SALES IDEA OF THE MONTH ——
Three Main Areas Your Clients Need to Focus on as They Prepare for Their Retirement Years
by Michael Aun, FIC, LUTCF, CSP, CPAE
President, Central Florida NAIFA
I have had the privilege of being in the insurance and estate planning profession for almost five decades, all with the same company the Knights of Columbus.
During that tenure I have had a front row seat to “the good, the bad and the ugly” of people’s lives. I have concluded one thing… people don’t plan to fail they fail to plan. Sounds simple? Not so much.
When counselling with clients I try to get them to focus on three main areas of their retirement years:
1) The first is the basic needs area, or what I affectionately call the “pay checks.” This should include food, utilities, taxes, insurance, co-pays, housing, clothing, dependent care, a repair and replacement (R&R) fund, inflation, emergency funds and planned economic obsolescence, cars which have to be replaced, appliances and so forth.
2) Secondly, you need a cow! A cow provides enough guaranteed income to provide to meet those needs. The very worst thing you can have happen is to outlive your assets. I like to suggest to clients that you need a big enough cow to throw off enough milk to pay for those needs, without killing or selling off the cow.
Included in the “guaranteed income” category would be social security, spouse social security, earnings, pensions, annuities, disability income payments and required minimum distributions from IRA’s, 401-K’s, 403-B plans and other retirement vehicles like Roth IRA’s, stocks, mutual and
3) This area has to do with your wants and desires. I lovingly call these the “play checks.” If you have enough disposable income you can do things like travel, entertainment, golf and other hobbies? This spending is optional. Some might put things like charity into this category while others might list it under the needs/paychecks area.
Just some thoughts from my front row seat! Good selling!!
Michael Aun, FIC, LUTCF, CSP, CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame is a syndicated columnist. His column, “Behind the Mike” appears in 1500 weekly periodicals is 41 countries. Past columns can be found at http://www.aunline.com/blog.
