Getting to your Retirement Exit

I was creating a retirement plan for a client by the name of Ms. Smith the other day, and I popped the question to her. She said, well, I don't know. It depends on how I feel at that time. I said what do you mean how do you feel at that time, better yet how do you feel about it today. She said I feel pretty good about it today. I said I have been married for 23 years and have never proposed this question to my wife. She said you should; she would probably feel the same way I do about it. The question I had popped to Ms. Smith was, "If we could go back to November 2007, the "Great Recession" and her entire retirement portfolio was cut in half by 50% would she stick it out?" She said mainly she was in a different place financially and mentally at the time verse where she is now. I told her I get it, and she should be in two different areas in her life versus back then, but preparing retirement plans, I have to ask that question. Not because it's on my q

I love talking retirement and rightfully so, as I have been working with clients and their portfolios for nearly 20 years. One thing that was hard for me to understand as a young life insurance agent was why I had to know everything about a client before I started writing their life policy. My manager would always tell me that you have to do confidential questionnaires. My thought as a young agent was why when they wanted insurance, and I want to sell it to them. This type of approach was a win-win for me trying to get a commission. As a veteran in the business for more than 35 years at the time, he said you young kids just do not get it. How do you go into a doctor and tell them your elbow hurt because you bruised it, and they give you some cream and send you on your way, only to discover that you have a fractured bone chip? Now that I am older and around the same age, he was when he started sharing his sage wisdom with me, I truly understand what he was talking about now that I am ol