It’s important to properly manage your retirement income in order to make the most of your savings. You spent all of your working years investing and saving money so you’d have enough to live off of in retirement and you’ll want to make sure that you can make those funds last as long as possible while at the same time enjoying your well-earned retirement.

Step 1: Talk to a Financial Advisor

The first step is to talk to a financial advisor in Orlando. It’s important to find an advisor who specializes in retirement planning. Financial advisors often have different areas of expertise. You’ll want to make sure that the financial advisor that you choose is an expert in your particular needs. In this case, that is financial planning in regard to managing your retirement income in particular.

Step 2: Create a Financial Plan

With your financial advisor, you’ll need to create a financial plan. A financial plan is a document that examines your current financial status and, taking that into account, details the steps and strategies to achieve your long-term financial goals. A retirement financial plan in particular will assess your current financial situation and help you to plan around how much money you think you’ll need to spend each month and for how long you’ll be needing your retirement savings to last.

Step 3: Choose the Right Investments

Whether your retirement savings account was a 401(k) or an IRA or something else, the money contributed to that account would have been invested so that it could grow more. Investing doesn’t end just because you’ve retired. You’ll still want to maintain a diversified investment portfolio that keeps working for you throughout your retirement. Your investment strategy, however, might change. 

Earlier in your retirement savings, it may have been a better idea to invest more aggressively, which carries more risk. This is because you’d have more time for the market to turn around so that those riskier investments would pay off. However, in retirement, you may want to consider investing more conservatively in order to focus on keeping what you have. Your financial advisor will be able to advise you on the best investment strategy for what you have and what your long-term goals are.

Step 4: Ensure You Have a Reliable Income Stream

Your financial advisor can also help you to ensure that your investment account can provide a reliable stream of income for you in the amount that you need. You’ll be required to take money out of your retirement accounts after a certain age whether you’re actually retired or not at that time. You’ll have mandatory distributions that you’ll have to take. Mandatory distributions are the minimum amount that you’re required to take out of your retirement account.

Depending on your financial plan, you may be taking out more than the mandatory minimum distribution for your account. Your retirement financial plan should account for the investments maintaining a reliable income stream for you. You’ll also want to make sure that how much you’re taking out of your retirement account is enough for you to live comfortably while you leave enough in your account to maintain your investments.

Step 5: Visit Your Financial Advisor Again

It’s a good idea to check in with your financial advisor regularly. This is especially important if anything in your financial situation or financial goals has changed so that you can adjust your retirement financial plan accordingly.

Step 6: Revisit the Financial Plan

No financial plan should be set in stone. Life changes can alter your goals or what you have enough that you need to revisit your financial plan with your financial advisor. You’ll need to regularly review your financial situation and plan with your advisor to make sure that they’re still working for you, the lifestyle you want to lead, and your long-term goals. The financial plan is supposed to work for you and it should adjust to your needs.

Step 7: Adjust Your Management Strategies

Once you’ve reviewed your financial plan, it’s important to make the necessary adjustments to your retirement income management strategies. If the amount you should be spending per month has decreased or increased due to changes in your financial circumstances, then you’ll want to make sure that you’re following that new distribution amount.

You’ll also want to adjust your investment strategy if your financial advisor thinks it’s a good idea. Even if everything stays the same with your financial situation, your advisor may want to rebalance your accounts so that they remain diversified in a way that you’re comfortable with.