Mid-Year Wealth Checkup: Are You On Track for Retirement?

The midpoint of the year is an ideal time to assess your financial progress, particularly when it comes to retirement planning.

Whether it’s just around the corner or years away, being proactive now allows you to make any necessary adjustments to your strategy to help secure your ideal retirement.

Planning for retirement can be stressful, so we created this mid-year checklist to help guide your review.

1. Revisit Your Vision for Retirement

The one certainty in life is that circumstances are constantly changing. That’s why it’s critical to review your retirement goals and make any necessary updates.

• Have my retirement age or lifestyle expectations changed?
• Are there new financial responsibilities or life events (such as aging parent care, a new job, or divorce) to factor in?
• Should I adjust my anticipated retirement expenses to address inflation or changes in my vision?

Assessing and refining your retirement goals allows you to adjust your long-term wealth strategy to better achieve them.

2. Evaluate Your Retirement Contributions

If you have an employer-sponsored retirement plan—like a 401(k) or 403(b)—consider maxing out your contributions to help reduce your taxable income and potentially enjoy tax-deferred growth until you withdraw your savings. The 2025 contribution limit for these accounts is $23,000, with catch-up contribution limits of $7,500 for those aged 50 to 59 and $11,250 if you’re between 60 and 63 years old.¹

The contribution limits for Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) and Roth IRAs are $7,000 or $8,000 if you’re 50 years of age or older. For 2025, your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) must be under $150,000 for individuals or $236,000 for joint filers to qualify for the full Roth IRA contribution.¹  If your MAGI is too high, you may want to speak with your advisor about contributing to a traditional IRA and converting it to a Roth.  

If hitting the maximum contribution limits isn’t feasible this year, remember that modest increases now can have a powerful impact over time due to compounding growth.

3. Assess Your Investment Portfolio

Market volatility, economic shifts, and your personal risk tolerance can all affect your portfolio’s performance. That’s why it’s essential to review your portfolio and ensure that it is diversified and continues to align with your retirement timeline and goals.

For example, if you’re nearing retirement, consider gradually shifting to more conservative holdings while still maintaining enough growth potential to outpace inflation. If you’re decades away from retirement and advancing in your career, you can feel comfortable taking on more risk in your investments. Your wealth advisor can help you:

• Rebalance your portfolio to stay aligned with your target asset allocation.
• Evaluate whether your current mix of stocks, bonds, and alternative investments supports your overall retirement strategy.
• Identify underperforming assets or funds and consider reallocating to more promising areas.

4. Maximize Your Tax Savings

It’s important to consider how taxes can impact your finances both now and in retirement. The good news is that there are a number of strategies you can employ to help mitigate your tax burden, depending on your current spending needs and anticipated tax bracket.

Depending on your specific financial circumstances and objectives, tax-efficient strategies to consider include:   

• Converting a portion of your tax-deferred assets into a Roth IRA or Roth 401(k). While you will owe taxes on the conversion, qualified withdrawals in retirement should be tax-free.
• Tax-loss harvesting, or mitigating capital gains and/or income taxes by using investment losses to offset investment gains or ordinary income.
• Postponing payouts and payments until next year if the extra income will place you in a higher tax bracket (or if you expect to fall into a lower tax bracket in 2026).
• Bunching two years of charitable contributions into this year, itemizing deductions to gain extra tax savings, and then opting for the standard deduction the following year.

5. Revisit Your Retirement Income Strategy

You’re not alone if your goal is to create a reliable, low-risk income stream during retirement. Depending on your health and life expectancy, you might choose to delay starting your Social Security benefits, which can lead to higher monthly payments. Additionally, income-generating investments, such as bonds, annuities, and money market funds, can supplement your Social Security and retirement plan.

It’s also important to start planning now for how you’ll withdraw income in retirement, including the order in which you’ll tap different accounts and the potential tax impact of required minimum distributions (RMDs). To take advantage of potential growth for as long as possible, you may want to withdraw from taxable accounts first, followed by tax-deferred and then tax-exempt accounts.

6. Consider Your Healthcare Expenses

One of the most significant threats to financial security during retirement is the cost of healthcare.

We recommend reviewing your current health insurance and obtaining long-term care insurance for added protection. As you near 65, it’s important to carefully review your Medicare options and choose the plan that best aligns with your needs.

If your employer offers a Health Savings Account (HSA), think about contributing the maximum allowable amount to support your healthcare needs in retirement. You can deduct your contributions from your taxable income; unspent tax-free HSA funds roll over from year to year, and HSAs can earn interest that isn’t taxable.²

7. Consult with Experts

A mid-year wealth checkup is not only a good financial habit—it’s a powerful tool to help you maintain control of your retirement future.

Our dedicated team can leverage its expertise to evaluate your progress and make timely updates to your wealth plan, ensuring you remain on track to achieve your retirement goals.

Schedule your checkup meeting today.

Sources
¹ https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/401k-limit-increases-to-23500-for-2025-ira-limit-remains-7000
²  https://www.healthcare.gov/high-deductible-health-plan/hdhp-hsa-work-together/