Retirement

Get the big picture on retirement planning

This retirement planning guide starts with knowing what you’ll actually receive from each source before you decide which account to draw from. Your monthly Social Security payment is based on your lifetime earnings, and you can claim any time from age 62 through age 70. Starting at 62 when your full retirement age is 67 drops the check to roughly 70% of what you’d get by waiting, a permanent reduction that locks in a baseline every other piece of your plan sits on top of. Alongside that government benefit, understanding pension basics & providers helps you see whether you have a stream of guaranteed income or a lump sum you’ll need to manage yourself. Some employers still offer defined-benefit plans, but the specifics, survivor options, cost-of-living adjustments, and payout start dates, vary by provider, so you’ll want to locate your plan’s summary document before making any election. At the same time, healthcare & medicare costs will claim a slice of your income that is easy to underestimate, and factoring in premiums and out-of-pocket exposure early keeps a health event from scrambling the withdrawal sequence you’ve designed.

Build your savings

While you are still earning, the accounts you choose and the sequence you fund them in set the stage for every withdrawal decision you will make later. For most employees, the first stop is an employer-sponsored plan, and 401(k) plans let you direct pre-tax or Roth dollars straight from your paycheck before you ever see the money. If your workplace does not offer a plan or you want a parallel nest egg, opening an IRA gives you a self-directed bucket with its own tax treatment. Once you turn 50, catch-up contributions let you accelerate your pace. There is a rule that trips people up. If you work for yourself, self-employed retirement plans open a different path entirely. The one designed for a business where it is just you or you and a spouse allows you to contribute up to 25% of net earnings on top of your elective deferrals. Your contribution & market behavior also interact in a way that surprises new investors, because the habit of steady automatic buying often matters more to your long-term balance than trying to time the market’s daily moves.

Manage what you have

Once your money is in the right accounts, the daily work shifts to handling account activity. You always want to know what is moving and why. After you log in, the Transaction status link inside Quick Actions shows you pending transactions, payment history, and scheduled payments in one place. This helps you spot a transfer you did not authorize before it settles. If you hold an annuity, the same area lets you start most withdrawals online by selecting Withdrawal from Quick Actions. You can find your contract documents by choosing Document center from the top navigation. For federal annuitants, Retirement Services Online is where you manage your annuity account directly. You can change your mailing address and email address; establish, change, or stop allotments; start or adjust direct deposit; update tax withholdings; print ID cards; request duplicate annuity booklets or a duplicate Form 1099-R; and view a statement describing your annuity payment. That statement is also the simplest way of confirming your monthly amount landed as expected. When you need a distribution form or a past statement for a non-government annuity, logging in and clicking the Annuities tab surfaces both Statements and Annuity Forms. You can download the exact month you are missing. Keeping your contact details and allotments current across these portals matters. A stale address or a lapsed direct-deposit instruction is the fastest way to turn a predictable income stream into an unnecessary delay. To stay on top of your retirement income, you will want "pension events & status" to track every change to your benefit timeline. Similarly, the article on "pensions" is worth reading because it walks through the different plan types and how they affect your long-term payout.

Turn savings into income

A paycheck stops, but bills do not. The central task becomes turning a lump sum into a reliable stream of cash without triggering a tax bill that shrinks your runway. The IRS starts the clock with required minimum distributions at age 73 or retirement, whichever is later, for traditional IRAs and employer-sponsored plans such as 401(k)s, while Roth IRAs are not subject to RMDs during the original owner's lifetime. Skipping that deadline carries a penalty that can scramble any plan. The sequence you tap matters more than the return you earn in any single year. Many households follow a tax-efficient order, spending down taxable brokerage money first, then turning to tax-deferred accounts, and preserving tax-exempt Roth dollars for later or for heirs. Among the retirement withdrawal strategies that put structure around that sequence, the classic 4% rule adjusts your starting dollar amount for inflation each year, while a bucket approach walls off near-term cash from the stock holdings you intend to touch a decade from now. You can also simply pull a fixed percent or a set dollar amount annually, a choice that shifts the longevity risk back onto your shoulders. Before you commit to one method, confirm you have already satisfied the year’s RMD, because that mandatory distribution overrides any other drawdown logic.