Pre-Retirement Checklist

Know Plain · Educational only · Use in the 5–10 years before leaving full-time work

Accounts & visibility

• ☐ List every account (401k, IRA, Roth, taxable, HSA, pension)
• ☐ Track them in one dashboard (Empower works well)
• ☐ Know the expense ratio of each major fund

Income & spending

• ☐ Track 3 months of real spending
• ☐ Separate needs vs wants for a retirement budget draft
• ☐ Estimate Social Security at ssa.gov retirement estimator

Withdrawal readiness

• ☐ Decide a starting withdrawal rate band (e.g. 3–4%) — not a guarantee
• ☐ Plan a cash / short-bond buffer for early retirement years
• ☐ Know which account you’d draw from first — confirm with a tax pro

Risk & sequence

• ☐ Mentally rehearse a 30–40% market drop in year 1 of retirement
• ☐ Write your “bad year” rule
• ☐ Avoid increasing stock risk right after a crash to “catch up”

Admin

• ☐ Beneficiaries updated
• ☐ Estate docs / POA location known
• ☐ RMD awareness if applicable (IRS RMD FAQs)

Next step

Re-run the Retirement Readiness calculator, then stress-test the same numbers in a live planner at knowplain.com/tools