College football season is here, and I LOVE IT. There’s nothing like eating some great food, drinking a tasty beverage and watching your team battle it out on the field. Much like a football team preps for an upcoming season, you must do your homework and do a little prepping for your retirement.

You won’t necessarily need to hit the gym and power clean a truck, but you’ll need to make sure you have your financial picture in shape well before you decide to make the transition from accumulation to spending.

Study your opponent: Expenses

One of the most important aspects of retirement is how you’ll be spending your money when you retire. You’ll need to make sure you put together a budget and make sure your pension, social security and retirement accounts will cover all your expenses.

I know budgeting sounds about as fun as losing on a last second field goal to your rival (Ugh...), but it’s important to get something on paper (or excel for you engineers). You might have never had to do a written budget before (especially if your income has been high enough to not worry about your expenses) but it will give you a better idea of what you are up against.

You’ll also want to be careful not to add large expenses like vacation rentals, expensive cars, etc. unless you can pay for them easily with your cash flow.

Study the depth chart

You need to know who’s playing for your team if you hope to win the big one. What type of income will you have coming in?

You can get social security estimates from SSA.gov by creating an account. If you have a pension from Lockheed, then you’ll want to contact benefits to get an idea of which option might be best for you.

You’ll also need to know what type of income you can expect if you have a company pension. If you haven’t done so, contact the benefits team and have them run an estimate for you. You’ll get multiple options for how much you’ll receive depending on how many lives you want it to cover.

Your 401k and any other retirement accounts can be used to fill in any gap in your income that won’t cover expenses. Make sure you have a plan for how and when to draw down your investments. Work with your CPA and financial planner to see if there are any strategies that might save you from paying tax dollars-especially in those early years of retirement.

Be as excited about retirement as these fans are about football and pretzels.

Be ready to adjust the game plan

Things usually don’t go exactly as planned in the 1st half of a football game. The same goes with your retirement plan. Don’t expect everything to work and be ready to adjust as needed. Your plan should be flexible enough to deal with changes – either in the market and your investments, or with your retirement spending.

For instance, if there is a drastic market pullback early on in your retirement, you might need to adjust your spending to account for it. Work with a financial planner to see if there are other sources of income you might want to tap until your portfolio recovers. You could also do some part-time consulting work to add additional income.

Health care expenses are another hurdle that can come up in retirement. If you have a medical issue that pops up in retirement, make sure you have a cushion in your retirement spending plan to take care of it. Also, check and make sure you’ve got your Medicare plan lined out and if supplemental coverage is right for you, get it in place.

Enjoy the victories

It’s ok to do a celebratory end zone dance on occasion. You’ve worked hard to get to retirement. Make sure you build in a little bit of “fun money.” You might not spend as much later in retirement or be able to do the things you love to do later on in retirement. Celebrate your victory (as long as it fits into your budget).

What will you do in your spare time? Golf? Travel? Hobbies? Make sure you know how your free time might affect your retirement spending as well.

If you would like a second pair of eyes on your retirement game plan, email me at Brian@TheAeroAdvisor.com I’d love to be your retirement coach and help you quarterback your family to victory. I’d also be glad to load you up with more ridiculous football puns. HA!