Congratulations! You are almost at the summit of your retirement mountain; we have one more question to go! If you've been working through these questions all week, you've already done something most people spend a whole career avoiding.

You've actually thought about your retirement as more than an account balance, and you’re beginning to build a smooth pathway to a fulfilling retirement.

The clients we work with find the most success when they get honest with themselves early in retirement planning.

I remember one client who was stressed at work but had a hard time letting go. Every new bonus felt too good to pass up, and after years of hard work, it finally felt like she was earning what she deserved. When our team walked through everything she actually wanted in retirement - travel, horseback riding, gardening - and showed her she already had enough saved to support that life, something shifted.

Building a bigger number wasn't worth trading away her healthiest years, and she started the process of retiring.

The real shift for her wasn't financial. It was permission, the same permission you've been giving yourself this week, just asking yourself these questions.

—

So, here's the last question to help you reach the summit,

If you retired tomorrow, would you feel ready?
And if not, what's the actual thing standing in your way?

Now’s the time to go back through what you wrote this week. Read it all together in one sitting. Then write one sentence answering today's question. That sentence is worth bringing into a real conversation with someone you trust. It's the clearest starting point for figuring out what actually comes next.

Answering these questions truthfully is usually the hardest part of the whole planning process. It's even harder than the math, which is why only highly trained financial advisors are equipped to help you with this.

But it's also what creates the most fulfilled retirees. I think you'll realize that you're closer to retirement-ready than you thought. Often times, people just need permission to finally set that retirement date and plant the flag at the summit.

But here's the part people get wrong about mountains. It's not climbing up that's dangerous, it's actually coming down.

Mount Everest is the tallest mountain in the world, and experienced guides will tell you the summit isn't even the halfway point. The real danger comes after. As you make your descent, fatigue sets in, oxygen runs low, and the hardest decisions show up right when there's the least room for error.

Retirement works the same way. It's important to have a plan for your trek up the mountain. It's important to have a guide and the right equipment.

And if you don't have a plan for the way down, along with the guidance of someone who's descended the mountain before, then the consequences can be serious. No experienced hiker would summit without a trusted guide for the descent. Your retirement deserves the same.

If you don't have the right advisor helping you prepare for that descent, we’d love to be your guide. Click here to sign up for a time to talk.

Thanks for sticking with me all week. If you had any epiphanies going through this, I’d love to hear about it, our team reads each one of them. Just hit reply.

Tim Meisenheimer, CFP®, CFA
CEO, Streamline Financial