It’s not just what you make, but what you keep. When you focus on lowering your lifetime tax bill by proactively planning when you take money out of your accounts and which accounts you take money from you should be able to keep more of your hard-earned money by lowering your lifetime tax bill.

Just because you stop working doesn’t mean you stop making money. You will make money from your Social Security. You might have a pension, or real estate or some kind of annuity. When you focus on maxing out what you have available through your one-time choices with Social Security and pensions you could end up avoiding those big $100k+ mistakes that studies show most retirees are making.

While most advisors are focused on investing and how much you have saved, we believe you need to focus on finding out how much you need, on a monthly basis, and when you might start needing that money. When you plan for getting the right amount of retirement income, instead of a big number on your statements, you’ll be better prepared for retirement.

When your retirement is over, will you leave behind some money or will you leave behind some bills for your family? Protect against the big risks facing your retirement through planning, and perhaps insurance. Create your family legacy with the proper estate planning documents.

Your decisions on how much you spend in retirement, when you retire, how you take your pension and how you plan out your taxes are more important than your investment decisions – which is why you need to focus on those decisions you can control first. You can’t control the stock market, but you can decide how much money to take out of the market, and how much risk you take in the market.