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One of the questions we hear most often is some version of: "I've saved a good amount of money — so why don't I feel confident about retiring?"
That gap between having savings and having a plan is exactly what our process is built to close. Here's a look at how that plays out for a typical couple who comes to us with a solid nest egg but no real income strategy behind it.
The Situation
Consider a married couple, both 63, planning to retire in the next two years. Like many of our clients, most of their savings came from decades with a stable local employer, supplemented by some outside investing along the way.
The Challenge
On paper, $800,000 sounds like a comfortable cushion. But when we sat down and ran the numbers, a few gaps became clear — the same ones we see with almost every couple in this situation.
- They knew they'd need roughly $55,000 a year to live comfortably, but had no clear picture of which accounts that money would actually come from
- Nearly all of their savings sat in market-based accounts, with no guaranteed income floor to fall back on
- They hadn't decided when to claim Social Security, or how that choice would interact with the rest of their income
- A market downturn in their first few retirement years could force them to sell investments at a loss just to generate income — sequence of returns risk in action
- Their entire $520,000 rollover IRA was pre-tax, meaning every future withdrawal would be taxed as ordinary income — with required minimum distributions eventually forcing the issue at 73
- They had never run the numbers on how a large withdrawal or Roth conversion might affect their future Medicare premiums
The Process
We walked this couple through our standard five-step roadmap — starting with a no-pressure conversation about their goals, followed by an analysis of their full financial picture across all six planning pillars. From there, we built a written roadmap addressing income, taxes, healthcare, and legacy together, rather than one piece at a time.
The Strategy
Rather than leaving their entire $800,000 exposed to market performance, we carved out a portion specifically to create guaranteed income they could count on for life — the same role a pension used to play for previous generations.
We allocated $250,000 from their traditional IRA into a joint-life income annuity, designed to generate guaranteed income for as long as either spouse is living — regardless of what the market does.
The Remaining $550,000 Stays Invested
The rest of their portfolio — the remaining IRA balance, their taxable brokerage account, and their Roth IRA — stayed invested in a diversified portfolio aligned with their risk tolerance. With a guaranteed income floor now in place from Social Security and the annuity, this money has room to grow for later retirement years, inflation protection, and legacy goals, without needing to be tapped on a fixed schedule.
Alongside the income annuity, three additional strategies rounded out the plan:
A Two-Year Roth Conversion Window
Between ages 63 and 65 — before Social Security and Medicare enrollment — their income was lower than it would be later. We used those years to convert a portion of the traditional IRA into their Roth IRA at a lower tax rate, reducing future RMDs and giving them a tax-free source of income for later.
Delaying Social Security to 67
Rather than claiming at 65, we modeled delaying Social Security to their Full Retirement Age, increasing their guaranteed monthly benefit and further reducing how much they'd ever need to draw from their invested accounts to cover essential expenses.
Coordinating Withdrawals to Manage IRMAA
Because the Roth conversion amounts and withdrawal timing directly affect Medicare premiums, we mapped their income against the IRMAA thresholds each year to avoid an avoidable premium surcharge once Medicare began at 65.
The Illustrative Outcome
With the plan in place, here's what changed for this couple:
The dollar figures were part of the story, but what this couple described afterward was something less quantifiable: they stopped checking the market every day. Once their essential expenses were covered by guaranteed income from Social Security and the annuity, market swings simply stopped being an emergency.
The Takeaways
- Having $800,000 saved isn't the same as having a retirement income plan — the difference is structure
- An income annuity can convert a portion of savings into a guaranteed paycheck for life — filling the same role a pension once did
- Small timing decisions — when to convert to Roth, when to claim Social Security, how to sequence withdrawals — can meaningfully change a retirement's total tax bill and income stability
- Coordinating all six planning pillars together catches problems that get missed when income, taxes, and healthcare are planned separately
Every household's numbers, goals, and risk tolerance are different — this scenario is meant to illustrate the kind of thinking that goes into a plan, not to predict what any specific outcome will look like for you.
What Would Your $800k (or $400k, or $2M) Look Like as a Plan?
Let's walk through your specific accounts, goals, and timeline — no sales pitch, just a conversation.
Schedule Your Complimentary Review →This case study is hypothetical and for illustrative and educational purposes only. It does not depict an actual client, and any resemblance to a real individual's circumstances is coincidental. Outcomes described are not guaranteed and do not represent the experience of any specific client. Individual results will vary based on personal circumstances, account types, tax situation, and market performance.
Investment advisory services are offered through Fusion Capital Management, an SEC registered investment advisor. The firm only transacts business in states where it is properly registered or is excluded or exempted from registration requirements. SEC registration is not an endorsement of the firm by the commission and does not mean that the advisor has attained a specific level of skill or ability. All investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss.
