Stages of Preparation and Management Through Retirement: What One member has done/is doing. Milwaukee Bogleheads meet every 2 months to share tips and ideas on DIY investing, using Index funds and being careful to plan for tax implications and avoid high expenses. Meetings are open to the public -- find us on Facebook for details.

1. Streamline, Simplify, Document
• Laura Ricci
• Milwaukee Bogleheads
• November 1, 2016
Student Level Expertise Ages: 40’s to retirement
My steps to get ready for retirement:

2. Stages of Retirement
1. Early, Pre-retirement, ages 50 – 65
1. Figuring out when you can retire
2. Organizing the portfolio to begin draw downs
2. Starting retirement, ages 60 – 70
1. Social Security strategy
2. Are ROTH conversions needed?
3. Begin estate planning
3. Mid term retirement, ages 65 – 85+
1. How will you annuitize your portfolio?
2. Simplify financial management in all aspects
4. Late retirement, ages 75 – 100+
1. Just spending, not managing money

3. What I can offer
• I’m closing our first stage of Retirement, and in the midst
of the second stage, but being an over-achiever, I’m
starting to think about the third stage.
• Our actions fit somewhat with the stages, but the order
we tackle tasks vary.
• Take what you can use, and don’t assume any of this is
the absolute best way to do anything. “We don’t know
nuthin” as John Bogle would say.

4. Financial
• Convert to Boglehead Portfolio
o almost finished after 5 years of liquidating and consolidating
• Simplify to 2 investment firms
o 10% invested with another firm in case cyber attack makes one account
unavailable while an intrusion is repaired.
• Consolidate to one bank
o I had three banks when we started (two businesses and personal)
• Consolidate Credit Cards
o We had 6, so I picked the two best and put the others away. (Travel Hacking
ruined this though, so now I have 20 credit cards)
• Write Down and update my Investment Policy Statement
o Leaving bread crumbs so others know why I’ve done what I’ve done

5. Financial Cont.
• Finish ROTH conversions
o We will maximize tax planning per I-ORP and Fidelity RIP. This began almost 5
years ago and I plan to finish within 3 years from now.
• Social Security Strategy is set.
o One person takes at age 62, the other takes at 70
• Estate Planning is pretty well set.
o No trust needed. We’ll use the beneficiaries for each account to direct funds.
Charitable Fund has been opened to receive some estate upon death.
• Streamlining bills
o Hoping to travel enough that we manage all accounts online. Fewer accounts is
the goal.
• Starting to think about streamlining after age 70
o I like Bob’s idea of all-in-one accounts. I don’t plan on annuities for us because
they are too expensive.

6. Legal
• Update wills
• We aren’t using Trusts, so not much else to do here.
• Scan legal documents and put in the cloud
o Wills and letter of instructions
o Passports ✔
o Driver’s Licenses ✔
o Birth Certificates ✔
o Marriage License

7. Housing
• We downsized our home
o 3400 Sq.Ft. to 2100 sq. ft.
o and then 2100 to 1560 sq. ft.
• Jettison flotsam and jetsam every step along the way:
o Clean out duplicates by using up, donating or discarding – I found 5 bottles of
aspirin in various spots. We’d never use these up, so I gave most of it away and
am down to 1 bottle of aspirin.
o Quit buying massive quantities – Took awhile for us to admit we aren’t going to
be feeding a houseful of teenagers again!
o Use it or lose it:
• Clothing – not used w/in a year, donate to charity before the moths or styles
make it worthless.
• Kitchen – slowly moving out items I don’t use so someone else can use
them.
o Simplify: Sold my worm farm this week, gave away my pressure cooker.

8. Transportation
• Downsized from two+ to one car.
o I garaged my car over the winter and tried out other transportation:
• Zip Car – hourly rental cars
• Uber and Lyft – P2P taxi service
• Bus – some places the bus is the fastest and easiest way to get there.
o In Spring, I sold my car.
o Cost of owning a second car was $6500/year. Cost of using alternatives is
$3500/year. Nice!

9. Books
• We had 3 floor to ceiling bookcases.
o If the book is available as an ebook, and I still want it, I sell the book and buy the
ebook version.
o I keep out of print and books with inscriptions from author friends.
o Sell the rest on Amazon
• We are down to 2 bookcases
• The Goal is to get down to 1 bookcase, reduce clutter,
save money.

10. Newspapers and
Subscriptions
• Two years ago: 6+ magazines and 3 newspapers
• Now: 1 magazine, 2 newspapers, and 7 electronic
subscriptions.
• Next year: 1 newspaper, and all magazines and other
newspapers on electronic subscriptions.
• Goal is to reduce paper waste and clutter, save money.
As the resolution on computer screens improves, no
need for paper subscriptions.

11. What are you doing?
• What are you doing that I haven’t thought of yet?

12. Resources
• Bogleheads forum: Lots of discussion and instruction for
financial streamlining and retirement planning.
o http://www.bogleheads.org
• Can I Retire Yet?
o http://www.CanIRetireYet.com

13. Milwaukee Bogleheads®
• A DIY investment group, followers of John Bogle's Index
investing strategies, the Milwaukee local chapter of
Bogleheads.
• This presentation was made November 1, 2016 by Laura
Ricci of our chapter.
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14. Disclaimer
• All examples are for illustration purposes only and are
not investment recommendations.
• The views expressed in the presentation, are those of
the presenter, commenters, guests and participants and
may not reflect the views of the Bogleheads
organization.
• Use your discretion in using examples presented here
for your own investment purposes.
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