Retirement: What Don't I know? What Should I Do?

  • 15th Jan 2026
  • 5 min read

When I was still working, Bob T. would sometimes drop by my office to chat about retirement. The paraphrase Bob - he was concerned about missing things that should have been done before the actual retirement date. That feeling can be strong before retirement. I thought there must be some checklist by now, but there wasn't. I look back to the time between retirement first thoughts and actual retirement, and I think there may be no substitute for time. Time to absorb the elements that make up retirement.

Another challenge is change. Savings options might change. Company benefits might change. New legislation could change things. Existing retirees might find providing advice tricky given all the change.

An important part of retirement is gaining enough confidence to actually do it. You can only acquire the confidence by doing the homework. Any shortcut you might find might not provide the confidence you'll need.

So maybe this is going to be an advice post. Maybe others will chime in, and I can add to this post. Jackie S. recently sent me some thoughts (below), then I'll add mine:

Jackie S.'s advice:

While I was a good saver and knew the value of my assets, I didn't prioritize fully understanding them relative to retirement.

I spent hours with financial planners (all free given my Corning and other private accounts) to educate myself, have models created and become comfortable with my financial situation.

As you compile your list, I recommend adding:

  1. Learn all the rules related to Corning accounts at time of departure, including

    • unexercised and/or unvested stock options, unsold and/or unvested RSUs, pending LTIs, GS and PIP payouts. This could influence specific timing within a given year.

    • your specific pension account options. I had an option available because I wasn't yet SS eligible. I also had both (older) career average and cash balance components that have different options and separate decisions; and apparently 1 year I made employee contributions to my pension that have different tax implications.

    • 401K transfer options, including those related to the Corning stock fund (i.e. NUA), pre-tax, after tax and now Roth funds.

  2. Start to think about when you will move assets out of Corning accounts (pension and 401k) and where you will move them. You don't have to move them right away. ABSOLUTELY understand tax implications of the move. Most people will want to move assets to an IRA account to avoid a huge tax hit.

  3. Develop a plan to replace (or not) all insurance provided by Corning: medical, dental, vision, life, critical illness, etc. Met-life has some "take along" options.

Mark A.'s advice:

Build an emergency fund. (Stolen from Dave Ramsey.) Life is easier when you don't have to use a credit card for every emergency. Car repairs. Appliance repairs. Unemployment.

Contribute to your 401k. Target 15%, or higher. Consider the Roth 401k option so you'll have some tax-free money in your retirement nest egg. Taxes are more important in retirement.

Establish a Roth IRA. Early is better. Put some money in it. You might end up moving money into this Roth IRA account later, and there are time-based rules about how long it must be established before you can get penalty-free access to the money.

You want some number of years worth of cash set aside when you retire. You'll probably have to build this fund some number of years before retirement. You may need to ramp down your 401k contributions to do it. You will calculate how much money you need each month in retirement. Some of that will be fixed income (pension, social security). The rest will come from your retirement nest egg. What you need from the retirement nest egg each month, multiplied by 12, is one year of cash you should set aside. Opinions vary on how many years of cash you should have. I feel like two years is a good number, but it can be higher if you want to sleep better.

You want at least two "looks" at your retirement financial plan. You may be a spreadsheet wiz, but try one of the online modeling tools too. Understand why the answers are different. Rinse and repeat. A financial advisor can do this too. Nobody wants to pay their fees, but you don't need to pay them forever if you don't want to. Think of them as your financial trainer. Some options are very low cost.

Paying off your house before retirement is great. Healthcare insurance will replace it as you highest monthly expense. Before age 65 the cost is high. Traditional Medicare with a supplement and drug plan is going to cost about what you pay as an employee, roughly.

Educate yourself. YouTube is loaded with retirement information. Talk to your spouse. Talk about what retirement living might look like. Remember that retirement is "go-go" years plus "slow-go" years plus "no-go" years. They all look different financially.

"The trouble is, you think you have time" - Buddha's Little Instruction Book