“Don’t wait until you actually retire,” is the advice of Tracey Lundell, with Sea Glass Wealth Advisory Group when asked about retirement planning.
“We love to talk to people in the five years leading up to retirement, because a lot of decisions that people make in those five years can have a significant impact on financial outcomes and cash flow.”
Sea Glass Wealth Advisory Group is part of Harbourfront Wealth Management and offers investment planning and goal setting for the retirement years, whether retirement occurs as planned or earlier than expected.
“Envisioning what you want your retirement to look like,” Tracey explains, “is one of the things we do when we discuss your investment portfolio.”
Tracey and her colleagues, Kristina Thomas and Sheryl Thomas, have found that retirement tends to come in two waves. First, there’s usually lots of travel. After a few years, clients tend to settle down and find rewarding things to do, such as volunteer work.
“Retirement always seems to cost a lot in the beginning, when we’re living our dreams of being able to travel more,” Tracey notes, “and then again at the end, when medical expenses become a worry. One of the questions we get asked most often is ‘will I outlive my money?’ We identify all the sources of income, including equity in the home, and try to give clients peace of mind about the financial aspects of retirement.”
Those income sources can be government and private pensions, personal savings as well as equity in their home.
“If people decide not to downsize,” Tracey says, “part of the process is to identify all the possible solutions to unlock the equity in your home. After identifying the options, we analyze the client’s situation and formulate a personalized recommendation.”
Flexibility is key, as is building liquidity into a plan.
“Don’t lock yourself into a situation that you can’t change,” Tracey advises. “We need to build flexibility and liquidity into your plan in order to take care of any unforeseen circumstances.”
For more information on Sea Glass Wealth Advisory Group, call 604.358.3123, visit the website, email [email protected] or visit the office at 310-15252, 32nd Ave, Surrey. Tracey can also be found on LinkedIn and Twitter.
