{"id":1009,"date":"2026-09-11T22:52:59","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T22:52:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartmoneymaps.com\/?p=1009"},"modified":"2026-09-11T22:52:59","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T22:52:59","slug":"5-things-you-need-to-do-before-you-retire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartmoneymaps.com\/?p=1009","title":{"rendered":"5 Things You Need to Do Before You Retire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"480\" height=\"270\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZsPkJQYOLOg\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Retirement can feel far away until suddenly it isn&#8217;t. Once retirement goes from &#8220;someday&#8221; to next year, the questions change. Instead of asking whether you&#8217;re saving enough, you need to know whether you&#8217;re actually prepared to start living off the wealth you&#8217;ve built.<\/p>\n<p>Call us at 920-672-4232 or visit meritfinancialadvisors.com\/build-a-better-plan to start building a plan that helps you live retirement with clarity, purpose, and confidence.<\/p>\n<p>In this episode, we walk through five of the most important steps to take before making the jump into retirement. It starts with something that has little to do with money: creating a vision for what you actually want your retirement to look like. From there, we explore how that vision can help shape a flexible spending target and give the rest of your financial plan a clear destination.<\/p>\n<p>We also cover how to build a forward-looking tax strategy, create a 10-year liquidity plan for your retirement income, and pressure test your plan against bear markets, inflation, higher taxes, and other potential risks. The goal isn&#8217;t to create a plan that can survive every imaginable scenario. It&#8217;s to understand where your plan is vulnerable and build enough flexibility to adapt when circumstances change.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re planning to retire within the next year, these five steps can help turn a collection of investments and savings into a retirement plan you can actually feel prepared to live with.<\/p>\n<p>Timestamps:<br \/>\n0:00 &#8211; When Retirement Gets Real<br \/>\n0:42 &#8211; Design An Ordinary Retirement Day<br \/>\n3:32 &#8211; Build A Flexible Spending Target<br \/>\n6:57 &#8211; Create A Smarter Tax Strategy<br \/>\n11:38 &#8211; Map A 10-Year Liquidity Runway<br \/>\n15:02 &#8211; Stress Test The Plan And Commit<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211;<br \/>\nAlways remember, &#8220;You Don&#8217;t Need More Money; You Need a Better Plan&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udf7f Subscribe to our channel: https:\/\/youtube.com\/@meritfinancialadvisors?si=YJZhYEnC4dL-RNay<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udfc6 Join our Weekly Email Series: https:\/\/meritfinancialadvisors.com\/subscribe\/ <\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udcc8 Talk with us about your retirement plan here:  https:\/\/www.meritfinancialadvisors.com\/build-a-better-plan\/<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udcda The New 60\/40: How the Next Generation of Retirees Can Achieve Radical Financial Freedom through Better Safe Investing &#8211; https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/New-60-Generation-Financial-Investing\/dp\/B08H6TCMFN<\/p>\n<p>Merit Financial Advisors &#8211; Headquarters<br \/>\n2400 Lakeview Pkwy, Suite 550<br \/>\nAlpharetta, GA 30009 <\/p>\n<p>For more information, please visit www.meritfinancialadvisors.com.<br \/>\nFull Disclosure: Nothing on this YouTube video should be considered advice, research, or an invitation to buy or sell securities. For a full disclaimer, please refer to the terms and conditions in our firm brochure.<br \/>\nInvestment advice offered through Merit Financial Group, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Retirement can feel far away until suddenly it isn&#8217;t. Once retirement goes from &#8220;someday&#8221; to next year, the questions change. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1010,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v17.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/smartmoneymaps.com\/?p=1009\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"5 Things You Need to Do Before You Retire - Personal Finance Secrets\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Retirement can feel far away until suddenly it isn&#8217;t. 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