Not a score. A diagnosis. Nine questions. Your specific situation.
Most retirement assessments tell you how ready you feel. This one identifies what's actually missing — based on the gaps that cost people the most and show up most often.
Takes about 4 minutes. No email required to start.
Retirement Readiness Assessment
Nine questions. Your personalized diagnosis.
Question 1 of 9
Question 01
Let's start here. Are you working toward retirement — or have you already made the leap?
Question 02
Are you married or partnered — or are you planning for retirement on your own?
Question 02
Are you married or partnered — or are you managing retirement on your own?
Question 03
How many years until you plan to retire?
Question 03
How long have you been retired?
Question 04
What's your current investable portfolio — not including your primary home?
Question 04
What's your current investable portfolio?
Question 05
Social Security question
Question 05
Do you have a written plan for which accounts you draw from — and in what order — specifically to minimize your lifetime tax bill?
The order you draw from pre-tax, Roth, and taxable accounts is one of the highest-impact decisions in retirement. Most people make it by default, not by design.
Question 06
In the early years of retirement — before Social Security begins and before RMDs kick in — many people enter a low-income window that's ideal for Roth conversions. Have you planned for how to use this period?
This is often the lowest tax bracket of your entire financial life. The window typically lasts from retirement until your early-to-mid 70s, and it closes once RMDs begin forcing taxable income — at 73 if you were born before 1960, or 75 if you were born in 1960 or later.
Question 06
Do you have a dedicated reserve of stable assets — separate from your growth investments — specifically sized to cover your income needs if markets declined sharply for several years?
This isn't a general cash position. It's a specific dollar amount — calculated from your annual portfolio income need — that lets you leave growth investments alone during a downturn rather than selling at lows.
Question 07
Have you built a clear picture of what you'll actually spend in retirement — broken down by category, including taxes, healthcare, and the one-off annual expenses that make retirement worth having?
Most people underestimate retirement spending by 20–30% — not because they overspend, but because they forget taxes, irregular expenses, and how costs change at different life stages.
Question 07
Required Minimum Distributions from pre-tax accounts begin at 73 if you were born before 1960, or 75 if you were born in 1960 or later — and they increase every year after that. Where are you with this?
Question 08
Do you currently work with a financial advisor — and if so, how would you describe the scope of their work?
Investment management and comprehensive financial planning are different services. Most people with an investment manager don't fully realize what the planning side would add.
Question 09
Do you know how long your portfolio will last based on your expected spending — modeled against realistic market scenarios, not just an average return?
Average return projections can make a plan look fine that would fail under realistic market sequences. The order in which returns arrive matters as much as the returns themselves.
Question 08
Do you currently work with a financial advisor — and if so, are they doing proactive planning beyond just managing your portfolio?
In retirement, the planning side — tax optimization, withdrawal sequencing, RMD management, income strategy — often matters more than the investment side. These are different services.
Question 09
Is your actual spending in retirement tracking with what you planned — and do you have a clear sense of your cash flow month-to-month?
Question 10
Beyond the finances — do you know what you're retiring to? Not just what you're retiring from, but what your days will look like and what will give you purpose and structure.
Question 10
Do you know your current probability of plan success — the likelihood your money lasts through retirement given your actual spending and realistic market assumptions?
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