by Dave Kutcher
Hi, my name is Dave Kutcher. I write articles pertaining to the functional areas of Retirement Planning. Let me tell you, there’s a lot to talk about when it comes to planning for retirement.
I come from a hard-working family background. My father was a dairy farmer in Maine, and my mother was a Registered Nurse. After graduating from a teacher’s college in Bridgewater, Massachusetts (Bridgewater State University), I served in the Marine Corps as infantry officer for nearly fourteen years before some of my experiences and injuries caught up to me. Most of that time was served in the Marine Reserves (4th Marine Division). I have always loved working with people and serving others.
It has always been my life-long dream to work and retire in Alaska. Helping folks here in Alaska and making a difference in their lives has been a great experience for me. My skills and knowledge honed over 35+ years in the financial services business can help open new possibilities for you as you consider your retirement. I try to communicate with my audience in a language that can be easily understood in an industry that can be very complicated.
I’d be remiss not to mention you can tune in to my radio show on Saturday mornings on AM 650, 8:30am-9:30am or you can stream through iHeart Radio out of Eagle River, AK. My show “Retirement in the Last Frontier” is now over a year old, and many listeners enjoy some of the information we bring on key concepts of Retirement Planning.
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We’ve all heard the old adage before, “Timing is Everything”. This statement couldn’t be more true when it comes to making sure you don’t outlive your money during your golden years.
As we meet with and share stories with folks here in Alaska, the one big part of the conversation we keep finding that has not been addressed is a term we refer to our business as “sequence of returns”. People need to understand that you can drown in water that averages 6” deep. Average rates of return are used all the time in the financial planning business, however, models used to determine how much money you can safely take out of your retirement plans rarely address a very real risk at this important time in your life and that risk is the impact of the sequence of your returns.
We could take two people with virtually the exact same financial picture; same amount of money in their nest egg, same amount of money needed for retirement income, same exact average rate of return on their money, etc. And yet, those two people could have drastically different results depending upon “when” they received their positive and negative returns in their 401(k) or IRA. The impact of negative investment results in the early years of your retirement have a much more dramatic impact on how much money you will have left in your later years.
Managing the risk of the sequence of your returns is something we think is sorely lacking among people in Alaska. Financial Advisors who are focused on achieving the best rates of return for your portfolio purport to have answers for this problem, we just think their proposed solutions are not based upon reality. Forgoing entirely or even lowering your retirement distributions to try and counteract poor returns in the market is not an easy pill to swallow for most people.
What if you are retiring now or in the near future; markets are extremely volatile, inflation is at record highs, groceries, utilities, gasoline, and rapidly rising interest rates are all very real-life issues that make a difference in people’s lives. The notion of sacrificing retirement income during times like these leave many people with a conundrum that seems hard to overcome.
There are options to manage this sequence of return risk, but solutions that still allow someone to enjoy adequate retirement income are few and far between and we know we have some very special options for people that simply are not talked about up here in America’s Last Frontier.
We think it is important for people to enjoy their money without undue stress and concern for outliving the nest egg they worked so hard to achieve. When you are younger and healthier, you want to be able to maximize your retirement income so you can best enjoy this fun and exciting time in your life. Whether it is outdoor adventure, travel to places you enjoy or wish to experience, spoiling the grandkids or simply not spending everyday pinching pennies for future years, the early years of your retirement should be those you most enjoy. If you don’t have a component of your retirement money in plans that can mitigate negative investment results during the distribution phase of your financial life, you are sacrificing the full enjoyment and opportunity that awaits you.
Safety, stability and control are key words we incorporate into everything we do at Kutcher Financial Services. You owe it to yourself to find out more and we would love the opportunity to share with you how we can help you eliminate downside risk (negative market returns) without sacrificing growth during the retirement. Nobody else is talking about this with folks up here in Alaska. We are here to change that conversation and make sure people understand there are other options beyond personal sacrifice.
Lastly, if any of you have any questions, you can reach me at: [email protected] or (907) 795-7452; Kutcher Financial Services, 10928 Eagle River Rd, Eagle River, AK 99577.
