Create a Retirement Paycheck You Can't Outlive
Find your income gap and build guaranteed income for essential expenses so your portfolio stays invested for growth.
No contact information required. Takes less than five minutes.
Hope Is Not a Retirement Plan
You've spent decades saving. But a retirement account is not the same as a retirement paycheck.
Housing
Groceries
Healthcare
Insurance
Utilities
Transportation
These bills still show up in full when the market dips, and hoping you can cut back elsewhere is not a plan.
The Retirement Question Nobody Is Asking You
How much of your monthly retirement income is guaranteed for life?
An investment plan and a retirement income plan are not the same thing.
Investments help grow your savings. A retirement income plan determines how those savings will support you month after month.
For most of your working life, your paycheck arrived on schedule. Retirement should not mean trading that paycheck for a series of uncertain withdrawals.
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Your advisor may not focus on retirement income
Your advisor can continue managing your investments while I focus on creating a more dependable retirement paycheck.
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Social Security may not cover the full bill
Social Security provides an important foundation, but the rest of your monthly expenses must come from other income or savings.
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The market should not decide when you retire
A downturn near retirement could force you to delay, spend less, or withdraw money while account values are down.
The first step is knowing your income gap.
I Lost 25% of My Retirement Savings. Twice.
That is why a portfolio alone is not an income plan.
During my 30 years in financial services, two market crashes each cost me a quarter of my savings. I wasn't alone. Most people with money in the market lost right along with me, and none of us did anything wrong. The market did what markets do. I couldn't control the market, but I could control how much my future income depended on it. That is when I stopped asking how much I could make and started asking how much income I could guarantee.
You do not have to learn that lesson the hard way. You can find out exactly where you stand. You can cover your essentials with income that doesn't depend on the market. You can stop wondering and take back control.
It's the plan you can start building today.
The Gap Is Real. It Is Also Fixable.
Most people feel a flicker of worry the moment they see their number. That reaction is normal, and it is not the point.
A gap is not proof that you saved wrong or waited too long. It is simply the distance between what your life will cost each month and what is guaranteed to show up no matter what the market does.
Distances can be closed. Here is how.
Closing the Gap
Here is what that gap looks like for most people, and how a Pension Strategy closes it.
Illustrative example only. Your numbers will vary.
That gap right there is what we are solving for.
Here is where most people stop. They assume it has to come from their portfolio. It doesn't have to.
A portion of your retirement savings can be converted into a Pension Strategy, a guaranteed monthly income stream that covers your essential expenses for life, regardless of how long you live or what the market does. Not all of your savings. Just enough to close the gap.
With a Pension Strategy, You Are in Control
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You lock in the amount
Cannot be reduced by Congress
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You decide when income starts
Cannot be delayed by a change in retirement age
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Not subject to political decisions you have no control over
Social Security is your baseline income. Your Pension Strategy builds on top of it. Together they create an income foundation that no market downturn, no political decision, and no change in retirement rules can take away.
What that does to the rest of your portfolio is remarkable. It no longer has to carry the full burden of your lifestyle. It can stay invested. It can recover from downturns. It can grow and be used for the things that make retirement genuinely enjoyable.
Travel. Family. Home. The causes you care about.
Three Steps to Your Own Pension
Simple, transparent, and always at your pace.
1. Calculate Your Gap
Know exactly how much monthly income you're missing.
2. Explore Your Options
Discover different ways to close your income gap.
3. Create Your Own Pension
Build a dependable retirement paycheck that fits your life.
Take Control, Retire With Confidence
When guaranteed income covers your essential expenses, everything changes.
- Spend without second-guessing.
- Stop worrying about market swings.
- Trust your paycheck to last a lifetime.
The Only Risk Left Is Waiting
You've seen how the gap gets closed. From here, the only variable left is time.
Putting it off usually leads to one of two outcomes:
- Working longer than you planned
- Spending less than you hoped, right when you finally have time to enjoy it
Same $40,000 Income Gap. Two Different Retirement Jobs
Both begin at age 55 with $500,000 saved. Neither way is wrong, they just organize their money differently.
Her portfolio has two jobs.
- Age 55: $500,000 stays fully invested
- Age 65: Grown to $1,000,000
- Same year: $40,000 a year must come from the portfolio
- The portfolio's job: create the paycheck AND keep growing
Every paycheck depends on what the market is doing.
Her portfolio only has one job: growth.
- Age 55: $266,586 goes to her Pension Strategy. $233,414 remains for growth and flexibility.
- Age 65: Remaining portfolio grown to $466,828
- Same year: $40,000 a year, guaranteed by the Pension Strategy
Her retirement paycheck is separated from market withdrawals.
Hope's dollars do two jobs at once. Helen's do the same two jobs, just divided ahead of time. Neither is wrong, and depending on the market, either sister might end up with more money. But more money was never the goal. Dependable income was, income the market can't touch. Guarantee the bills. Enjoy the rest.
Schedule Your Retirement Income Consultation
No obligation, no sales pitch. Just a straightforward conversation about your retirement income picture.
The call works best when you come with a general sense of your monthly essential expenses and your guaranteed income sources like Social Security or any pension. If you have already used the Income Gap Calculator you are already prepared.
Prefer to reach out directly? Email admin@createyourownpension.org