Considering retirement and need advice on pension

Hello everyone, I am a just joined newbie - :)

I need advice from self-employed folks on how they structured their pension. I have a family owned business that I started in 1972. The shareholders are myself and three children. Have one employee, a granddaughter, so as you can see it is a total family operation.

I will be 75 in November and feel like I might want to start cutting back in the next couple of years. Thought it might be nice if I kept working full time until April '22 when I would celebrate 50 years in business. Here is my quandary, I basically have very little put back so I would need to draw a pension from the business to supplement my social security. Please don’t scold me for not planning ahead long ago, I do that to myself enough for all of us. I am now trying to improve a bad situation. I don’t want to be a dead drain on the business. I do however feel that after giving it 50 years I should be entitled to some stipend. My kids will need to hire someone as it takes 5 people to operate properly.

How do you folks feel, should I base it on my personal fixed income needs with a little buffer or should it be based on a percentage of my current income. I will appreciate all opinions and do thank you in advance.

I don’t think you can lose either way. Maybe sit down, do a post-retirement budget including your Social Security, any other savings you may already have and your expenses you expect in retirement. Then working with those numbers, you can arrive at a figure that you’re happy with and the company is able to handle. Best wishes to you.

1 Like