Confident retirement in three to five years.
Meet Tom and Lisa. Within reach of retirement, with strong savings, but important questions left to answer before they take the leap.
On paper, they had done many of the right things.
But as retirement got closer, a quiet uneasiness started to creep in.
Tom and Lisa had done many of the right things: consistent saving, strong 401(k) balances, and a mix of IRAs, Roth IRAs, and cash reserves. From the outside, everything looked on track.
But the closer retirement got, the heavier each decision started to feel. They didn’t want a binder that collected dust on a shelf. They wanted a clear path, and a team to help them walk through each step with confidence.
“We think we’re okay. But are we missing something?”
A clear path. One coordinated plan.
Before we built the strategy, we got clear on what they were actually trying to solve.
The ALIGN Method, applied to their final stretch.
At Macco Financial, we use the ALIGN Method to proactively connect goals, tax planning, and investment strategy so wealth continually supports the life you envision. Here is what that looked like for Tom and Lisa.
- Clarified their purpose for retirement: time freedom, family experiences, and the option to do meaningful part-time work.
- Modeled a three to five year retirement timeline with “work-optional” checkpoints along the way.
- Built a retirement paycheck plan: which accounts fund which years, and how spending adjusts in different retirement phases.
- Created a multi-year tax map coordinating retirement date, withdrawals, and Social Security timing.
- Identified a Roth conversion window during lower-income years to reduce future required distributions.
- Planned charitable giving strategies to support causes they care about while improving tax efficiency.
- Reviewed tax-sensitive investment placement across account types to reduce ongoing tax drag.
- Aligned their overall allocation to their timeline and income need, reducing unnecessary risk heading into retirement.
- Segmented investments into purpose-driven buckets: short-term stability, income, and long-term growth.
- Implemented a consistent rebalancing approach designed to manage risk and support withdrawals.
- Reduced investment costs where appropriate and simplified account coordination.
From “we think we’re okay” to “we know what’s next.”
By the end of the process, Tom and Lisa had a coordinated plan and the confidence to act on it.
Your Next Step
If you are nearing retirement and want to know you are on the right track, let’s talk.