A plan for making work optional.
What would you like your next chapter to look like? We look at your savings, spending, and choices about work to help you see what’s possible—and what needs attention now.
How We Help
Five areas of planning. One retirement plan.
Discovery is how we learn about you—including the contribution you want to make through mentoring, philanthropy, or purposeful work. These five connected areas are prioritized as needed—not a mandatory sequence.
Investments
Oversee your allocation, risk, fees, rebalancing, and routine trades within the strategy we agree on. Review old accounts, overlapping funds, existing annuities, and whether action or staying put makes more sense.
Income and spending
Build an after-tax spending plan, coordinate income and account withdrawals, and prepare for required distributions, larger purchases, and changing needs.
Taxes
Provide tax planning by organizing information and modeling alternatives, including tax-efficient account and investment placement and withdrawal timing. Your independent tax professional determines transaction tax treatment and gives tax advice. We do not prepare tax returns or provide accounting services.
Insurance and care
Review existing coverage and work through how health changes or help at home could affect spending, income, and the rest of the plan.
Loved ones and legacy
Keep beneficiaries, transfers, family support, and estate wishes coordinated with your attorney. Your attorney drafts and interprets legal documents; Financial Thinking Partner does not provide legal services.
Ongoing work
You don't have to know every question to ask.
Your plan is a starting point. As life changes, someone needs to revisit the assumptions, notice gaps, and work through the details.
Keep your plan current
- Account, income, spending, and family changes
- Retirement income after tax
- Spending needs
- Withdrawal sources and taxes
- Required withdrawals
- Market-decline tests
- Rising costs and longevity
- Tax return review
- Tax preparer coordination
Look for what needs attention
- Investment mix
- Investment fees
- Overlapping funds
- Old accounts
- Existing annuities in context
- Investment results
- Whether to act or stay put
- Beneficiaries
- Attorney coordination
Work through what comes next
- Mortgage payoff tradeoffs
- Helping family
- Large purchases
- Health changes
- The death of a spouse
- Changing priorities
- Transfers and paperwork
- Account-to-bank payments
- Unfinished steps
Regular attention, even when no change is needed.
Practical questions
How the planning relationship works.
What does making work optional mean?
It means your resources could support the life you want without depending on your next paycheck. Some people stop working; others choose meaningful work, mentoring, nonprofit work or giving back. It is a choice to plan for, not a promised date.
Can I step back before a traditional retirement age?
Possibly. We model scenarios such as staying, scaling back or changing roles, including how income, savings, taxes, health coverage and investments may need to bridge the gap. The results show tradeoffs; they do not guarantee that stepping away is affordable.
How do we explore when work could become optional?
Guided deep discovery explores your goals, values, beliefs and tradeoffs. Working backward from the life you want, we compare retirement dates, spending, savings and investments, and stress-test market declines, inflation and longevity. Modeling explores possibilities, not a guaranteed date or outcome.
What does retirement planning include?
Retirement planning connects investments, income and spending, taxes, insurance and care, and loved ones and legacy. Discovery is how we learn about you; the five areas are prioritized based on what needs attention rather than completed in a fixed order.
How is planning different from managing investments?
Planning sets the priorities, spending needs, and tradeoffs. Investment management puts the agreed strategy into practice through allocation, risk oversight, rebalancing, and routine trades. You participate in major planning decisions while Doug manages implementation within the strategy you agree on.
Do you replace my tax preparer or estate attorney?
No. Doug provides tax planning by organizing information, modeling financial alternatives, and considering tax-efficient account and investment placement and withdrawal timing. Your independent tax professional determines transaction tax treatment and gives tax advice. Financial Thinking Partner does not prepare tax returns or provide accounting or legal services. For estate planning, Doug coordinates beneficiaries, account titles, and transfers with your wishes; your attorney drafts and interprets legal documents.
Where do you work with clients?
Financial Thinking Partner is based in Parker, Colorado, in the Denver metro area, and meets with clients virtually in states where the firm and its investment adviser representatives are registered or exempt from registration.
How does the plan change after retirement or a major life event?
The plan is revisited as income, spending, markets, health, family responsibilities, or priorities change. Retirement, the death of a spouse, and a need for care can affect several planning areas at once, so the next decisions are reviewed together.
Ready to see how the pieces fit together?
Schedule a complimentary 30-minute introductory call about your next chapter.
Or reach out to Doug directly by sending him an email at doug@financialthinkingpartner.com.