Services / Retirement Income

Turn savings into a paycheck.

The shift from saving to spending is the hardest turn in personal finance. We plan the income, the taxes, and the what-ifs — so retirement runs on a system, not on nerves.

Book an intro call Contact the firm

Accumulation and income are different sports.

For thirty years the job was simple: earn, save, invest, repeat. Retirement reverses the machine — and the risks change shape. The market decade you retire into matters more than the average return you earn (sequence-of-returns risk). The account you draw from first changes your lifetime tax bill. And decisions like Social Security timing are close to irreversible.

A retirement income plan answers the practical questions in writing: when can I retire, how much can I spend, which account do I tap first, when do we each claim Social Security, and what happens to the plan if markets fall 30% in year two?

The tax return is half the plan.

Retirement is when tax planning pays its largest dividends: Roth conversion windows in low-income years, managing IRMAA thresholds that set Medicare premiums, qualified charitable distributions after 70½, and required minimum distributions that start whether you need the money or not. Working beside the CPAs at Xel Advisors, we model these moves before the calendar closes each year.

The plan answers

When can I (or we) retire?
How much can we spend, safely?
Which account do we draw first?
When do we claim Social Security?
How do we bridge healthcare to 65?
What's the Roth conversion window worth?
What's left for the kids — and how does it pass?

Book an intro call

The five risks every income plan must answer.

Risks

Sequence of returnsA bad market decade early in retirement does far more damage than the same decade later. The plan holds reserves and a spending policy sized for it.

LongevityPlans are run to ages most people consider pessimistic — because outliving the money is the one failure you can't recover from.

InflationA paycheck that never grows is a paycheck that shrinks. Income targets are modeled in real dollars, with the portfolio built to keep pace.

TaxesWithdrawal order, Roth conversion windows, IRMAA thresholds, and RMDs can swing lifetime taxes by six figures — reviewed annually with your CPA.

Health & long-term careThe bridge to Medicare, premium cliffs tied to reported income, and a funded answer for care — insured or self-insured, decided on purpose.

Built-in guardrails.

Method

Income

A paycheck system

Cash reserves and a funding ladder turn portfolio withdrawals into a monthly deposit — so spending doesn't depend on what the market did this week.

Stress

Bad-decade testing

Every plan is tested against poor early sequences, higher inflation, and longer lives — with a written policy for what adjusts first if reality underperforms.

Estate

The hand-off

Beneficiaries, titling, and trusts are reviewed so accounts pass the way you intend — coordinated with your attorney and CPA, not around them.

Fair questions, straight answers.

FAQ

When should I claim Social Security?It depends on health, spousal benefits, other income, and taxes — not a rule of thumb. Delaying grows the benefit roughly 8% per year past full retirement age, but the right answer comes from modeling your household, not the average one.

What order should I draw my accounts in?Withdrawal order — taxable, traditional, Roth — can change lifetime taxes materially. The right sequence usually shifts over time and around Roth conversion windows, which is why it's revisited every year with your CPA.

What about healthcare before Medicare?Bridging from retirement to 65 is a planning problem with real numbers: marketplace premiums, subsidy cliffs tied to reported income, and COBRA windows. We plan the income line with the subsidy math in view.

Will my money last?That's the question the whole plan exists to answer. We stress-test spending against bad market sequences — not just averages — and set a guardrail policy for what changes if markets misbehave early.

I have accounts scattered across old jobs. Where do we start?With a map. We consolidate the picture first — old 401(k)s, IRAs, pensions, HSAs, taxable accounts — then decide what to combine, what to leave, and what each account's job is in the income plan. Consolidation is a means, never the goal.

Retirement should run on a system, not on nerves.

Book an intro call