Forced Savings for Retirement Success
If you were to gather a group of retirees and ask them what single factor most contributed to their ability to retire successfully, you’d likely hear some variation of the same theme: “I started saving early, kept saving consistently, and didn’t stop.” It’s simple in theory but powerful in practice. And it’s rooted in one key principle that underlies nearly every …
What Recent Retirees Tell Us About Retiring
Here’s something surprising that we’ve noticed after many conversations with recent retirees: not a single one has told us that retirement is awful. That’s right – not once has someone said, “I regret retiring.” Instead, we hear about long-awaited trips, cherished time with grandkids, leisurely mornings, and household projects that may or may not get finished (but no one seems too …
Client Corner: Kent and Karla
Retirement at 65 had always been our goal. We felt confident we were financially prepared and wouldn’t need to change our lifestyle. Still, it wasn’t until we sat down with Chris Cordova that we received the confirmation we needed to move forward with peace of mind. Thanks to Melissa Ceballos, Elevated Retirement’s Director of Talent and Business Acquisition, we connected …
A Retirement Plan Includes Long Term Care
Long-term care is one of the most unpredictable and emotionally charged aspects of retirement planning. It’s also one of the most frequently overlooked, either because it’s uncomfortable to think about or because many people assume it won’t apply to them. But the truth is, nearly 70% of people over age 65 will require some form of long-term care during their …
Your Personalized Retirement Plan
Your Personalized Retirement Plan: Matching Your Money with Your Mindset When shopping for a new car or appliance, most people turn to a buyer’s guide to compare features, evaluate options, and feel more confident about their decision. So why shouldn’t retirement planning work the same way? While there’s no official guidebook for converting your life savings into lasting retirement income, …
Briefcase Study: Is Status-Chasing Affecting Your Retirement?
Have you ever stopped to reflect on how much status influences your decisions? In professional life, it’s easy to see – titles like supervisor, director, or CEO make it clear who sits where in the hierarchy. But status doesn’t just live in the office. It quietly shapes the cars we drive, the neighborhoods we choose, the vacations we take, and …
Back to the Basics: Is Retirement Still All-Inclusive?
Not Exactly – But It Can Be Well-Planned Who doesn’t love the ease of an all-inclusive vacation? You choose your destination, book your excursions, pack your bags, and when you arrive – voilà! Everything is already planned, paid for, and ready to enjoy. No surprises, no extra decisions. Just follow the plan and relax. Wouldn’t it be nice if retirement …
A Budget versus Budgeting
A Budget versus Budgeting: Why the Difference Matters for Retirement Life is full of goals and resolutions that come and go – some stick, most don’t. But money goals? They tend to linger. That’s because the need for money, and the challenges that come with managing it, never really go away. And when retirement starts appearing on the horizon, those …
The Challenge of So Many Retirement Choices
If you were to ask me what is my very favorite thing, I think I’d say it’s choice. I suppose it’s like declaring that freedom is good. The very ability to make choices with our time, money, relationships, careers…these all make life so much richer than the alternative, having few choices. An uncluttered view of a distant horizon? Love it. …
Roth Now, Win Later
Taxes, taxes, taxes. When we celebrate Independence Day each year, it’s easy to focus on the fireworks and forget that much of our dispute was over taxes. After all, wasn’t that part of the deal when we declared to the British that we wanted to see other people? That ‘taxation without representation’ thing, right? Well, in the hundreds of years …
