If you plan to retire in 2019 you have several important decisions to make. This week I’m focusing on the 5 most important things you’ll want to button up in the last few months before you transition into retirement - your 2019 retirement checklist.

Yesterday, I talked about the 2nd thing you’ll want to do if you’re retiring this year, which is to educate yourself on company stock, pension, and rollover options.

Today, I’m talking about why you may want to separate your retirement date with the date you start social security benefits.

If you’re in good health and you expect to live into your mid-70s or longer, consider waiting as long as possible to start social security.

Most Americans should plan to live into their 80s, which means that taking social security somewhere between age 67-70 makes the most sense. With some clients, I’ve seen the lifetime income difference in waiting be as high as $600,000, if a married couple waits until age 70 to start social security vs. taking social security at age 62. $600,000 lifetime income difference!

If you’re going to hold off on starting social security, this naturally leads to an important question: where do you draw income from instead if you’re going to retire before you start those social security checks?

You might consider taking higher withdrawals from your portfolio to fill the gap, and lower those withdrawals once social security starts. This strategy makes sense for a lot of people, as long as those higher withdrawals in the early years are sustainable and won’t put you at risk of depleting your investment portfolio. You’ll want to run the numbers for yourself to see if that pencils out.

That’s it for today. Before you go, please leave a review and comment in Alexa or iTunes. Your feedback means a lot to me. And if there’s a retirement topic you want me to cover, let me know in your comments as well.

Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.

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