New Year Retirement Check In: Are You Still on Track for Your Long-Term Goals?

The beginning of a new year is an ideal time to pause and evaluate your progress toward retirement. While retirement planning is often viewed as a long-term endeavor, small annual adjustments can make a meaningful difference over time. A New Year retirement check-in helps ensure your strategy still aligns with your goals, lifestyle expectations, and current financial reality.

Review Your Accounts

Start by reviewing your retirement accounts. Look at your 401(k), IRA, or other employer-sponsored plans to confirm balances, investment allocations, and recent performance. Market conditions change, and so do personal circumstances. An allocation that made sense five years ago may no longer be appropriate today. Rebalancing your portfolio can help manage risk and keep your investments aligned with your time horizon.

Consider Your Contributions

Next, revisit your contribution levels. Many people set their retirement contributions once and forget to update them. A new year often brings raises, bonuses, or changes in household income. Increasing your contribution even slightly can significantly impact your long-term savings. If your employer offers matching contributions, make sure you are contributing enough to take full advantage of that benefit.

Revisit Your Retirement Timeline

Timelines are another critical factor. Has your expected retirement age changed? Some individuals choose to retire earlier, while others decide to work longer for financial or personal reasons. Life events such as health changes, family responsibilities, or shifts in career plans can all affect your retirement timeline. Reviewing your projected retirement date allows you to adjust savings targets and income expectations accordingly.

Estimate Your Retirement Budget

It is also wise to consider income planning for retirement. Saving is only part of the equation. Understanding how and when you will draw income from Social Security, pensions, and retirement accounts can help reduce taxes and support a more stable retirement income stream. Reviewing these strategies now can prevent surprises later.

Schedule a Review with Us

Finally, remember that retirement planning is not a one-size-fits-all process. What works for one person may not work for another. A New Year check-in is an opportunity to ask questions, clarify goals, and make informed decisions that support your long-term financial security.

If you have not reviewed your retirement plan recently, now is the perfect time to do so. Call us to schedule an appointment. A thoughtful review can provide clarity, confidence, and peace of mind as you move forward into the new year.

By Mark Roberts|2026-01-20T18:25:35-06:00January 13th, 2026|Retirement|0 Comments

About the Author: Mark Roberts

In addition to managing clients’ money and giving investment and diversification advice, Mark offers something that “the other guys” don’t - a unique approach to Retirement Tax Strategies and distribution. Time and time again, Mark meets with new clients who tell him they have a great relationship with their financial advisor but have never been offered information on this kind of approach to securing their financial futures. Mark has taken this feedback to heart and works tirelessly to ensure that his strategies focus on taxes and distribution. Mark started selling insurance for a major insurance company right out of high school to help put himself through college. After graduating with a degree in finance, he dove into estate planning on the financial side to set himself apart from other financial advisors. However, as changes were made to estate tax laws over time, Mark shifted his focus to income tax strategies. Mark’s philosophy is “the blue prints are more important than the wall paper or carpet.” The wall paper and carpet represent products like investments and insurance policies, whereas the blue prints represent the strategies. Once strategies that truly fit the client’s needs are put in place, our focus can shift to providing you with the right products. According to Mark, “It doesn’t matter what carpet we use if the walls are not in the right place.” Our approach to money management is designed to generate the largest alpha (quality) with the lowest standard deviation and beta (risk). By doing this, we help provide clients with the highest return on the lowest risk. Generating income for our retirees is also very important. Because withdrawing money from your portfolio hurts the account rather than helping it, our goal is to design income strategies to harm the portfolio the least making the money last longer.

New Year Retirement Check In: Are You Still on Track for Your Long-Term Goals?