Treasure Coast Retirement Guide

Financial Wellness Check: Are You Really on Track?

A comprehensive self-assessment guide for retirees and pre-retirees on the Treasure Coast — covering income, expenses, taxes, healthcare, estate planning, and the questions most people forget to ask.

Introduction: What Does “On Track” Actually Mean?

Every few months, a well-meaning article tells you that you need $1.2 million — or $2 million, or some other precise figure — to retire comfortably. Those headlines are almost always misleading. “On track” is not a universal number. It is a relationship between what you have, what you spend, how long you might live, and how your money is structured.

For retirees and pre-retirees living on Florida’s Treasure Coast — the stretch from Martin County through St. Lucie and Indian River counties — that relationship looks a little different than it does for someone in Ohio or New York. Florida has no state income tax, which changes the math on withdrawals. The cost of homeowners insurance and flood coverage has shifted dramatically in recent years. And healthcare costs in retirement, a topic many people underestimate, deserve serious attention regardless of where you live.

This guide walks you through seven core areas of financial wellness. Think of it as a structured self-assessment — not a pass/fail test, but a framework that helps you identify where you feel confident, where you have blind spots, and where a deeper conversation with a qualified professional might be worthwhile.

Work through each section honestly. The goal is clarity, not anxiety.

1. Income: Do You Know Exactly What Comes In Each Month?

The foundation of any retirement plan is a clear, honest accounting of income. This sounds straightforward, but many retirees carry a fuzzy picture of their monthly cash flow. “Around $4,000 a month” is not the same as knowing your precise sources, amounts, and timing.

Common income sources to account for:

• Social Security: Know your exact benefit amount and, critically, whether you are currently receiving the optimal benefit given your age and your spouse’s situation. Social Security timing decisions — particularly around spousal and survivor benefits — are among the highest-stakes choices in retirement planning.
• Pension income: If you have a defined benefit pension, know whether it has a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). A fixed pension that does not grow with inflation loses purchasing power every year.
• Portfolio withdrawals: Are you drawing from a 401(k), IRA, Roth IRA, or taxable brokerage account? The source matters because it affects your tax bill and your account longevity.
• Annuity payments, rental income, part-time work: Document every source and determine which ones are guaranteed, which are variable, and which might eventually stop.

The wellness check question: Can you write down, from memory, every income source you have and the monthly amount from each? If you cannot, that is the first thing to fix.

2. Expenses: The Budget Most Retirees Have Not Actually Built

Knowing your income is only half the picture. The other half — and often the more revealing half — is understanding where your money actually goes. Many retirees are surprised to discover that their spending is significantly higher or lower than they thought once they do a real accounting.

A useful framework divides expenses into three categories:

• Essential, non-negotiable expenses: Housing (mortgage or rent, property taxes, insurance), utilities, groceries, transportation, and healthcare premiums. These are the expenses that must be covered regardless of market conditions.
• Lifestyle expenses: Dining out, travel, hobbies, gifts to family, entertainment. These are meaningful and important — they represent the reason you saved — but they are adjustable if needed.
• Irregular and lumpy expenses: Car replacement, home repairs, major medical events, helping an adult child, a significant trip. These are the costs that derail budgets because people forget to plan for them.

A Treasure Coast-specific caution: Property insurance in South Florida has seen significant premium increases in recent years. If you purchased your home several years ago and your budget was built on your original premium, check your current policy cost. It may have changed substantially. The same applies to flood insurance, which is not included in a standard homeowners policy.

The wellness check question: Does your total monthly spending — essential plus lifestyle plus a prorated share of irregular expenses — leave a comfortable margin above your monthly income? Or are you drawing down savings each month without a clear plan for how long that is sustainable?

3. Portfolio Sustainability: Will Your Money Last as Long as You Do?

This is the question at the heart of most retirement anxiety. Portfolio sustainability is not just about having a large enough balance — it is about how the money is structured, how it is drawn down, and whether the strategy accounts for real-world variables like inflation, market downturns in early retirement, and longer-than-expected lifespans.

Key concepts to understand:

• Withdrawal rate: The percentage of your portfolio you withdraw each year. A commonly cited starting point is 4%, but this is a guideline, not a guarantee. Your sustainable withdrawal rate depends on your asset allocation, your other income sources, your flexibility, and your time horizon.
• Sequence of returns risk: A significant market decline early in retirement — while you are withdrawing funds — can be more damaging than the same decline later. This is why the years just before and just after retirement deserve particular attention to portfolio structure.
• Asset allocation in retirement: The appropriate mix of stocks, bonds, and other assets in retirement is not the same as during your accumulation years. Too conservative and you risk running out of purchasing power. Too aggressive and you risk not recovering from a sharp decline at the wrong time.
• Longevity: A 65-year-old couple today has a meaningful probability that at least one spouse will live into their late 80s or early 90s. A retirement plan that works well through age 80 but struggles at 87 is incomplete.

The wellness check question: Have you stress-tested your withdrawal plan against a scenario where markets are flat or negative for the first five years of retirement? Do you have a plan for adjusting spending or income if that happens?

4. Tax Efficiency: Are You Keeping More of What You Have?

Taxes in retirement are not fixed — they are, to a surprising degree, manageable. The decisions you make about when and from which accounts you withdraw money can have a meaningful impact on your lifetime tax burden and on the amount you ultimately pass to heirs or charity.

Key tax considerations for Florida retirees:

• Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs): Once you reach age 73 (under current law), the IRS requires you to begin withdrawing a minimum amount from traditional IRAs and most employer retirement plans each year. These withdrawals are taxable as ordinary income. If you have large tax-deferred accounts and have not planned for RMDs, they can push you into a higher tax bracket, increase the taxable portion of your Social Security, and trigger Medicare surcharges (IRMAA).
• Roth conversions: The years between retirement and age 73 — when income is often lower — can be an opportunity to convert portions of traditional IRAs to Roth accounts, paying tax now at a lower rate to reduce future RMDs and create tax-free income later.
• Capital gains management: Retirees in certain income ranges may qualify for a 0% federal capital gains rate on long-term investment gains. Knowing where you fall is valuable.
• Medicare IRMAA: Your Medicare Part B and Part D premiums are based on your income from two years prior. A large one-time income event — a Roth conversion, a home sale, an inheritance — can trigger surcharges you did not expect.

The wellness check question: Do you have a written tax strategy for the next five years that accounts for RMDs, Social Security taxation, and Medicare costs? Or are you simply reacting to tax situations each April?

5. Healthcare and Long-Term Care: The Wildcard Most Plans Underestimate

Healthcare is consistently cited as one of the largest and least predictable expenses in retirement. It is also the category where people most often discover their plan had a gap.

Healthcare before Medicare (ages 60–64): If you retire before age 65, you need a bridge to Medicare. Options include COBRA from a former employer, a marketplace plan under the Affordable Care Act, or coverage through a spouse’s employer. Marketplace plans can be more affordable than people expect if your taxable income in retirement is modest — but the interaction between income, subsidies, and Roth conversions requires careful planning.

Medicare: Medicare covers a great deal, but it does not cover everything. Vision, dental, hearing, and most long-term care costs are not included in traditional Medicare. Many retirees supplement with a Medigap policy or Medicare Advantage plan. Understanding the tradeoffs between these options — premium costs, network restrictions, out-of-pocket maximums — is an important part of healthcare planning.

Long-term care: This is the category that most directly threatens retirement financial security. The cost of assisted living in Florida or in-home care for an extended period can deplete even substantial savings. Long-term care insurance, hybrid life/LTC policies, self-funding strategies, or Medicaid planning are all tools — each with tradeoffs. The important thing is to have made a deliberate choice rather than hoping the issue never arises.

The wellness check question: Does your financial plan include a line item or strategy for a multi-year long-term care event for yourself or your spouse? If not, what would happen to your plan if one were needed?

6. Estate Planning: Protecting Your Family and Your Legacy

Estate planning is not exclusively a wealthy person’s concern, and it is not something you do once and forget. It is an ongoing process that protects your family, ensures your wishes are honored, and can significantly reduce confusion, expense, and conflict after you are gone.

Essential documents every retiree should have:

• Will: Directs how your probate assets are distributed. Without one, Florida’s intestacy laws decide — which may not align with your intentions.
• Durable Power of Attorney: Authorizes someone you trust to manage financial matters if you become incapacitated.
• Healthcare Surrogate Designation and Living Will: Specifies who makes medical decisions on your behalf and what your wishes are regarding end-of-life care.
• Beneficiary designations: These override your will. IRAs, 401(k)s, life insurance policies, and annuities pass directly to named beneficiaries. Review them after any major life event — divorce, death of a beneficiary, birth of a grandchild.
• Revocable living trust: Not necessary for everyone, but for those with property in multiple states or a desire to avoid probate, a trust can be a valuable tool. Florida’s probate process can be time-consuming and the costs are worth understanding.

The wellness check question: When did you last review your estate planning documents and beneficiary designations? If the answer is more than three to five years ago, or if there have been significant family or financial changes, a review is likely overdue.

7. The Advisor Relationship: Are You Getting the Right Guidance?

Many retirees work with a financial professional of some kind — but not all financial professionals are the same, and the relationship you have with your advisor matters as much as the specific strategies you employ.

Questions worth asking about your current advisory relationship:

• Is your advisor a fiduciary — legally required to act in your best interest — or do they operate under a suitability standard, which is a lower bar?
• Do you clearly understand how your advisor is compensated? Fee-only advisors charge you directly. Commission-based advisors earn money when they sell products. Fee-based advisors do both. None of these models is inherently superior, but you should know which applies to your situation.
• Does your advisor address taxes, estate planning, and healthcare as part of your overall plan, or do they focus primarily on investment management?
• Do you feel comfortable asking questions and receiving clear explanations? You should never feel that your advisor is too busy or that your questions are unwelcome.

The wellness check question: If your primary financial concern changed tomorrow — from investment growth to