It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast This week the theme was:Crafting Your Retirement Budget In case you missed any episodes, here’s what we discussed this week… How To Budget For Retirement Too Lazy To Budget For Retirement? Try This… Differentiate Between Needs, Wants, & Wishes Don’t Forget About These Sneaky Retirement Costs Making A Plan For The Unexpected Retirement Expenses The most important takeaway from this week is… Tomorrow, I’m starting a brand new theme: Top 5 Money Traps to Avoid Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.  Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast. ---------- >>> Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP >>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs >>> Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/  ---------- Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance  

This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Crafting Your Retirement Budget Today, I’m talking about making a plan for the unexpected in retirement.  How much of your budget should you set aside for surprises or emergencies? 3-6 months + Advice for market declines and extra cash for that Maintenance on housing, cars, etc - always unplanned and irregular. Something you can’t put off like you used to. The older you get, the scarier it is to be stuck somewhere because of an unreliable car.  Bottom line: You’re going to want to keep more cash on hand for emergencies when you’re retired so you don’t have to unexpectedly tap into your investment portfolio, you can cut your portfolio withdrawals in a down market, and perhaps most importantly, you can avoid putting an emergency on a high interest rate credit card.  That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.  ---------- >>> Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP >>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs >>> Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/  ---------- Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Crafting Your Retirement Budget Today, I’m talking about sneaky retirement expenses that you may not think about when crafting your retirement budget, because they might only come up every 6 months or once a year, but you want to account for them so they don’t surprise you or create problems for you. Sneaky Retirement Costs Annual - property taxes, insurance - easy to overlook because you might only think about them around the time they’re due Annual subscription renewals - BeachBody on demand…oh yea! I forgot about that :) Buying a new car every few years - maybe one car purchase in retirement? Maybe more often? Most people I do budgeting with forget to account for this even though it’s a major expense.  Counting on a tax refund that you may not get anymore once you’re retired and your income goes down That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.  ---------- >>> Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP >>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs >>> Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/  ---------- Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Crafting Your Retirement Budget Today, I’m talking about a critical aspect of crafting your retirement budget: categorizing and ranking various spending goals. Essentially, what you’re doing is listing out various categories of spending in retirement that are beyond your basic needs. This allows you then to rank and prioritize these various goals, differentiating between Needs, Wants, & Wishes. List different spending categories (travel, health care, etc) and examples of which ones are needs, wants, and wishes. I like ranking them in order of importance - 10 is absolute necessity, can’t do without need. 1 is take it or leave it. Try not to have more than 1 or 2 things with the same ranking. Makes it easier to figure out where you’ll be willing to compromise if you can’t afford to have all your wants and wishes Will vary - health care is a need, charitable giving will be a need for some, a want for others, and a wish for other Understanding where each of your spending goals lies on the spectrum of importance to you will help you make some helpful decisions.  Maybe you really want to spend $10,000 a year on travel. But you also want to join an athletic club that costs $250 a month. If you budgeted for both of these, you’ll know if you can afford them both. But let’s say you can’t afford to do both. Ranking needs, wants and wishes helps with this. Let’s say that you ranked the athletic club as 7, but travel as an 8. The compromise might be that your travel budget has to drop to $7,000 so you can afford the athletic club membership. Or you may decide that because travel is more important and higher up on the needs, wants, and wishes spectrum, that you’ll forgo the athletic club membership all together so you can travel in the way you want to. After all, you can always workout at home instead… That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.  --------- >>> Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP >>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs >>> Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/  ---------- Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Crafting Your Retirement Budget Today, I’m talking about how to create a retirement budget if you’re too lazy to track your spending for 3 months or longer. If you’re Type A, budgeting isn’t tough for you. But if you’re type B, just go with the flow, or not very conscientious, then budgeting might sound like some sadistic form of torture. So for those of you in the latter category, that’s why we have rules of thumb.  Basic living expense = 60% of your income while working to maintain standard of living. When you layer in other discretionary things like travel and home maintenance and buying a new car every few years, that % climbs to about 70%.  So if you’re lazy like me in tracking all of your spending and looking for a rough place to start, then start with about 70% of your pre-retirement income.  That means if you made $100,000 in income annually, you could live off around 70,000 annually while maintaining your current standard of living. That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.     ---------- >>> Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: httpstr://apple.co/2DI2LSP >>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs >>> Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/  ---------- Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Crafting Your Retirement Budget Today, I’m talking about how to get started on putting together a budget for retirement  Tracking for 3 months to establish a good estimate Apps and software programs make this much easier to track and categorize if you’re not good with numbers.  Even if you’ve never budgeted before, it’s an essential exercise before you retire. You’ll want to start budgeting a couple years out so if you’re spending exceeds your asset’s ability to support that spending, you can make some decisions about cutting back and reducing your lifestyle or retiring later, which are your 2 main options when you’re close to retirement. Saving more is helpful, but you may not have enough time to have that move the needle…doing the budget a couple years before retirement gives you time to make a decision when you haven’t already checked out of work.  Look at expenses that will likely decrease or go away (gas, parking if you commute to work), and ones that will increase (home improvement, travel)  That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.     ---------- >>> Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP >>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs >>> Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/  ---------- Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast! I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and I’m using my 15 years of experience as a financial advisor to help you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision. On this podcast, I cover everything from investing, to retirement spending, to taxes in retirement in just a few minutes each day, so if you’re 5-10 years on either side of retirement, and looking for some daily doses of retirement planning wisdom, stick around this week as I talk about Crafting Your Retirement Budget.  [background/story - Ash Cell] That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Come on back tomorrow…where I’ll talk about… My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. ---------- >>> Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP   >>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs >>> Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/  ---------- Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance  

It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast This week the theme was:Q1 2023 So Far… Tomorrow, I’m starting a brand new theme: 2023 So Far… Update on current economic conditions, and the outlook for your investments this year, taken from our quarterly update we send to clients.  Thank you so much for listening this week! If you’re enjoying the podcast, chances are someone else you know who is getting close to retirement could also benefit from checking it out, so please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your sister, or your boss. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement.  Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast. ---------- >>> Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP >>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs >>> Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/  ---------- Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance  

This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 2023 So far…I’m recapping what happened in the economy and markets in the first quarter of 2023 and looking ahead to the rest of the year The key in 2023 is to remain picky with stock and bond selection. Quality always matters, but especially during difficult and volatile economic periods. We are positioning client portfolios defensively, which should help provide stability during uncertain times ahead.  The Bottom Line: We believe a significant economic slowdown is underway, and it’s likely a recession will arrive later this year. The banking crisis will likely contribute to a credit crunch, slower economic growth and a drop in earnings for stocks. Yet, opportunities still exist for investors, especially in high quality stocks and bonds.    That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.   ---------- >>> Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP >>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs >>> Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/  ---------- Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance  

This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 2023 So far…I’m recapping what happened in the economy and markets in the first quarter of 2023 and looking ahead to the rest of the year Yesterday I talked about the bad news, which is likely a year of slow or no growth in your investment portfolio, which is especially challenging coming off a year in 2022 when most of you listening experienced double digit losses in your investment portfolio. So, what’s the good news? The rapid rise in interest rates has provided the first great investment opportunity for fixed income investors in 15 years. Short-term money market funds and CDs are currently paying 4.5% - 5%, and investors are finally being rewarded with higher yields after a very long period of low interest rates. We have been recommending money market funds and short-term CDs to clients with idle cash and keeping maturities short to intermediate for bond investors. This has allowed us to take advantage of higher yields without the duration risk of owning longer-term bonds. That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.   ---------- >>> Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP >>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs >>> Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/  ---------- Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 2023 So far…I’m recapping what happened in the economy and markets in the first quarter of 2023 and looking ahead to the rest of the year   Today…I’m talking about the bad news for investors for 2023: What’s interesting about the factors currently driving the economy, markets and portfolio returns is that we’re already 15 months into the current stock market downturn, yet we haven’t yet officially entered a recession. Usually, stock market downturns accompanied by a recession last about 12-18 months, so based on historical norms we should be almost “out of the woods”. If the recession hasn’t arrived, but is coming soon, that means we’re likely going to experience another calendar year of below average growth. We think it’s possible that the worst is behind us in the stock and bond markets, but with an economic slowdown comes additional downward pressure on stocks. We think that 2023 could be a year of treading water for most investors – not much growth from beginning to end.  That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.   --------- >>> Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP >>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs >>> Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/  ---------- Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 2023 So far…I’m recapping what happened in the economy and markets in the first quarter of 2023 and looking ahead to the rest of the year Today…I’m talking about the economic outlook for the rest of the year: The Conference Board forecasts that “economic weakness will intensify and spread more widely throughout the US economy over the coming months, leading to a recession starting in mid-2023”. We agree with this forecast, believing that a significant economic slowdown is underway, and we will likely see a recession later this year. The Fed still has more work to do in raising rates to bring down inflation, and that won’t be without economic pain. Consumers and businesses have been surprisingly resilient to higher inflation and higher interest rates, but the cracks are starting to appear – a rapidly cooling housing market, corporate layoffs, and higher delinquency rates on credit cards, etc. Treasury yields and an inverted yield curve (where shorter-term rates are higher than longer term rates) also point to an imminent recession. After the Silicon Valley Bank failure, a credit crunch seems inevitable as banks struggle in this rising interest rate environment.  A recent WSJ article reports: “U.S. banks’ lending capacity will decline by 1% this year because of the fall in the value of many bank stocks as investors reassess the health of midsize banks, the International Monetary Fund said in a report on global financial stability. That reduction in lending is expected to dent U.S. gross domestic product in 2023” The result will be even slower growth as businesses will find it harder to borrow, grow and expand. That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.        ---------- >>> Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: httpstr://apple.co/2DI2LSP >>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs >>> Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/  ---------- Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

This week’s theme on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 2023 So far…I’m recapping what happened in the economy and markets in the first quarter of 2023 and looking ahead to the rest of the year   Today…I’m recapping what was driving markets in the first quarter of 2023: Stocks rallied sharply to start the year as inflation subsided and investors grew increasingly confident that the Federal Reserve was nearly done raising interest rates. But when Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapsed, stocks gave back most of those gains. When conditions stabilized and the Fed suggested they were almost done with their tightening cycle, stocks rallied, and the S&P 500 finished up 7% in the first quarter of 2023. Bonds have also turned around after suffering their worst calendar year loss ever in 2022. The US Aggregate Bond Index gained 2.91% this past quarter.  That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.     ---------- >>> Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP >>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs >>> Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/  ---------- Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance