Retiring in Orlando: What Financial Decisions Do You Need to Make

Paul Tarins, RICP®,WMCP®,CSRIC™

Are you planning to retire in Orlando? Home to many cultural attractions, shopping outlets, and high-end restaurants, Orlando offers a diverse lifestyle to its residents. You can expect to remain engaged in various outdoor activities throughout the year, such as enjoying a quiet stroll through Downtown Winter Park, exploring nearby beaches, and visiting the numerous theme parks that Orlando has to offer.

It is appealing on the financial front, as well. Whether you reside here currently or are considering a move to retire in the greater Orlando area, there are some things you will need to know, and several financial decisions you will need to make.

Retiring in Orlando: What Are the Perks?

Orlando makes for a highly attractive destination for retirees. Here is what you can expect if you consider retiring in Orlando:

No income taxes: You do not have to pay personal income tax in Florida, which can amount to significant savings.

Affordable housing: There is plenty of variety in housing in Orlando, and you can choose between affordable condos, townhomes, and apartments. As per realtor.com the median listing price on these homes stands at $275,000, and the median selling price is $269,000. In comparison, home prices in South Florida tend to be much higher. For instance, the median listing price in Miami is $390,000, with most homes getting sold at a median price of $360,000.

Quality healthcare: Access to high-quality healthcare is an essential part of retirement. Luckily, Orlando fares well on that front. In 2019, a national survey involving 2,600 hospitals across the country assigned top rankings to several Orlando hospitals for providing quality patient care. Some of the hospitals that made it to the list included Orlando Health, Advent Health, and HCA Healthcare Inc.

Depending on where you live right now, relocating to Central Florida may be less expensive than your current home state. If you believe that moving to Orlando will help you pursue the lifestyle you desire post-retirement, then read on as we discuss the necessary steps for retirement planning that you must take.

Retirement Planning in Orlando: Here’s What You Need to Know

Every retirement plan involves some critical financial decisions. To begin with, you need to determine your retirement goals. This can involve answering questions such as:

How do you envision your lifestyle in retirement? Is it an active lifestyle that involves plenty of travel or do you plan to spend a relaxing quiet lifestyle?
What type of property do you plan to live in? The variety of property types and diverse neighborhoods in the Greater Orlando area are plentiful.
What are your discretionary and non-discretionary planned expenses in retirement?

How Much Do You Have?

Once you have an answer to these questions, you need to evaluate how much retirement income you will need to realize these goals. You also need to identify the income sources you can rely on post-retirement. These usually include a combination of the following:

401(k)s
IRAs
Pensions

Annuities

It’s important to understand whether these sources of potential income, along with social security benefits will be able to provide you with a consistent and stable income for the entirety of your retirement.

How can you determine this? We believe that identifying your total assets is just the first step. While many advisors look at your assets and then tell you what your income will be, we think that approach limits you.

A more comprehensive plan considers three core strategies to maximize the income you need for the life you want to live.

When to Take Social Security

This is the big question for everyone – and it’s not as simple as just signing up once you reach full retirement age. Depending on what assets you have, a strategy that draws down taxable or tax-deferred retirement assets, or invests in income producing assets that allow you to postpone claiming social security past full retirement can help you maximize benefits and minimize taxes later on, when you reach the age where you need to take required minimum distributions

What is Your Risk Tolerance?

You’ll want to make the most of your retirement assets, but at the same time – you want a strategy you don’t have to worry about. By paying careful attention to how you react to real life market moves, you can get an idea of what level of risk makes you comfortable. Once you know that, you can build an asset allocation across stocks, bonds, bond alternatives, mutual funds, annuities, or structured products to get you to the level of income you want, with the level of comfort you need.

Where Are Your Assets Located?

A good strategy considers not only how much you have, but where those assets are located – for instance, if they are taxable or tax deferred accounts. It makes a difference because when you don’t have an outside income, it’s even more important to ensure you have an effective and efficient strategy to minimize taxes.

The Bottom Line

It might be a good idea to work with an advisor that can help you identify and assess your retirement life plan. Once they help you answer the above questions, they should create a plan with two things in mind:

Reaching your goals
Ensuring you sleep well at night without having to worry about the future.

Once your financial needs are identified, your financial advisor can help you build a stream of income by investing in a variety of financial products that can produce sustainable income.

Remember, the plan that is developed needs to work for your goals. It needs to work for your life.

Whether you want to retire in Orlando or elsewhere, finding your vision of your retirement and the right advisor for retirement planning is critical.

Paul Tarins is an investment adviser representative of and offers investment and advisory services through Portfolio Medics, a registered investment adviser. Nothing contained herein should be construed as a solicitation for investment advisory services. Sovereign Retirement Solutions and Portfolio Medics are not affiliated.