Retirement planning blends lifestyle vision with financial strategy, and this course guides you through defining your goals, estimating future expenses, avoiding common mistakes, understanding income sources, and making smart distribution decisions. You begin by clarifying how you want to spend your retirement years—travel, hobbies, volunteering—and then work through exercises to calculate what it will cost. You examine major planning pitfalls, explore tax‑saving strategies, compare retirement savings vehicles such as Roth IRAs and employer plans, and review how Social Security fits into your income picture. Finally, you learn how to manage withdrawals, potentially minimize taxes and penalties, and make irreversible distribution choices with confidence so your retirement years align with your long‑term vision.

In the most extensive section of this course, you learn about savings vehicles, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, exchange traded funds, individually managed accounts, tax-deferred annuities and important considerations before you invest. The highlight of this section is 5 strategies for managing investment risks.

This section addresses strategies designed with the goal to protect you from a large financial loss prior to or during retirement. You learn what questions to ask before buying insurance coverage. We investigate many aspects of long-term health care including: the chances you will need it, how much it can cost, who should purchase insurance and alternatives to purchasing coverage. We also compare the different types of life insurance and discuss how to select coverage so you and your family can make an informed decision.

Estate planning isn’t just about money and includes much more than planning for your death. It involves personal decisions that affect you, your family and loved ones even while you are still living. As a result of recent tax law changes, estate planning is a moving target. We discuss ways to plan for today and for your future.

You learn strategies and techniques to potentially minimize or eliminate income, gift and estate taxes, expenses, delays, legal challenges and a shortage of liquid assets following your death. We also address the best way to hold joint ownership of property (or other assets) based on your situation.

Yes. Your spouse, partner, or a friend may attend with you at no additional cost. If they’d like their own workbook, you can request one when you register.

Just yourself and a willingness to learn. We provide a comprehensive workbook to help you follow along and apply what you learn to your own situation.

While it’s best to attend both, the material is structured so you will benefit even if you miss one session. You can also discuss any missed content during the follow-up consultation.

Yes. There will be opportunities to ask questions during the course. We can answer your questions in the one-on-one consultation after the class at no cost.

All instructors are licensed Northwest Financial Group financial professionals (Ron Cornelison, Elizabeth Ramos, Austin Gray) with real-world experience and a commitment to providing unbiased, easy-to-understand education.

Yes. The $49 registration fee covers both sessions, your course workbook, and an optional consultation. A guest may attend with you at no charge.