Looking for "retirement" advice

[Margot Baldwin]

My husband and i are trying to leave our careers in the next two years to "retire" early. What that means for us is passive income from 3 SFHs that are fully rented out, in addition to a small pension. We are wanting to defer SS and any 401K/IRA funds until later when we're the appropriate ages.

I hired a financial planner to take a look at our facts and figures (which she did, for a fee, and told us we "looked great") but I did not really get the information I was hoping for. Maybe I need a CPA instead? We will be living on rental income (approx $5300/month) plus a pension of about $1500/month. I have so many questions about tax implications and ROTH conversions and the 4% rule and living outside the US and how that may affect things... I don't want to screw anything up leaving our well-paying gigs at 50.

We have a CPA who does our yearly taxes but he's never been great with questions outside of tax season, and he's gearing up to retire anyway. I don't feel like he's going to be our person moving forward.

Our rental properties are in CA and ID, we will be based in ID but are in CA now. Can anyone weigh in on what it is I should be looking for and how to find that person? TIA

[Katie L.]

@Margot Baldwin

It may not be ONE person who helps you for all that you’re looking for. Oftentimes a team is helpful in this situation because each person has their area of expertise. This is especially since you also mentioned something about living abroad, and international tax and law are pretty complex that a typical CPA may not be well versed in international consequences. You may want to look for a financial planner who has their CFP designation. The CFP designation requires courses in basic tax and estate planning that financial planners with their CFP may be a little better suited to what you’re looking for than just an ‘ordinary’ financial planner/insurance salesperson.  For the most part as a major generalization, CPAs will understand the tax consequences to a situation and cash flow but not the intricacies to things like social security or required minimum distributions; a financial planner will understand what options you have available to you for cash flow and the rules, but less about tax consequences and how what they’re doing interacts with the rest of your tax planning and other items. What area of California are you in?

*this post does not create an attorney-client or CPA-client relationship. The information contained in this post is not to be relied upon. Readers are advised to seek professional advice.