How to Make a Retirement Plan
While retirement planning can be overwhelming, making a retirement plan doesn’t have to be stressful. Planning for your financial goals can be easier if you get some help and tackle it in steps. While it may feel better to wait until later, compounding growth means the earlier you start, the more time your money has to grow.
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Personalized Retirement Portfolios
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Retirement Plan Types
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Couples' Planning for Retirement
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Retirement Plans for Women
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Self-Employed Individual Retirement Plans
Personalized Retirement Portfolios
Your retirement portfolio should be built to suit your unique needs. Every person has different goals and needs for their money. You’ve worked hard to develop your nest egg. If you trust someone to manage your portfolios, they should do it like that money is their own.
Retirement Plan Types
There is a nearly endless array of retirement plans. Each has its own advantages that serve the needs of a retiree. But which is best for you? That depends. Fisher Investments can help you build a portfolio tailored to your needs and long-term goals.
Couples' Planning for Retirement
If you’re part of a long-term relationship, you’re part of a retirement team. Your individual or joint retirement plans should serve both of your needs and can help protect your assets over time. As a couple, you should consider the process of establishing safeguards, maximizing returns, and setting yourselves up for financial success in retirement together.
Retirement Plans for Women
Women can face special challenges when it comes to their careers and planning for retirement. With longer average life expectancies and other gender-specific factors, women may need to plan for their money to last longer. Fisher Investments can help.
Self-Employed Individual Retirement Plans
Being self-employed can present a number of challenges, including planning for retirement. Without an employer-matched 401(k), for example, you may have to rely on other accounts and funds when creating your retirement plan. A retirement professional can help cut through the complexity and help you determine your best path forward as a self-employed individual.
Six Simple Steps to Create a Retirement Plan
1. Establish Goals and a Time Horizon for Your Retirement Plan
Identifying your financial goals and your investment time horizon is the first step in creating a financial plan. Specific goals create purpose for your retirement plan and give you a sense of the types of assets you’ll need to use.
An investment time horizon puts those goals in context. Many investors underestimate their time horizon–that’s the length of time you need your assets to work for you or your family–by only focusing on their retirement date versus how long they need assets to last after retirement. This is a common pitfall. An investor's time horizon should cover at least their lifespan. Investors may also need to consider their spouse, children and other benefactors that may outlive them should they want to pass on their remaining assets.
2. Understand Your Expenses
Getting a handle on your lifetime expenses provides an idea of how much retirement will cost and what you will need to fund it. To identify that number, it’s a good idea to group expenses into non-discretionary spending (living expenses, debt payments, taxes, insurance and healthcare costs) and discretionary spending (travel, entertainment, gifts, etc.).
When accounting for non-discretionary spending, consider whether you plan on relocating in retirement. If so, explore living costs in the new area and calculate moving costs.
Healthcare costs take a more sizeable financial commitment the older you get. When it comes to health, it’s best practice to overestimate the cost of health care and think long-term.
Discretionary spending is more variable and flexible than expenses like housing or taxes. Are you able to reduce or even eliminate these discretionary expenses if times get tough? Are you willing to make do with less? Anything that can’t be cut should be considered non-discretionary.
Inflation can erode your purchasing power over time, so you should account for it in your retirement planning. Inflation historically averages around 3% a year for US consumers*. Retirees can also face substantially higher expenses that grow faster than inflation.
*Source: Finaeon, Inc. as of 1/13/2026. United States BLS Consumer Price Index from 12/31/1925 - 12/31/2025.
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3. Evaluate Your Income, Investments and Retirement Accounts
Cataloging your income sources shows you how much money you’ll start with to pay for retirement expenses. Begin by tallying your Social Security, pensions, residual business income and earned income—if you or a family member plan to work part time, for example. The gap between these income streams and your expenses is what your investments must fill.
Next, incorporate your investments such as 401(k), IRA or taxable investment accounts into your sources of income. Fisher Investments can review your investments and help you understand how much income you can reasonably expect from your portfolio.
Learn How We Can HelpFisher Investments may be also be able to recommend a tax professional that can help you understand the tax implications of different retirement accounts and determine the optimal asset allocation and withdrawal schedule to keep your money in your hands.
4. Manage Your Withdrawals
The risk your retirement savings run out rises with the size of the gap between your income and expenses. For example, you may think 10% annual withdrawals from an all-stock investing portfolio are sustainable because stocks have averaged roughly 10% annually over time.* Unfortunately, the law of averages says this approach can significantly reduce your holdings. Your returns in retirement will have both up and down years, and investing does come with some risk. Withdrawing heavily in those down or low-returning years can spell trouble later, even if stocks do return their long-run average through your retirement years.
*Source: Finaeon, Inc., as of 1/12/2026. S&P 500 total return, 12/31/1929 – 12/31/2025.
5. Review Regularly
Don’t fret about getting everything exactly right. Your initial plan doesn’t need to be completely accurate. The more information you have available, however, the more realistic your assessment can be when deciding your path forward. Your retirement plan isn’t set in stone, either. Circumstances change—that’s life. That’s why retirement plans also require periodic review and updates.
6. Remain Disciplined
The job isn’t over once you have a plan. Since you’ll hopefully live for many years to come, you still must implement and then stick to the plan, both in terms of budgeting and investment strategy. Adjusting as circumstances change becomes a continual process. It requires ongoing attention and discipline. But, in crafting a profile of your retirement income and expenses, you have taken a crucial first step towards a comfortable retirement.
Take the First Step Toward Your Dream Retirement
We understand that balancing income, expenses and investments can feel overwhelming. You have worked hard for your nest egg, and it deserves professional care. Fisher Investments can help ensure you have a retirement plan and investment strategy that is tailored to your needs and long-term goals.
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