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What’s the secret sauce to a wealthy retirement? You might think it’s all about snapping up prime real estate, managing your tax burden with expertise or, like Warren Buffett, investing from the ripe young age of 11. And you’re almost right.
In reality, it’s about knowing how to pull these puzzle pieces together to help you run a financial marathon straight into your golden years.
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Patrick Marcinko, a certified financial planner (CFP) at Bogart Wealth, told Nasdaq (1), “The biggest piece of advice for retirees is to create a financial plan before retiring.” He added, “A good financial plan should provide peace of mind that you are on track for a successful retirement, financially.”
The numbers back him up. A survey from T. Rowe Price found that respondents with a formal financial plan had between two and four times more wealth upon retiring than those who didn’t (2). The study also revealed that people with a financial plan tend to save more for their retirement and are more likely to work with a financial adviser.
Financial guru Dave Ramsey is another believer in the power of planning, and the first step is usually to take stock of your finances, posting on X in 2025 that, “A budget is telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went (3).”
Unfortunately, there’s a big difference between knowing you should plan and actually doing it. The same T. Rowe Price survey found that 17% of respondents who were retiring within five years still hadn’t given their retirement any serious thought.
If you’re already feeling winded just thinking about retirement, here’s where to start.
How a financial plan drives your retirement
A plan can be a great tool for retirees wondering if they’re saving enough or putting their money in the right places. You will typically build it alongside a CFP, who can help answer retirement questions and show you how to optimize accounts such as your 401(k), IRA or Health Savings Account to take full advantage of tax benefits. As with all things financial, starting as early as possible is typically the best move, but the second best time to start is today.
Assessing your lifestyle matters too. After all, no two retirements are the same: Your financial plan should align your income with your personal goals, whether you envision traveling the world in a pair of fresh running shoes with ample arch support, downsizing to simplify your expenses or picking up part-time work.
A plan can even protect you against rising costs in critical areas like health care.
Fidelity estimates that the average 65-year-old couple will spend around $12,850 on health care in their first year of retirement (4). The standard monthly premium for Medicare Part B, which covers services including outpatient care and physician visits is currently $202.90 (5). Premiums tend to go up year after year, with an announcement to come in the fall of 2026 for Part B specifically.
However, 2026’s leap was was the program’s biggest single-year increase in four years, according to CNN (6).
Choose the best financial planner for your needs
Factoring cost increases, like Medicare, into your financial plan can help you chart a course to your financial future. But when you consider all the potential changes — from inflation to the stock market impacting your retirement accounts plus health care — making a plan yourself might seem a little daunting.
But if you have a substantial nest egg, you may need more specialized financial help. This is also when you might start worrying more about how to get to your hard earned retirement funds with as little tax exposure as possible. When larger portfolios are involved, tax decisions become less about filing and more about strategy.
A financial advisor can help crunch the numbers and build a plan that works.
But hiring an advisor can be a lifelong commitment, which might make or break your retirement. That’s why finding reliable advisors is crucial.
That’s where Advisor.com can come in. The platform connects you with an expert near you for free.
Advisor.com does the heavy lifting for you, vetting advisors based on track record, client ratios and regulatory background. Plus, their network comprises fiduciaries, who are legally required to act in your best interests.
Just enter a few details about your finances and goals, and Advisor.com’s AI-powered matching tool will connect you with a qualified expert best suited for your needs based on your unique financial goals and preferences.
Finding the right advisor isn’t always easy — there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. That’s why Advisor.com lets you set up a free initial consultation, with no obligation to hire, to see if they’re the right fit for you.
Once you’ve got the right financial advisor in your corner, the next step is getting a clear picture of where your money’s actually going. That starts with the basics — budgeting and tracking your spending.
Diversify your portfolio
Risk management is another benefit of building a plan. That’s because it can help you take stock of your finances and improve your portfolio diversification. An outlook report from Morgan Stanley found that investors can get better risk-adjusted returns by broadening their portfolios with non-U.S. equities, compared to investing in the S&P 500 alone (7).
So, once you have you advisor locked in, it could be time to start looking at different investment verticals for you to branch out into, money allowing.
Tap into fractional ownership
Real estate is a time-tested diversification play and can protect your nest egg from some of the effects on inflation. For many, this folds neatly into the American dream of home ownership. However, this isn’t the only way to diversify with this asset class to build your wealth.
Another avenue is to use real estate to add resilience to your portfolio while generating passive income, too.
For instance, you could work with mogul, a real estate investment platform offering fractional ownership in blue-chip rental properties. This can give investors monthly rental income, real-time appreciation and tax benefits — without the need for a hefty down payment or 3 a.m. tenant calls.
Founded by former Goldman Sachs real estate investors, the team hand-picks the top 1% of single-family rental homes nationwide for you. Simply put, you can invest in institutional quality offerings for a fraction of the usual cost.
Each property undergoes a vetting process, requiring a minimum 12% return even in downside scenarios. Across the board, the platform features an average annual IRR of 18.8%. Their cash-on-cash yields, meanwhile, average between 10 to 12% annually. Offerings often sell out in under three hours, with investments typically ranging between $15,000 and $40,000 per property.
How it works is simple: Just sign up for an account and then browse available properties. Once you’re verified, you can invest like a mogul in just a few clicks. Whether you already own a home or not, this is a simple way to add real estate to your portfolio.
For those with capital on hand, you can take this even further by investing in other swatches of the real estate landscape.
Accredited investors can now tap into this opportunity through platforms such as Lightstone DIRECT, which gives accredited investors access to single-asset multifamily and industrial deals.
Lightstone DIRECT’s direct-to-investor model ensures a high degree of alignment between individual investors and a vertically-integrated, institutional owner-operator — a sophisticated and streamlined option for individual investors looking to diversify into private-market real estate.
With Lightstone DIRECT, accredited individuals can access the same multifamily and industrial assets Lightstone pursues with its own capital, with minimum investments starting at $100,000. They also invest at least 20% of its own capital in every deal — roughly four times the industry average.
With skin in the game, the firm ensures its interests are directly aligned with those of its investors.
Research real estate equity opportunities
But fractional investing is just one way to get into real estate. If you’re looking for shorter term, interest-based payouts there are other paths to passive income.
For example, the Arrived Real Estate Income Fund is designed to generate regular dividend income while focusing on capital preservation.
The fund already manages more than $83 million in assets and has historically delivered an annualized cash yield of more than 8.1%. To put this in perspective, even the "aristocrats" of dividend stocks struggle to reach a high-water mark of 5.51%, according to Morningstar (9).
How it works is simple: Arrived offers short-term loans for professional real estate projects seeking to renovate, refinance or fund new construction. Each loan goes through a disciplined selection process and is backed by residential real estate, adding another layer of underwriting rigor and downside protection.
Even better, Arrived Real Estate Income Fund investors also have quarterly liquidity options beginning six months after their initial investment, offering more flexibility than many traditional income-focused investments.
If you’re a homeowner, another way to easily tap into liquidity is through a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC). It’s a revolving line of credit that leverages the equity in your home as collateral, so that you can borrow and repay funds as needed — similar to a credit card.
AmeriSave offers a flexible HELOC that lets homeowners borrow against their equity as needed during a draw period, making it useful for renovations or debt consolidation. The application is mostly online and available in most states.
It’s a good fit for borrowers who want convenience and flexibility rather than a large lump-sum loan up-front. You can draw funds only when you need them, so it’s useful for ongoing or unpredictable costs. Interest is charged only on what you use, and you repay the balance over time. It’s essentially a flexible credit line secured by your home, delivered through a mostly online application process.
Preserve your portfolio with precious metals
Once you’ve got your retirement accounts climbing higher, it could be time to start looking at ways to protect yourself from a rug pull. After all, many investments rise and fall to the rhythm of stocks and bonds. That’s when strategically investing in commodities could help protect your nest egg.
Gold has long been considered a safe haven asset that can protect your wealth from market volatility. And the precious metal has been surging, with gold prices rising over 30% in the past year (10).
One way to invest in gold that also provides significant tax advantages is to open a gold IRA with the help of Priority Gold.
Gold IRAs allow investors to hold physical gold or gold-related assets within a retirement account, which combines the tax advantages of an IRA with the protective benefits of investing in gold, making it an attractive option for those looking to potentially hedge their retirement funds against economic uncertainty.
To learn more, you can get a free information guide that includes details on how to get up to $10,000 in free silver on qualifying purchases.
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Article sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.
Nasdaq (1); T. Rowe Price (2); Dave Ramsey (3); Fidelity (4); Medicare (5); CNN (6); Morgan Stanley (7); J.P. Morgan (8); Morningstar (9); Gold Price (10)
This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
