Retirement Income Planning

Retirement income planning turns your accounts into a 15-year paycheck schedule, so you know exactly what you can spend instead of guessing from a percentage.

The Answer Isn't a Percentage. It's a Schedule.

If you've searched for how much you can safely spend in retirement, you've probably run into the 4% rule or a probability-of-success score. Each of those gives you a rough range or an odds calculation, not an actual answer. Neither tells you what your accounts will pay you next March, or in year eight, or the month before a required distribution kicks in.


We use a bucket strategy as part of our approach, dividing your accounts by when you'll need to draw on them. But we take it a step further than most bucket approaches do. Your buckets get translated into a 15-year, month-by-month map showing which account funds each payment and when. It's built in e-money using your actual accounts, not a generic model, and it's the deliverable at the center of everything we do for clients across Wausau and Marathon County.

Would you like to add another page?

What Order Should You Withdraw From Your Accounts?

The account you draw from first changes your tax bill, sometimes significantly. Pulling from a traditional IRA before a Roth, or the reverse, has different consequences depending on your bracket, your Social Security timing, and Wisconsin's treatment of retirement income. We're licensed to address investment and tax questions in the same conversation, so your withdrawal order gets planned against its tax consequence upfront rather than sorted out after the fact.


Wisconsin's retirement income tax rules add another layer worth planning around directly.

Required Minimum Distributions and Your Income Map

Required minimum distributions arrive on a federal schedule, whether or not you need the income that year. If an RMD isn't planned into your broader withdrawal strategy, it can push you into a higher bracket or disrupt a sequence you'd otherwise control. Your income map accounts for RMD timing years in advance, so the distribution fits into the plan instead of interrupting it.

Retiring Into a Down Market Shouldn't Reset Your Life

Sequence-of-returns risk is the danger of a market downturn hitting early in retirement, right when you start drawing income. A bad first few years can do more damage to a portfolio than the same downturn later on, because you're selling shares at a loss to fund withdrawals. We manage allocation against economic cycle conditions rather than holding a fixed model through every environment, and your income map is built to bend around a downturn instead of breaking under one.

Coordinating Social Security With Everything Else

When you claim Social Security changes how much of your other accounts you need to draw down, and when. We coordinate your claiming decision with your full income map rather than treating it as a separate choice.

Built for Pension-Plus-401(k) Households

A lot of our clients spent their careers at employers like Aspirus or Greenheck, and retire with a pension and a 401(k) working together, not a portfolio alone. That combination changes the math on withdrawal order, tax bracket management, and how much flexibility you actually have. If you're rolling a 401(k) or considering an IRA rollover as part of that picture, we walk through the timing and the tax impact before you move anything.

Black speech bubble with a white question mark icon

Retirement Income Planning FAQ

  • How much can I safely spend in retirement?

    It depends on your accounts, your Social Security timing, and how your withdrawals are sequenced, which is exactly why a flat percentage rule falls short. Our income map answers this with a month-by-month figure built from your actual accounts rather than a general rule of thumb.

  • How do I turn my 401(k) into a monthly paycheck?

    We build a withdrawal schedule from your 401(k) and other accounts, coordinated with Social Security and RMD timing, so it functions like a paycheck rather than a lump sum you're managing on your own.

  • Will I outlive my money if I retire at 62?

    That depends heavily on your account balances, spending needs, and how your withdrawals are sequenced over time. Our 15-year income map is built specifically to answer that question for your accounts rather than a national average.

  • What order should I withdraw from my retirement accounts?

    The right order depends on your account types, your tax bracket, and your Social Security timing. We plan withdrawal order against its tax consequence as part of your income map, rather than deciding account by account as needs arise.

See Your Income, Mapped Month by Month

Stop working from a percentage. Schedule a consultation and we'll start building your 15-year income map together.