Ultimately, Matthew chose to work 30 hours per week so that his company could continue to pick up their health-care costs (saving them about $1,000 a month in Medicare-related costs). The part-time work allowed him to take off every Friday, and that gave him the added benefit of "test driving" retirement.
He and Elizabeth also decided to downsize their home and buy long-term care coverage. The LTC insurance assured that their children wouldn't be faced with the possibility of someday having to assist them financially.
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As with all best-laid plans and good intentions, sometimes things go awry with retirement planning. However, by exploring alternative saving tactics, you can still achieve your goal.
Matthew and Elizabeth's road might have been a bit rocky, and they, like many others, certainly didn't foresee the flaws in their retirement plan. But fortunately they were still able to make the appropriate changes in order to realize their retirement dream.
—By Shannon Eusey, president of Beacon Pointe Advisors. Commie Stevens, J.D., managing director at Beacon Pointe, contributed to this article.