated planning strategies was the subject of the subsequent respective two- and four-part January 10 through February 14, 2011 series, Say Goodbye to Up to 30% of Your Social Security Benefits and Increase Your After-Tax Social Security Benefits. The February 21, 2011 post, Remember Your Future Widow(er) in Your Social Security Plan made the point that the decision regarding the start date of Social Security Benefits, in addition to fixing the amount of your retirement benefit, may also establish the amount of your spouse’s monthly benefit.

Retirement Income Visions™ Social Security series culminated with the three-part February 28 through March 24, 2011 series, Your Social Security Retirement Asset. These three posts discussed the importance of Social Security as an asset, perhaps one’s most important asset, in addition to its inherent role as a monthly retirement income stream.

With the media’s emphasis in 2010 on the two-year deferral of inclusion of income from a 2010 Roth IRA conversion as the motivating factor for pursuing this planning technique, I felt that there wasn’t enough attention given to the potential long-term economic benefits available through use of this investment strategy. Roth IRA Conversions – Don’t Let the Tax Tail Wag the Dog began a six-part series on this important topic on March 21, 2011 that ran through April 25, 2011. The May 2 and May 9, 2011 Roth IRA Conversion Insights two-part series followed up the Roth IRA conversion economic benefit discussion.

The importance of nonretirement assets in connection with retirement income planning was discussed in the May 9, 2011 Roth IRA Conversions Insights post as well as the May 23 and May 30, 2011 respective posts, Nonretirement Investments – The Key to a Successful Retirement Income Plan and Nonretirement vs. Retirement Plan Investments – What is the Right Mix? This was followed up with two posts on June 6 and 13, 2011 regarding traditional retirement funding strategies, Sizeable Capital Loss Carryover? Rethink Your Retirement Plan Contributions and To IRA or Not to IRA?

The June 20 and June 27, 2011 posts, Do You Have a Retirement Income Portfolio? and Is Your Retirement Income Portfolio Tax-Efficient? addressed the need for every retirement income plan to include a plan for transitioning a portion, or in some cases, all, of one’s traditional investment portfolio into a tax-efficient retirement income portfolio. This was followed by the July 5, 2011 timely Yet Another “Don’t Try to Time the Market” Lesson post.

The July 11, 2011 Shelter a Portion of Your Portfolio From the Next Stock Market Freefall began a new timely and relevant ongoing series about indexed annuities. This post was published just ten days before the July 21st Dow Jones Industrial Average peak of 12,724.41 that was followed by the beginning of a steady stock market decline coinciding with the final days of U.S. debt limit negotiations and Standard & Poor’s unprecedented U.S. credit rating downgrade, culminating with a closing low of 10,719.94 this past Wednesday. As implied in the titles of the July 18 and July 25, 2011 posts, Looking for Upside Potential With Downside Protection – Take a Look at Indexed Annuities and Limit Your Losses to Zero, this relatively new investment strategy has the potential to be a key defensive component of a successful retirement income plan.

As I did a year ago, I would like to conclude this post by thanking all of my readers for taking the time to read Retirement Income Visions™. Once again, a special thanks to my clients and non-clients, alike, who continue to give me tremendous and much-appreciated feedback regarding various blog posts. Last, but not least, thank you to my incredible wife, Nira. In addition to continuing to support my weekly blog-writing activities, she also endured my year-long family tree project that I recently completed. Well, sort of. Is a family tree ever completed?

Categories
Annuities Celebration Retirement Asset Planning Retirement Income Planning Roth IRA

Retirement Income Visions™ Celebrates 1-Year Anniversary!

Retirement Income Center

It’s hard to believe that a whole year has gone by since Retirement Income Visions™ initial blog post, but it has! This marks Retirement Income Visions™ 52nd post since it debuted on August 16, 2009 as a weekly blog, with new posts published each Monday morning.

As stated in the initial post, Retirement Income Visions™ Makes Its Debut, the blog, and the associated importance of retirement income planning as a separate and distinct niche, was inspired and motivated by my clients’ experience during the October, 2007 – March, 2009 stock market decline.

Also, as stated in the initial post, my goal in writing Retirement Income Visions™ was, and still is, to bring to your attention innovative planning strategies that you can use to create and optimize your retirement income, and, in many cases, reduce your exposure to adverse financial market conditions. If reader feedback, Twitter followers, and media attention, including a May 15th quote by The Wall Street Journal as the result of the timely publishing of the May 10th post, Be on the Lookout for Roth IRA Conversion Opportunities, is any indication, it appears that I’m off to a great start in achieving this goal.

I’ve covered a broad spectrum of information over the course of the last year, however, it’s been anything but random. If you’re a subscriber or regular reader, you’ve probably noticed the themed approach that’s been used to build upon, and provide a body of knowledge about, different retirement income planning topics. This has included the creation of a customized Glossary of Terms to assist in the understanding of the technical subject matter. The Glossary currently includes definitions of 84 terms.

Following the initial post, the next 11 posts addressed the retirement planning paradigm shift from retirement asset to retirement income planning, including associated risks associated with the former type of planning that has been the impetus for this shift.

The last 8 posts of 2009 focused on creating and optimizing retirement income via strategic systematic implementation of single premium immediate (“SPIA’s”) and deferred income (“DIA’s”) annuities. This series culminated in the December 28, 2009 interview of Curtis Cloke, the inventor of the Thrive® Income Distribution System, one of the leading retirement income planning solutions available to financial advisors.

2010 kicked off with the January 4th publishing of What Tools Does Your Financial Advisor Have In His or Her Toolbox? This post cited a 2009 Fidelity study that found that 83% of investors between the ages of 55 and 70 who are working with a fee-based adviser believe it’s more important for them to generate guaranteed (subject to individual insurers’ claims paying ability) income for retirement than to deliver above-average returns. The implied dilemma is that not all financial advisors have made the transition from using retirement asset to retirement income planning strategies for their clients.

Beginning with the January 11th post, Year of the Conversion, the last 30 posts have focused on a retirement income planning strategy that, although it has been around since 1998, was thrust into the limelight this year with the removal of its entrance barrier. I’m referring to the Roth IRA conversion technique that, up until 2010, was limited to taxpayers with modified adjusted gross income of less than $100,000.

While anyone who has a traditional IRA can convert part or all of his/her accounts to one or more Roth IRA accounts to embrace the two main attractions of a Roth IRA, i.e., nontaxable distributions and no required minimum distributions (“RMD’s”), this strategy isn’t necessarily beneficial for all traditional IRA owners. This is one area where multi-year income tax and retirement income planning analysis is essential for determining (1) who is a good candidate, (2) how much traditional IRA should be converted, and (3) when conversions should be made. In addition, there are various tricks and traps that need to be understood and incorporated in Roth IRA conversion planning in order to increase the probability for success.

I want to thank all of my readers for taking the time to read Retirement Income Visions™. A special thanks to my clients and non-clients, alike, who have given me great feedback regarding various blog posts. Last, but not least, thank you to my amazing wife, Nira, for all of her support with this endeavor. She has spent many a Saturday morning the last year doing other activities while I’ve been sitting at my desk writing this blog.

Categories
Celebration Retirement Income Planning

Retirement Income Visions™ Makes Its Debut

Retirement Income Center

Welcome to Retirement Income Visions™! As many of you know, I’ve been writing and publishing Financially InKlein’d™, featured on Financial Design Center’s website, for the last 20 years.

Whereas Financially InKlein’d™ covers a spectrum of timely personal financial planning topics revolving around the theme of Planning, Managing, and Protecting Your Financial Independence™,   Financial Design Center’s trademark, the focus of Retirement Income Visions™ is Innovative Strategies for Creating and Optimizing Retirement Income™.

As always, I’m inspired and motivated by my clients. The birth of Retirement Income Visions™ is no exception. While retirement planning has been the cornerstone of my financial planning practice for years, the importance of retirement income planning as a separate and distinct discipline was magnified during the October, 2007 – March, 2009 stock market decline.

My goal in writing this blog is to bring to your attention innovative planning strategies that you can use to create and optimize your retirement income, and, in many cases, reduce your exposure to adverse financial market conditions. The customization and implementation of these strategies for your needs by an experienced retirement income planning professional should enable you to visualize and live a more fulfilling and less stressful life.

I’m excited and I look forward to sharing my knowledge and expertise with you on a regular basis. Subject to change, my plan is to publish a new blog post each Monday morning. I invite and encourage you to share your thoughts with other readers of Retirement Income Visions™ by clicking on “Comments” at the end of each blog. Your feedback is very much appreciated and will be considered in connection with the development of future topics.

If retirement income planning is of interest to you, please click on “Subscribe” in the navigation bar above and I will make sure that you automatically receive each edition of Retirement Income Visions™.  Finally, if you know others who you feel would benefit from Retirement Income Visions™, please click on “Email this” or “AddThis!” following this and each forthcoming blog post.

Finally, since the subject matter of this blog is technical in nature, a Glossary of Terms is available for your reference. New terms will be added as they appear in each blog post. You may access the Glossary by either clicking on Glossary in the navigation bar at the top of this blog or by clicking on unbolded blue links in each blog post.

Thank you for visiting.  Until next time!