Are You Ready for Retirement? Take Our Red Zone Assessment

Most people measure retirement readiness by one number: their account balance. If it is big enough, they feel ready. If it falls short of some round number they have in mind, they feel behind. The problem is that account balance alone tells only part of the story.

True retirement readiness involves a set of interconnected factors: the reliability and sustainability of your income sources, your healthcare coverage and cost exposure, your debt obligations, your tax situation, your estate documents, and your spending projections. A retiree with $800,000 and a pension, low debt, and Medicare coverage may be in far better shape than one with $1.2 million, significant healthcare exposure, and a high monthly spend rate.

The Red Zone concept — the five to ten years immediately before and after retirement — is where financial decisions carry the most weight. Errors made during this period, particularly around withdrawal timing, Social Security claiming, and asset allocation, are difficult or impossible to recover from. The stakes are higher because time is shorter and the sequence of market returns matters more than it ever did during the accumulation phase.

Our Red Zone Assessment is designed to evaluate where you stand across several dimensions. It asks about your expected retirement date, your income sources and their reliability, your current savings rate relative to your projected needs, your healthcare plan, and your understanding of key risks — including inflation, longevity, and market volatility.

The assessment is not a pass-fail test. It is a diagnostic. Some participants score well on income but have gaps in healthcare planning. Others have solid savings but have not addressed sequence-of-returns risk in their portfolio. The results point to specific areas that need attention — which makes subsequent planning conversations more productive.

When you complete the assessment, you will receive a readiness profile that outlines your relative strengths and the areas that carry the most risk given your specific situation. For Tampa Bay and broader Florida residents, the assessment also takes into account state-specific factors — the absence of state income tax, Medicaid rules that differ from other states, and the particular healthcare landscape in the region.

The assessment is not a replacement for comprehensive financial planning. It is an entry point — a way to surface the questions that matter most and to prioritize where to focus attention. Many people who complete it discover that their intuition about their readiness level does not fully match their actual situation, in either direction.

You can take the Red Zone Assessment at any time at no cost. It takes approximately ten minutes. The results are reviewed by our team, and we follow up with a brief summary and an invitation to discuss the findings in more detail if you choose. There is no obligation. To get started, visit our assessment at /quiz.