Income Planning
Turn what you’ve saved into reliable income
We help you compare your monthly needs to Social Security, pensions, and other income sources, then design the most efficient way to use your investments to close any gaps—with the goal of not running out of money before you run out of time.
Start With the Income Gap
A good retirement income plan starts with understanding your real monthly need. We begin by identifying your expected expenses, lining them up against Social Security, pensions, and any other dependable income sources, and then measuring whether there is a shortfall that needs to be addressed.
From there, we help you determine the most efficient way to use your investments and other assets to support the lifestyle you want. The objective is not simply to generate returns, but to create a practical withdrawal strategy that can hold up over time.
Why Timing Matters
One of the most important risks in retirement income planning is sequence-of-returns risk. Once you begin taking withdrawals, the order of market returns can matter just as much as the average return itself.
Bad early years can do lasting damage because withdrawals during a downturn force you to sell assets at lower prices. That leaves fewer dollars invested for a future recovery, and even a strong market later may not be enough to fully repair the damage.
A Simple Illustration
Imagine two retirees, each starting with a $500,000 portfolio. Both experience the same 18 annual market returns, and both withdraw $25,000 in the first year, increasing that amount by 3% annually for inflation.
In the first scenario, the bad market years come early. That portfolio is depleted in year 16 after distributing a total of $488,234. In the second scenario, the exact same returns occur in reverse order, with stronger years coming first. That retiree withdraws a total of $585,361 and still ends with about $605,000 remaining.
The average annualized return is identical in both scenarios. The difference is simply the order in which the returns arrive, which is why this risk is so important for anyone who expects to rely on investments for income in retirement.
This is called sequence of return risk.
How We Help
A thoughtful income plan is designed to adapt, not assume that markets will cooperate.
We help you identify income gaps before retirement becomes income dependent.
We help you coordinate Social Security, pensions, and investment withdrawals into one strategy.
We help you evaluate ways to reduce the need to sell long-term assets during difficult markets.
We help you build a plan around income, flexibility, and long-term sustainability.
Download the Brochure
For a deeper look at how sequence-of-returns risk works, download our brochure, Income in Retirement: Why Timing Matters. It walks through this example in more detail and explains why accounting for this risk is essential for anyone who expects to need portfolio income in retirement.
Build a More Durable Income Plan
Income planning is about more than projecting returns. It is about creating a strategy that helps support your lifestyle, adapts to uncertainty, and gives your retirement assets a better chance to last.