Ray
Sample planAccountant · 57 · Overland Park, KS
married to Diane, who runs the front desk at a dental practice; rebuilding since a layoff at 48
His brokerage account covers the first three years of retirement, and his health insurance costs $51 a month. The year it runs dry, the same life costs him $668 a month, and nothing about the house or the groceries has changed.
Runs out of savings at 66. The plan is which account you spend first
Income streams
Savings — $242,000
Spending
The 12-month glide
- 12 months out
Find out what share of the money is tax-deferred. Not the balance, the share. For somebody who only ever saved at work it is usually north of 90%, and that one number decides what the bridge to 65 costs.
- 9 months out
Price the gap honestly. Two adults on the marketplace from 60 to 65 is one of the largest lines in the budget, and the credit that pays most of it is priced on the income the plan itself creates.
- 6 months out
Leave the 401(k) where it is. Separating at 55 or later keeps that employer's plan reachable without the extra 10%; rolling it into an IRA throws the exemption away, and nobody mentions it, because the rollover is the thing being sold.
- 3 months out
Build the taxable sleeve on purpose, out of the last bonus and the last vesting, so there is money to spend in the bridge years that does not land in counted income.
Now run Ray’s plan.
Open the What-If board with Ray’s exact numbers — drag a lever and watch the earliest age Ray can actually retire.
Explore Ray’s What-If →