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Danny discusses the essential steps to planning for retirement, emphasizing the importance of defining a clear vision for what retirement should look like. He outlines a simple five-minute roadmap to help individuals understand their retirement costs, income sources, and how to bridge any gaps in their financial planning. The discussion highlights the significance of having a purpose-driven retirement plan and the tools available to achieve financial security in retirement.
The 5-Minute Retirement Roadmap: A Simple Path to Clarity, Confidence, and Financial Freedom
How to Know—Quickly and Clearly—Whether You’re Truly Ready to Retire
What if you could understand your entire retirement picture in the time it takes to pour a cup of coffee? For most people, retirement planning feels overwhelming—endless numbers, complex calculators, and fear that one wrong move could derail everything. But the truth is this: before you ever run a spreadsheet or analyze a portfolio, there’s one foundational question that changes everything.
And surprisingly, it has nothing to do with money.
Below is a streamlined, five-minute framework that helps you see where you stand and what steps come next. It won’t give away every strategy—that’s what a full plan is for—but it will give you clarity, direction, and the confidence to finally take action.
Why Most People Feel Lost When They Think About Retirement
Here’s the real problem. Most people save for decades but never define what they’re actually saving for. They build accounts, but not a vision. They follow rules of thumb, but not a roadmap.
That’s why the question Can I afford to retire? feels so stressful. Without a clear target, every answer feels uncertain.
But when you understand the why behind your retirement, the numbers finally make sense. And when you know what you need—before worrying about the how—you gain control over your next chapter.
This roadmap delivers exactly that.
Step 1: Define the Retirement You Want
Before you touch a calendar or calculate a single dollar, ask yourself:
What do I want my retirement to look and feel like?
Not someday—now.
Not in theory—specifically.
Do you envision travel, more time with family, a passion project, a slower lifestyle, volunteer work, or a long-postponed creative pursuit? There’s no right answer. What matters is clarity.
Without a defined vision, a retirement plan becomes just numbers on a page. Money is only a tool—its purpose is to support the life you want, not dictate it.
This vision becomes the foundation for every future decision: how much income you’ll need, when you can retire, how much investment risk you’re willing to take, and what trade-offs matter most.
Step 2: Identify What Your Retirement Will Cost
Once you know what you want, it’s time to understand what it costs.
This isn’t about a bare-bones survival budget. This is about funding the lifestyle you actually want.
You can approach this two ways:
Approach 1: Adjust Your Current Spending
Start with your current monthly expenses, then remove anything tied to work or pre-retirement life—commuting, work clothing, retirement plan contributions, or healthcare premiums that may change.
Next, add the likely increases: healthcare, travel, new hobbies.
Most people need about 75–80% of their current income to maintain their lifestyle in retirement.
Approach 2: Build a Fresh Retirement Budget
List out housing, food, transportation, healthcare, utilities, entertainment, and discretionary spending. Then factor in inflation. A $5,000 monthly lifestyle today could easily become $7,000 in a decade or two.
Once you have your number, convert it to an annual figure. That becomes your retirement income target—the benchmark your entire plan will be built around.
Step 3: Determine Your Guaranteed Income Sources
This is your retirement foundation: the income you can rely on regardless of market conditions.
Most people have a combination of Social Security, pension benefits, annuity income, and rental income.
Add these together and compare the total to your retirement income goal.
If your guaranteed income covers your essential expenses, you’re already in a strong position. But if you’re like most people, there’s a gap between what you’ll need and what’s guaranteed.
This gap is normal—and solvable.
Step 4: Identify How Much Your Investments Must Provide
Your savings exist for one reason: to fill the gap between your guaranteed income and your lifestyle needs.
Traditional guidance suggests you can typically withdraw 4–6% of your investment portfolio per year. For example, if you need $36,000 per year from your investments, you may need $720,000–$900,000 saved.
But this is only a rough guideline. In reality, withdrawal rates should adjust based on market performance, inflation, and your personal circumstances.
That’s why many planners use a dynamic approach—often referred to as “guardrails”—that adjusts your withdrawals up or down as conditions change. This can help you:
- Spend more when markets are strong
- Protect your plan when markets are weak
- Extend the longevity of your portfolio
- Use more of your money while you’re alive without unnecessary restriction
Understanding this relationship—between savings, withdrawal rates, and lifestyle needs—shows you whether you're on track or need a more detailed plan.
Step 5: See the Big Picture Clearly
You now have the essential elements of your retirement readiness:
- What you want your retirement to look like
- What it will cost
- How much guaranteed income you’ll have
- How much your investments must cover
This is your five-minute roadmap. It’s not the full blueprint—that would also include tax planning, healthcare considerations, investment structure, estate documents, and long-term risk management—but it gives you clarity that most people never achieve.
You’ll know whether you’re closer to retirement than you thought, need to increase savings, should adjust your goals or timeline, or are ready for more detailed planning.
And most importantly—you’ll stop guessing.
What Comes Next
Knowing the framework is only the beginning. The real transformation happens when you apply your own numbers, circumstances, and goals.
But most people get stuck here—uncertain where to begin or afraid they’ll get it wrong. That’s why we created a structured, easy-to-follow way to take the next step with confidence.
Conclusion
A confident retirement doesn’t start with a calculator. It starts with clarity—about your vision, your needs, and the gap between where you are and where you want to be.
This five-minute roadmap gives you a simple, powerful way to understand your situation and take control of your future. Whether retirement is years away or right around the corner, the clarity you gain today becomes the confidence you carry into tomorrow.
Your retirement freedom begins with one small step. Take it.
*This blog post is based on the insights shared by Gudorf Financial Group. For personalized advice tailored to your unique circumstances, always consult a financial, legal, or tax professional.*
Transcript: Prefer to Read — Click to Open
Danny (00:00.098)
Before you touch a calendar or look at any numbers, the first thing that you need to do is answer one critical question. What do you want your retirement to look and feel like? This isn’t about money yet, it’s about purpose. Do you want to travel the world, spend more time with your grandkids, or start that business you’ve always dreamed of? Maybe you want to volunteer for causes you really care about, or finally write that book. Any one of those is fine, but you just need to start
thinking about it. Here’s why this matters so much. Without a clear vision of what you’re retiring to, your retirement plan becomes just numbers on a page. Money is simply a tool to help you live the life you want to live. There’s one question I get more than any other. Can I afford to retire? If you’ve been losing sleep wondering if you have enough money to stop working, you’re not alone.
Most people spend decades saving without a clear plan, then panic when retirement gets close. Over the past 15 years, my team and I have helped guide hundreds of clients through this exact challenge, helping them build retirement income roadmaps that actually work. In the next few minutes, I’m going to show you this simple five minute retirement roadmap that can give you clarity on your retirement future without spreadsheets,
complex calculations, or weeks of analysis. Before you touch a calendar or look at any numbers, the first thing that you need to do is answer one critical question. What do you want your retirement to look and feel like? This isn’t about money yet, it’s about purpose. Do you want to travel the world, spend more time with your grandkids, or start that business you’ve always dreamed of? Maybe you want to volunteer for causes you really care about, or finally,
write that book. Any one of those is fine, but you just need to start thinking about it. Here’s why this matters so much. Without a clear vision of what you’re retiring to, your retirement plan becomes just numbers on a page. Money is simply a tool to help you live the life you want to live. When clients come to work with our firm, we always start by asking, what do you want this money to do for you?
Danny (02:24.749)
Do you want to spend it all and die with zero or leave a large legacy behind for your family? Spend more in your early retirement years while you’re more healthy and active or save those for future generations? Your retirement vision becomes the foundation for everything else. It determines how much money you’ll need, when you can retire, and what risk are you willing to take with your investments? So take a moment right now and think about it.
Envision it, picture it. What does your ideal retirement look like? Now that you know what you want your retirement to feel and look like, let’s figure out what it will actually cost. This shouldn’t be a bare minimum number to survive. This is the amount that covers the lifestyle you actually want. There are two ways to approach this. First, you can start with what you spend today. Take your currently monthly expenses
Then subtract any non-retirement or work-related costs like commuting, work clothes, retirement plan contributions, healthcare savings to HSAs, or any insurance premiums that you’re currently paying that may not be there in retirement. Then add in new retirement costs like increased healthcare, travel, and potentially other hobbies you may have. As a general rule, most people need about 75 to 80 %
of their current income to maintain their lifestyle in retirement. The second approach is to build your retirement budget from scratch. List out your housing costs, your food, transportation, healthcare, entertainment, utilities, and all other discretionary spending you may have in retirement. And don’t forget about inflation. What costs $5,000 per month today may cost 7,000
in 10, 15, or 20 years. This number becomes the foundation for your entire retirement plan. So you have to get it right. It’s very important. If you need $6,000 per month to live comfortably, that’s $72,000 per year that you’ll need. This is your retirement income target. And everything else we do will be designed to help you reach this number. Next.
Danny (04:49.032)
Let’s look at your predictable income sources in retirement. This is your financial foundation, the money you can count on every month, regardless of what happens in the stock market. For most people, this starts with Social Security. And if you’re married, you’ll have two Social Security benefits to consider. You might also have a pension from your employer, or maybe you’ve purchased an annuity that provides guaranteed income, or have some
semblance of rental real estate income. Add all of these guaranteed income sources up and compare them to your current retirement expense number. If your guaranteed income covers your basic living expenses, congratulations, you’re in great shape. You have what I call a stable retirement, where your essential needs are covered by predictable income sources. But if you’re like most people we work with, there’s a gap.
between your guaranteed income sources and your retirement expenses. But don’t panic. This is completely normal. If you need $6,000 per month to live on and you have $3,000 coming in and guaranteed income, you have a $3,000 monthly gap to fill. This is where your investment portfolio savings comes into play. Your 401k, IRAs, and other investment accounts exist
to fill this gap between your guaranteed income and your living expenses in retirement. They also help you keep up with inflation over the long term. Here’s where a simple rule of thumb, most financial planners suggest you can safely withdraw anywhere from four to 6 % of your investment portfolio each year in retirement. So if you have that $3,000 monthly gap we talked about,
that’s $36,000 per year. In that case, you would need about $720,000 to $900,000 in investments to be able to produce that amount using the 4 % rule. Now, the 4 % rule isn’t perfect, and your actual safe withdrawal rate depends upon your age, risk tolerance, and how you’ve allocated your investments in retirement. But it gives us a starting point for planning.
Danny (07:12.019)
In our office, we use a dynamic distribution system called retirement income guardrails that goes far beyond the simplistic 4 % rule. Here’s how guardrails work differently. Instead of using a fixed percentage forever, guardrails monitor your portfolio and adjust your spending based upon real market conditions. Whether your investments perform well, the guardrails tell you it’s safe to spend more. When the market is struggling,
They guide you when you need to reduce spending temporarily to protect your overall long-term retirement plan. This system updates monthly, considering factors like current market conditions, inflation, your age, and what your expected future cash flows are. The beauty of guardrails is that they help you spend more of your money over your lifetime while still protecting you from running out of money in retirement.
Most people using the traditional 4 % rule end up leaving huge amounts to their heirs because they were too conservative in their retirement spending. Guardrails help you find that sweet spot between enjoying your money and preserving it for the long term. The key is understanding this relationship between your investment balance and your retirement income. Every $100,000 in your portfolio
can roughly provide between $4,000 to $6,000 in annual retirement income. But with guardrails, you might be able to safely withdraw more when conditions allow. Now you can see your complete picture. You know what your retirement will cost, what guaranteed income you’ll have, and how much you need in investments to bridge the gap in retirement. If the numbers work, you might be closer to retirement than you thought.
If there’s a shortfall, you now have a clear target for additional savings. Remember, this five minute roadmap isn’t a complete retirement plan, but it gives you a nice starting point. A full retirement plan would include things like tax strategies, healthcare planning, estate planning, and a detailed investment plan. But in just five minutes, you can now have clarity on what your retirement future looks like.
Danny (09:35.025)
If you’re close to your target, it might be time to work with a financial planner or use retirement planning software to finalize your retirement plan. If you’re not close, you now know exactly how much more you need to save each month to get you on track. So there you have it, your five minute retirement roadmap that gives you clarity on your retirement future in minutes instead of months. But here’s the thing.
Knowing the framework is just the first step. The real power comes from applying this roadmap to your exact situation with specific numbers and goals. However, most people get stuck trying to figure out their retirement details and end up never taking action. If you’d like help with this, click the button below to download your retire ready toolkit and we’ll walk you through your exact situation with fill inable templates
and a video guide walking you through how to use them. Don’t let another month go by wondering if you’re on track. Get your personalized roadmap below.
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