Today’s Prep:

This time of year, you can find football on TV almost every night. Let’s see what we can learn about retirement from the gridiron.

Equipping Points:

00:50 – The Financial Red Zone.

• On the gridiron, the red zone consists of the last twenty yards before the end zone. If your team is on offense, their goal is to score in the red zone. Conversely, if your team is on defense, they want to make a stand in the red zone. Teams are usually judged on their efficiency in the red zone. In retirement, the red zone consists of the five to ten years leading up to retirement and the five to ten years immediately following your retirement. During that time, you want to plan efficiently for your retirement. This is the time to start developing an income plan and taking some of the risk out of your portfolio. Similarly to a football game, the stakes are high in the retirement red zone. You don’t want to take too many chances and hurt your finances in retirement.

4:34 – The Hurry-Up Offense. 

• Football teams deploy their hurry-up offensive strategy on the gridiron when their behind in the game. The trick is to work quickly to erase your deficit on the scoreboard.  In retirement, this might equate to playing catch-up with your savings and investments. Especially if you’ve started saving and investing later in life, you’ll want to make the most of a hurry-up investing strategy. However, you have to be careful. Teams tend to execute poorly if they lack a hurry-up offensive strategy. If you’re adding lots of risk to your nest egg just to get ahead, you could find yourself in trouble if the market takes a dip. There are certainly ways to save more aggressively as you age, but you’ll want to work with your advisor to make sure you have a responsible strategy in place.

Today’s Takeaway:

“If you find yourself in the retirement red zone, you need to meet with your financial advisor and build a game plan for retirement. During this time, don’t let your emotions get the best of you. Take some of the risk out of your portfolio, develop an income plan, and prepare yourself to adjust your plan along the way. – Retirement Ready“