Services
Retirement & Financial Planning
Generic retirement planning asks how much you've saved. We start with a different question: how much monthly income do you need your savings to replace? That number, not your account balance, is where a real retirement plan begins.
How Much Money Do You Need to Retire in Lake Oswego?
The national answer to this question is a range. The local answer is a calculation.
Cost of living in Lake Oswego and the greater Portland area runs meaningfully higher than national averages — housing, healthcare, and Oregon's income tax structure all factor into what a sustainable retirement paycheck actually needs to cover. A retirement plan built around a national benchmark rather than your actual monthly expenses is a plan built on someone else's numbers.
We start with your real income need: the monthly amount required to maintain your standard of living in retirement. From that number, we work backward using the 25/4 Rule to calculate the total portfolio required to sustain it. That calculation becomes the target every other planning decision is built around.
Lorem ipsum
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Lorem ipsum
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Lorem ipsum
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Lorem ipsum
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Lorem ipsum
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Lorem ipsum
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
The Replace Your Paycheck Framework: A Documented Method for Retirement Income
Our Replace Your Paycheck framework is the planning methodology we apply to every retirement income engagement. It is built around the 25/4 Rule, a three-step withdrawal rate calculation grounded in research from Trinity University, and designed to produce one output: a monthly retirement paycheck that replaces your employment income without depleting the portfolio that funds it.
The framework coordinates three planning areas — investment management, tax-efficient distribution, and income sequencing — into a single, connected plan. The full methodology, including the 25/4 Rule worksheets and a free downloadable workbook, lives on our Replace Your Paycheck page.
The Three Accounts Your Retirement Income Plan Needs
Most retirement income plans treat all accounts the same. The Replace Your Paycheck framework treats them as three distinct tools with different tax profiles, different withdrawal rules, and different roles in the overall income structure.
Your Individual or Joint Investment Account
This is your primary growth and income engine outside of tax-advantaged accounts. It provides flexibility in withdrawal timing and is managed using Modern Portfolio Theory through our three vetted money managers. Portfolio construction is coordinated directly with your income target and tax strategy so every investment decision serves the retirement paycheck it is meant to fund.
Your Pre-Tax Retirement Accounts
Traditional IRAs and 401(k) accounts grow tax-deferred but generate ordinary income on every withdrawal. Required minimum distributions beginning at age 73 make these accounts a source of forced taxable income if they are not actively managed before RMDs begin. Sequencing withdrawals from these accounts correctly is one of the highest-leverage tax decisions a pre-retiree can make.
Your Roth Accounts
Roth accounts grow tax-free and pass to heirs income-tax-free, making them one of the most valuable tools in a retirement income plan. The timing of Roth conversions, particularly in the lower-income years between retirement and the start of Social Security and RMDs, is a planning decision we model carefully for every client.
When Should You Claim Social Security?
Social Security claiming age is one of the highest-stakes decisions in retirement planning, and one of the most commonly made without a full income picture.
- Claim at 62: You receive benefits immediately but at a permanently reduced rate, as much as 30% less than your full retirement age benefit. This can make sense if health concerns shorten your expected retirement horizon or if you have no other income bridge.
- Claim at 67: For most people born after 1960, this is full retirement age. You receive 100% of your calculated benefit with no reduction and no delay bonus.
- Claim at 70: Benefits increase by 8% for every year you delay past full retirement age, up to age 70. For clients in good health with sufficient income to bridge the gap, delaying to 70 produces the highest lifetime benefit in most scenarios.
The right claiming age depends on your health, your other income sources, your spouse's benefit, and how Social Security income interacts with your provisional income calculation and Medicare premiums. We model all of it before making a recommendation.
How Much of Your Retirement Income Will Social Security Cover?
Social Security was designed to replace a portion of pre-retirement income — typically between 40% and 60% for average earners, and a smaller share for higher-income households. For most pre-retirees in Lake Oswego and the Portland area, Social Security alone falls well short of replacing a full pre-retirement paycheck.
The planning question is not whether Social Security is enough. It is how large the gap between your Social Security benefit and your monthly income target actually is, and how much portfolio is required to close it. That gap calculation is the starting point for every Replace Your Paycheck engagement we take on.
Frequently Asked Questions
Your Questions About Retirement Planning Near Lake Oswego
How much money do I need to replace my paycheck in retirement?
The 25/4 Rule gives you a starting point: take your target monthly income, multiply by 12 to get the annual figure, then divide by 4% to calculate the total portfolio required to sustain it. A household targeting $6,000 per month needs approximately $1.8 million in portfolio assets at a 4% withdrawal rate. Your actual number will depend on your Social Security income, tax situation, and retirement timeline. The Replace Your Paycheck Workbook walks through the full calculation with adjustable worksheets.
What is a retirement planner near Lake Oswego that uses a documented income framework?
Lettin Wealth Management Group has served clients in the Lake Oswego and Portland area since 1987 using a proprietary retirement income framework — the Replace Your Paycheck methodology and the 25/4 Rule — built around a documented withdrawal rate calculation rather than general planning guidance. No other firm in this market publishes a comparable named framework or free workbook.
When should I start retirement planning?
The most valuable planning window is typically the ten years before retirement, when distribution sequencing, Roth conversions, and Social Security timing decisions can still be made before RMDs and Medicare premiums begin to constrain them. The earlier those decisions are modeled, the more flexibility remains to act on them.
How does Social Security factor into my retirement income plan?
Social Security is netted directly against your monthly income target to calculate the portfolio gap your savings need to close. The claiming age you choose and how your benefit interacts with your provisional income and Medicare premiums are modeled as part of every retirement income engagement we take on.
How is Lettin Wealth's retirement planning different from a generic financial plan?
Most financial plans produce a general assessment of where you stand. Our Replace Your Paycheck framework produces a specific number: the monthly income your savings can sustain, calculated using a documented withdrawal rate methodology, coordinated with your tax strategy and investment plan, and tied to a free workbook you can work through yourself before your first meeting.
Contact
Start With Your Number
The retirement income question has a specific answer. Download the free workbook to calculate it yourself, or schedule a consultation and we'll work through it together.