Case Study #3 - Scott and Katherine

Scott and Katherine are in their early 60’s with three grown children, the youngest of whom just recently married. Scott has been teaching in the same school district for 30 years and Katherine has been at her current position as a physician’s assistant for 12 years. They have been savers and lived a modest lifestyle, but in raising 3 kids and helping put them through college, they are not sure if their retirement benefits and savings accounts are enough for them to retire.

Once they retire, they would like to spend more time near the beach, more time working with local community development projects, and more time with a growing number of grandkids.

At TriCord Advisors we put together a comprehensive financial plan showing what lifestyle they could live based on their current assets. This included reviewing their Social Security, CalSTRS retirement benefits, existing debt, and savings. We added real value to their decision making process by pointing out that if they both worked for 2 more years and used those years to aggressively pay down debt and complete some deferred maintenance on their home (including a remodeled kitchen), they could walk into retirement with zero debt (other than a small mortgage) and an updated home. These additional 2 years had a significant impact on their financial freedom in retirement. Further, finalizing their home updates had an emotional benefit of finally freeing them from seemingly endless weekend home repair projects.

Our planning and support gave Scott and Katherine a clear picture of their retirement and allowed them to make key decisions to delay retirement for 2 years. They entered into their next season with confidence and peace of mind to spend time and resources on the things mattering most to them.

Please Note: The above client situation is hypothetical-not involving actual TriCord Advisors, Inc. None of the client situations should be construed by a client or prospective client as a guarantee that he or she will experience the same or a certain level of results or satisfaction if TriCord Advisors, Inc. is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide financial planning or investment advisory services.