Demographics
Clients: Michelle + Ben
Age: 44, 42
Occupation: Museum educator (former high school teacher), police officer
Primary Goal: Navigate a career change, retire early, and inheritance planning
The Situation
Michelle and Ben have had some big changes recently - they got married last year and combined their families, and Michelle recently changed careers after thinking about leaving the classroom for years. Between them, they have many different accounts from Ben’s investment accounts with multiple brokerages, and Michelle’s teaching journey across three states (with time in three different pension systems!).
A few months ago, Michelle changed careers and found a position as a museum educator - a new career path she’s excited to pursue until retirement. Now that she’s comfortable in her new position, she knows she needs to revisit her retirement planning now that she doesn’t have a pension to lean on, but isn’t sure how her employer match works, or how much she should be investing each month.
Since Ben started with the police department in his early 20s, he’ll be eligible to retire and collect his pension soon. He’s willing to work a little longer and wait until Michelle is retirement eligible, but he hopes that won’t be too many years away.
The Approach
Ben and Michelle want to work with a financial planner who can help them sort through their separate finances, consolidate old accounts, and guide them in creating a shared future financial plan.
It’s important to them to work with a planner who understands the rules of their pension systems and local government benefits. They want to see how retiring at different ages will impact their retirement picture. Michelle wants help determining what to do with pension plans in old school districts, and determine her retirement planning path moving forward.
The Results
The plan that Michelle and Ben received helped them in various ways:
Reviewed Michelle’s old pension plans and 403(b) accounts, then analyzed which made sense to rollover into an IRA, and which to keep in the pension system
Advised Michelle on a new 401(k) open at her new job and set up auto-contributions
Provided directions to move Michelle’s IRA account and Ben investment accounts under the same brokerage account so they aren’t logging into multiple systems
Showed them various retirement scenarios depending on the age that each of them retires
Created a budgeting system that automatically tracks all household spending, so that they can monitor their spending and start planning for shared short and medium term financial goals