Other Retirement Facts:

March Madness is back! Have you filled out your brackets yet before the tournament starts? To have a little basketball-inspired fun today, we talk about the parallels between financial planning and March Madness.

As you fill out your bracket, you’re trying to predict the outcome. It’s almost impossible to predict all of the games correctly. Similarly, you can’t predict all of your retirement outcomes. It comes down to having a plan to help you achieve the outcome you need. You have to know which accounts to bring into the game first, whether that’s your Social Security, pensions, savings, and retirement accounts. And unlike filling out your brackets, you can make changes to your plan as time goes on and things change.

There’s going to be upsets in sports and in retirement. A Cinderella story and major upset is exciting in basketball, but probably not the way you want retirement planning to go. You’ve got to be flexible with your plan, but don’t bet your retirement on some underdogs like GameStop or Bitcoin or whatever volatile potentials you may see.

Whether they are good or bad, it’s always fun to root for the home team. But when it comes to retirement planning, are you overly invested in your company? It’s great to be loyal to the company you work for, but don’t tie your entire retirement up into one company or industry. Consider what a safe amount of investment in one company is.

The coaches are constantly having to evolve and tweak the coaching plan throughout the tournament. From one game to the next, the teams change and the players don’t always adhere to the plan. A financial advisor can coach you about your plan. The plan can ebb and flow, but it’s helpful to have a coach to show you when it’s the right time to make a switch.

At the end of the day, you’ve got to have a good plan in place. Do you have a retirement strategy in place? Reach out to a financial advisor to make sure your retirement is a success.

Listen to the entire episode or click on the timestamps blow to skip to a particular topic.

1:28 – March Madness is upon us.

1:45 – Getting an entire bracket correct is hard to predict.

5:36 – Half the fun in sports is the upset–not true with retirement planning.  

8:15 – You often want to root for the home team.

13:42 – Coaching is key.

Thanks for listening! We’ll be back with another episode next week.

A Quotable Moment:

“Don’t tie your retirement income–the outcome of your retirement–to picking and playing in the market.”

-Phil Putney