Mark Henry

Gone are the traditional foundations of retirement income—most people don’t have pensions, Social Security is in question. We are facing a slew of challenges previous generations never had to worry about: longevity, increased market volatility, long-term care. A tweet from across the country can affect the value of your portfolio, and because you are relying on this portfolio to provide a retirement income, that causes a lot of stress about how to spend this money.

Nowhere on your 401(k) statement does it tell you how much money you can take out this year, or how to adjust for inflation, or how much you can live on for the rest of your life. Conventional wisdom tells us: To retire successfully you have to hit a certain number. And yet achieving that number has nothing to do with ensuring you won’t run out of money.

My name is Mark Henry, and as the CEO and Founder of Alloy Wealth, I want to see you achieve a balance between knowing what you can spend without the fear of running out. The goal is to use this money! To travel, to bless others, to do what you want—this is what I call Living Large and it’s the foundation of what I talk about on my radio and TV show. To retire successfully today requires us to be better stewards of what we have so that more of it is available for tomorrow. Doing that takes a different style of planning than what we’ve done before.

I know this because, on Monday, October 19, 1987, I watched my father lose the retirement of his dreams. My parents lost over half their retirement savings in a single day. My dad had no control over when Black Monday would happen. Nobody does. But we do have control over what we do with our assets now.

I’ve been working in the finance and business sectors throughout my 30-year career. In 2011, I founded Alloy Wealth to help people get a written plan because success is about more than just achieving the right numbers. An alloy is a combination of several metals that are stronger when used together than when used alone. Being held to the fiduciary standard of care, we as a firm always do what’s in our clients’ best interest and being independent gives us the freedom to choose multiple solutions to make your plan stronger. But more importantly, we start every plan with the end in mind by asking the question, “What are you trying to do?”

Most people want to accomplish more than just good returns; they want a good life. So you tell me, what does success look like to you 10 years from now? When you have a holistic plan, one that addresses taxation, inflation, market risk, and the rising cost of healthcare, one that can get you to age 90 with some kind of a financial cushion left, then you have true balance. This is the benefit of having a written plan—the freedom to do more and be more during retirement— and this is what I want for you.

Listen to Mark Henry on Living Large Radio.