Making Early Retirement a Reality

The Background:

At 49 years of age, John Johnson was a successful businessman looking to retire in his mid-50’s. He had $2 million dollars in investable assets with a well-known firm and found that, despite his effort to be fully invested, he had continued to underperform the market. He struggled because he felt that his advisor had not taken the market risk necessary to grow his assets allowing him to meet his early retirement goals. John believed his advisor was not comfortable in investing this way and lacked the expertise to help him retire early in the most tax advantageous way. 

Mr. Johnson seemed to be spending all his time worrying about not being able to retire early by missing out on market gains. A friend referred him to Brayshaw Financial Group, and we began with a basic discovery conversation. Over time we had had several conversations discussing his current positions and his early retirement goal. 

Brayshaw Financial helped John see retirement from a different perspective, implementing a plan that crafted early retirement income by utilizing tax laws to avoid penalties on retirement savings. With our fiduciary oversight, we created the following strategy for John.

The Brayshaw Financial Complete Wealth Management Approach:

1. We worked with John to understand his goals, and what income was needed to make early retirement a reality.
2. We spent time educating John on how to access funds from his retirement accounts prior to 59 ½ while avoiding penalties normally associated with early distributions.
3. Brayshaw Financial reallocated assets to build strong, stable, and predictable income over a five-year period.
4. We also created market allocations that would hit certain time horizons throughout the portfolio meeting John’s long-term financial objectives outside his immediate retirement goal.
5. By addressing long-term needs beyond retirement, we brought other concerns into view including:
6. Inflation Protection Planning
7. Tax Management Planning and addressing potential tax increases over multiple decades.
8. Long-term Care Planning and asset protection for long-term self-care.
9. Estate Planning and asset transfer to John’s family.

The Brayshaw Financial Group team was able to bring direction and focus to John’s goal and build a plan that he could work with and we could deliver on.