— Retirement income planning —
Income you can plan around.
Turning what you have saved into a paycheck that lasts, with a withdrawal sequence built for your situation.
Retirement income planning is the work of turning what you have saved into a paycheck that lasts, deciding which accounts to draw from, in what order, and at what pace.
What is retirement income planning?
For most of your working life, the job was accumulation. Contribute to the 401(k), stay invested, let time do the work. Retirement inverts that. The question is no longer how much you can put in, it is how much can come out, from where, and for how long.
Retirement income planning is the discipline that answers those questions together rather than one at a time. It looks at Social Security, pensions, IRAs, Roth accounts, taxable brokerage accounts, and any fixed insurance products you hold, and it sequences withdrawals from them in a way that supports the life you described in your Purpose Conversation.
It is not a single product and it is not a one time calculation. Tax law changes, markets move, health changes, and plans get revisited. What stays constant is the framework: know what the money is for, then decide how it should behave.
— What it includes —
The pieces of an income plan.
- An inventory of every account, pension, and benefit you hold, and what each one is taxed as
- A projected spending picture for your first years of retirement and for later years
- Social Security timing analysis, including spousal and survivor considerations
- A withdrawal sequence across taxable, tax-deferred, and tax-free accounts
- Required minimum distribution planning and the years leading up to them
- A review of how fixed insurance products, if you hold any, fit the income picture
- Coordination with your CPA on the tax consequences of the sequence
- A scheduled review so the plan can change when your situation does
— Our approach —
We start with the life, then build the income around it.
Every income plan at CFG Wealth Management begins with a Purpose Conversation. Before we look at balances, we work to understand what you want retirement to make possible. Travel in the first decade. Time with grandchildren. A second home, or staying in the one you have. Helping with education. Those answers change the shape of an income plan more than any market assumption does.
From there we build the plan in process terms. We map what you have. We model what you plan to spend. We look at which accounts should be drawn first and why, and we show you the tax consequence of each path so the choice is yours to make. We meet to review the plan on a schedule, and we revisit it when something in your life changes.
We describe what the process does, not what the market will do. No plan can promise an outcome, and we will not describe one that way.
— Why it matters —
The order you withdraw in is a decision, whether or not you make it.
Two retirees with identical balances can end up in very different places depending on which accounts they spend first, when they claim Social Security, and how they handle the years between retiring and the start of required minimum distributions.
Those years are often the ones with the most flexibility and the least attention. Income may be lower than it was while working and lower than it will be once distributions begin, which is exactly when withdrawal sequencing and Roth conversion questions deserve a look.
Leaving the sequence to chance is still a choice. Making it deliberately is the point of the plan. This is not tax or legal advice; we coordinate with your CPA or attorney on anything with a tax or legal consequence.
— At a glance —
Three account types, three different rules.
| Account type | Examples | How withdrawals are generally treated |
|---|---|---|
| Taxable | Brokerage, joint, individual | Capital gains on growth; basis is not taxed again |
| Tax-deferred | Traditional IRA, 401(k), 403(b), TSP | Ordinary income when withdrawn; subject to RMD rules |
| Tax-free | Roth IRA, Roth 401(k) | Qualified withdrawals are not taxed |
General information only. Rules change and individual situations differ. Consult your CPA or attorney regarding your circumstances.
— Common questions —
Retirement income questions we hear most.
How much income can I take from my retirement savings?
Which accounts should I withdraw from first in retirement?
What is a withdrawal sequence and why does it matter?
When do required minimum distributions start?
Do you work with retirees outside Prairie Village?
— Related services —
Income planning does not work alone.
Social Security planning
When you claim changes how much of your own savings you need to draw, and in which years.
Tax-efficient retirement planning
Roth conversions and required minimum distributions shape the withdrawal sequence directly.
Investment management
How the portfolio is built determines what you can safely draw from it and when.
— Start here —
Let's talk about what the money is for.
There is no cost and no obligation for a first conversation. Tell us what you are working toward and we will find a time to talk.
