My cash flow in retirement isn’t taking me as far as I thought it would. What are my options?

Paul & Betty needed cash flow in their retirement. Or so they thought. When Paul & Betty first came to Buttonwood, the need for cash flow was at center of the discussion. When the question arose, how much money they needed each year, the answer was $70,000. However, an interesting thing occurred, once the Buttonwood team reviewed the tax returns for Paul & Betty...

In the previous 3 years, they made at least $80,000 each year. It turned out Paul and Betty had a cash flow management issue. Paul & Betty had about 10 different accounts, located different brokerage firms. They also held a number of individual stocks and bonds, as well as CD's at a variety of banks.

The Buttonwood team, after helping with some estate planning needs, established trust accounts, consolidated assets from the multiple accounts and individual holdings into these new trust accounts and began to send out a monthly check. The irony of the situation was that once assets were organized and consolidated cash flows were actually able to be increased and now Paul & Betty live comfortably on about $90,000 per year in income.

When interest and dividend checks came in for $100 here or $500 dollars there, the money was simply spent going unrealized. By simply consolidating assets and putting a system for tracking cash flows into place Paul & Betty were able to define their budget, determine expenses, and make their retirement dollars stretch much further than they had been able to do on their own.