This week we ran across this article on the Yahoo Finance website, written by Jeff Rose of Credit.com. We have to admit, we were a bit suspicious of the title: “Ignoring These 6 Financial Moves Could Ruin Your Retirement.”  In our experience, articles like this tend to be far too simplistic, focusing on financial planning at the expense of everything else – an approach that we’ve found to be a recipe for disaster. So we were somewhat pleasantly surprised when we read the six recommendations and found them more useful than we had expected. Still, while the Yahoo Finance piece does offer some helpful advice, we think it leaves out some very important components of retirement planning, and that there’s a lot missing from this list.

“You finally have enough money to retire,” writes Jeff Rose. “The excitement is palpable, and you can hardly believe you’ve reached this milestone.” However, he adds, before your retirement dreams can come true “you still have some work to do if you want to actually stay retired.” In other words, if you don’t complete a handful of important tasks now, “you could wind up heading back to work part-time or cutting back on spending just to get by.”

So what are these six financial moves? Let’s take a look and see what Jeff Rose got right and what (in our view) he may have overlooked.

The first must-do task is to “have the money talk with your adult kids.”  Rose cites a Pew study from 2015 that says more than 60 percent of U.S. parents helped their adult kids financially during the past 12 months. In the words of the Yahoo Finance article, “Helping adult kids may not have been a big deal when you were working, but it can make a huge difference to your bottom line once you’re on a fixed income. This is why you need to have the ‘money talk’ right away.” Your adult children need to know that you can’t keep supporting them financially once you’re retired or your own security could be jeopardized. “If you set expectations early, your adult kids will have time to learn how to fend for themselves and break the cycle of living paycheck to paycheck.” It’s hard to argue with that suggestion, although in our experience it’s certainly not a good idea to wait so long to have the family conference Rose is talking about.

Second on the list is to “dial down your investment risk.” Rose writes, “It’s crucial to reconsider your desired level of risk as you start getting close (to retirement).” What too often happens is that people set up their 401(k) portfolio while they’re still employed and then never bother to adjust it again. Shifting your portfolio away from riskier stocks toward a blend of stock and bond funds could be good advice, but in any event don’t overlook the importance of a “portfolio tune-up.”

The third recommendation is also one we subscribe to: “meet with a financial planner.”  Again, though, while meeting with a planner is a good idea, waiting too long to get solid financial advice is a bad one. “There is no one-size-fits-all retirement income portfolio or investment approach retirees should take,” says Jeff Rose, but “a financial planner can find the right mix for your financial goals.” The sooner you sit down with a planner you can trust, the sooner you can get yourself onto the right financial course – but remember our strong advice to select a fee-based financial planner and not one who has a product to sell. Contact AgingOptions and we can recommend a trusted, experienced financial planner who meets these criteria.

Number four on the list sounds a lot like number three. Jeff Rose advises you to “create a long-term financial plan” – because “with a solid plan in place, you won’t have to stress over market fluctuations that would normally leave you stressing out.” Of course this makes sense, but we always remind our clients, radio listeners and seminar guests that a financial plan absolutely must be made in concert with the rest of your planning process! That’s why a LifePlan is the only approach to retirement planning we endorse. We’ll tell you more about LifePlanning in a minute.

The fifth item is to “think long and hard about your long-term care options.” “No one ever thinks they’re going to need long-term care or have to move to some kind of facility,” Rose writes, “but more and more individuals are finding out that’s not the case.” For that reason, “even if you don’t think it’s ever going to happen, you still have to prepare.” The article only mentions two types of preparation – buying long term care insurance and what he calls “setting up steps with your children.” We think this simplistic approach is woefully inadequate. It takes careful preparation and solid professional advice to make certain you can avoid becoming a burden to your loved ones as you age – which is all the more reason why a LifePlan is absolutely essential.

Finally, Jeff Rose’s article from Yahoo Finance advises that you “decide how to handle Social Security.” Considering that this article is written for the benefit of those about to retire, we can’t really understand why Rose tacks this advice onto the end as an afterthought. In our experience, the time to talk about and plan for your Social Security strategy is years before you stand on the doorstep of retirement. Most people know that waiting to draw benefits until age 70 not only maximizes those benefits for the recipient but also in many cases for a surviving spouse – so if this is your strategy, then you must plan well ahead to make it happen. The important thing is to weigh your options carefully, and if possible do so years before you have to make a Social Security decision.

As is so often the case, we find the advice from this article to be basically sound but definitely insufficient. The only way for you to plan adequately for the type of retirement you’ve always hoped for is to adopt the type of planning strategy that takes all the critical facets of retirement into account: finances (of course) but also your legal strategy, your housing plan, your medical protection and your communication with your family. The sooner you learn about LifePlanning from AgingOptions, and the sooner you adopt the LifePlanning precepts, the sooner you can begin experiencing the kind of retirement security that only a LifePlan provides.

Ready to find out more? It’s simple to do: come to a free LifePlanning Seminar. Click here for upcoming dates, times and locations, then register online or call our office for assistance. An inadequate retirement plan is almost worse than no plan at all, because it can lull you into a false sense of security. For true peace of mind, you need a LifePlan from AgingOptions!

(originally reported at https://finance.yahoo.com)