Why “Good” Plans Underperform in Retirement
The Accumulation Mindset Doesn’t Work Once You Retire
For decades, you’ve been taught to accumulate: maximize contributions, ride the market, stay the course. Retirement flips the script. Your goals shift from growth to preservation and income, and your risks change—tax drag, sequence-of-returns, longevity, healthcare shocks, and withdrawal discipline.
Because most plans (and many advisors) don’t fully recalibrate to these new goals and risks, most retirement plans are sub-optimized—they look fine on a statement, but they don’t maximize lifetime income or minimize avoidable risks.
Optimized Retirement Income Planning
(What “Optimized” Means)
Reliable Income Drives Lifestyle
The availability of reliable income determines what you can comfortably spend. We design plans to:
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Maximize after-tax, lifetime income (not just account value)
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Reduce volatility’s impact on withdrawals (sequence-of-returns risk)
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Right-size taxes over your lifetime, not just this year
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Match income to lifestyle goals with guardrails you can live with
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When Fees Follow Balances, Growth ≠ Income
In accumulation years, paying an advisor a percentage of your account balance creates motivation alignment – both of you want the account to grow.
In retirement, your goal shifts to preservation and sustainable income. If advice remains growth-centric, that alignment can break – leading to withdrawal strategies, tax timing, and risk levels that don’t fully serve your income objectives.
At Velomon, our framework and coaching keep the plan – and everyone involved—aligned to your income and lifestyle goals first.
The Most Critical Decision You’ll Make: How You Draw
Withdraw too little, and you’ll underspend the life you worked for. Withdraw too much, and you elevate the risk of depletion. Add market swings and taxes, and it becomes drawdown roulette.
An Optimized Retirement Income Plan sets evidence-based withdrawal rules and flexible guardrails—so you can spend with confidence, adapt to markets, and protect against the risks unique to retirement.
Pay the Right Taxes at the Right Time
Thoughtful Roth IRA conversions can shift money from tax-deferred to tax-free, potentially:
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- Reducing future Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs)
- Smoothing lifetime tax brackets (and possible IRMAA impacts)
- Increasing after-tax spending power later in retirement
- Improving survivor and legacy efficiency
Roth conversions aren’t one-size-fits-all. We evaluate timing, amount, and multi-year coordination with your withdrawals and other income to support your lifetime income goal—not just a single tax year.
The Velomon Method
From “Set-and-Hope” to Structured Income Confidence
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Map Your Lifestyle & Risks — Clarify spending priorities, must-haves, and nice-to-haves.
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Stress-Test the Plan — Model sequence risk, longevity, healthcare shocks, and bear markets.
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Engineer Withdrawals — Build a rules-based draw strategy with adaptive guardrails.
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Coordinate Taxes — Evaluate multi-year Roth conversions and account sequencing to raise after-tax income.
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Align All Parties — Keep advisors, products, and tactics pointed at your income goals.
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Monitor & Adapt — Re-optimize as markets, taxes, or life changes occur.
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