I’ve spent the last 15 years in the corporate world in healthcare operations and project management, but as I hit my 50’s I started panicking.
I realized I hadn’t saved enough. I had my MBA, decent income, and a reasonable grasp of Time Value of Money calculations, but the more I researched the more I realized I was behind.
So I started tracking my savings meticulously every month. After 5 years and a lot of reading, recalculating, and honest reassessment, the math started working in my favor.
If you’re within 10 years of retirement and you’ve done a lot of things right but still aren’t sure of your own math and how your retirement might lay out — this site is for you.
Three things frustrated me in this process…
Resources. I’d visit 401k sites with generic advice that I knew wouldn’t hold up to much scrutiny and were absolutely not the level of detail I wanted. More often than not those calculators were designed to spark an investment through their company. Similarly, financial planning, or “wealth management” sites with teaser calculators but nothing substantive until the inevitable “let’s have a conversation!” page. Even the few genuine DIY oriented sites lacked planning tools that really help you define – even in the broadest of terms – what your retirement could look like.
Tools. The more I looked, the more I found a good calculator with assumptions that didn’t fit, usually across a half a dozen pages. Good for increasing my base of knowledge, but the tools never seemed to come together in a way that I could really apply to my retirement. It didn’t matter if these tools were free or were paid for in a one-time or a monthly subscription. They offered a viewpoint, but never seemed the right fit.
Planning. So many sites, so much information, but very few clear voices that had a systematic approach. I continued to ask myself: Where does a DIY-oriented pre-retiree go for sound, methodical advice based on 1) a retirement roadmap approach that 2) uses calculators that help guide their retirement direction?
Instead of waiting for others to develop this, I started developing this myself. I make actionable roadmaps for myself and others using calculators and other tools on this site that help fill the information gaps as we prepare for retirement. Honestly, the process of exploration and learning about this has been eye-opening for me and I’m even more convinced that our own retirement plan is solid and the lessons I have learned – and am learning – along the way should be useful to anyone asking the same questions I was. I’m also currently pursuing my Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor designation.
On this site you’ll find a growing number of calculators existing and in development. I find these fascinating only if I can represent them graphically. That’s a holdover from my corporate life: I never met a chart I didn’t like.