Why a Pre-Retirement Assessment is Imperative to Retirement Success, Ep #90

<p>Years ago, a gal I’m going to call “Robin” came to us and asked about our pre-retirement assessment. She wanted to retire at the end of the year and wanted to make sure she was on track. She brought us 401k, IRA, social security, and pension statements. She was curious how much she had to live on in retirement. We could NEVER have predicted what happened next. Listen to this episode of Retirement Made Easy to learn from her story. </p> <h2>You will want to hear this episode if you are interested in...</h2> <ul> <li>[0:21] Michael Jordan still needed a basketball coach</li> <li>[2:05] Check out FREE resources at RetirementMadeEasyPodcast.com</li> <li>[3:35] The unexpected outcome of Robin’s pre-retirement assessment</li> <li>[9:27] The importance of diversifying your portfolio</li> <li>[12:48] What we did to get Robin back on track</li> </ul> <h2>The unexpected outcome of Robin’s pre-retirement assessment</h2> <p>Robin still had a hefty mortgage and a car loan. However, she had three different old 401ks in addition to a new plan. She also had a couple of small pensions. But there were missing pieces in her statements. Specifically, we couldn’t find the balance of her 401k from when she had worked with JCPenney. When she left Penney's, her 401k was around $300,000, so she estimated that it was at $800,000. But I didn’t want to guess—I wanted to be sure. </p> <p>So we found the custodian of the 401k, verified Robin’s identity, and found out the balance. Her 401k had dwindled to a measly $18,273. Robin laughed, thinking it was a joke—but it wasn’t. What happened? The majority of the retirement plan was invested in JCPenney stock. Which, at the time, was close to $1 a share. Now, they’ve filed bankruptcy and are practically out of business. </p> <p>After hearing this, Robin broke down in tears. She was relying on that money to fund her retirement years. We set another meeting to reconvene next week. Sadly, we did have to push her retirement date. But we knew where she stood and made a plan to move forward—starting