The Pre-Retirement Couple

Background

Robert and Margaret have been married for 30 years with 3 adult children. Robert works as a hospital administrator while Margaret is a high school counselor. They're active in their community – Robert volunteers with a local business mentorship program and Margaret leads a women's group at their church.

They've always been diligent savers, building up approximately $1.2 million across various retirement accounts. They own their home with only 5 years left on the mortgage and have no other significant debt.

The Problem

Robert and Margaret reached out to Peak Financial Management because they wanted clarity about their retirement timeline. Both hoped to retire by age 65 and 62 respectively, but weren't confident they had saved enough to maintain their lifestyle while also leaving a meaningful legacy.

They had several specific questions:

• Did they have enough saved to retire on their preferred timeline?
• How should they balance enjoying retirement and preserving assets for their heirs?
• Could they increase their charitable giving while ensuring financial security?
• Were their investments aligned with their personal values?
• How should they navigate Social Security claiming decisions?
• What was the wisest approach to their remaining mortgage?

Beyond these technical questions, they wondered how to balance prudent financial stewardship with generosity. They valued biblical wisdom and wanted their financial decisions to reflect principles of responsibility, generosity, and long-term thinking.

The Solution

After a complimentary consultation, Robert and Margaret decided to work with Peak Financial Management. They connected with a Certified Financial Planner® who is also a Certified Kingdom Advisor®, providing both technical expertise and an understanding of faith-aligned financial principles.

Their advisor began by exploring not just their numbers, but their deeper motivations and values around money. They discussed biblical concepts of stewardship and how financial decisions can align with personal values.

Together, they developed a comprehensive retirement strategy that addressed:

1. Retirement Income Planning: Creating a sustainable withdrawal strategy that incorporated Robert's pension, their Social Security benefits (with optimized claiming strategies), and their retirement accounts.
2. Legacy Planning: Structuring their estate to efficiently transfer wealth to their children and future grandchildren while supporting the causes they care about.
3. Values-Aligned Investing: Reviewing their investment portfolio to ensure it aligned with their values while maintaining appropriate risk levels for their age and goals.
4. Tax-Efficient Giving Strategy: Developing a charitable giving plan that maximized both tax benefits and impact.
5. Mortgage Strategy: Analyzing whether to accelerate mortgage payments or redirect those funds to investments.

The Results

With their plan in place, Robert and Margaret gained the clarity and confidence they sought. They discovered they were actually in better financial shape than they realized, which allowed them to:

• Confirm their target retirement ages were achievable
• Increase their charitable giving by 20% immediately
• Establish education funds for their grandchildren
• Plan a special family vacation to celebrate their retirement
• Adjust their investment portfolio to better reflect their values
• Develop a legacy letter to accompany their estate plan, sharing the principles and values that guided their financial decisions

With ongoing guidance from their advisor, they now have a framework for making financial decisions that align with their deepest values. They regularly review their plan, making adjustments when life circumstances change.

Robert and Margaret often comment that the greatest benefit wasn't just having a plan, but the peace of mind that comes from knowing their financial decisions reflect what matters most to them – family, generosity, and purposeful living.

Disclaimer: This scenario is entirely hypothetical and does not represent an actual client of Peak Financial Management. Nothing in this case study should be construed as a guarantee of results, outcomes of, or satisfaction with services provided by Peak Financial Management.

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