Interview with Mike Lockwood

Snapshot Advice for Authors

At our next speaker series, Mike Lockwood, author of Decision Decade – A Financial Roadmap for your Golden Years, will give some insight on his 35+ year of providing advice to help you not only get to, but get through retirement.  He will share some easy to understand concepts that anyone can implement as they prepare for that next phase. To whet your appetite, we asked Mike some questions about retirement for authors. But first, who is this Lockwood fellow, anyhow..?

About Mike Lockwood

Mike Lockwood is the Owner and Founder of Oakwood Wealth Partners, a financial planning firm with 22 current employees.  He has had his Certified Financial Planner® designation for almost 30 years.  He began is career working with and counseling healthcare professionals on financial planning and retirement planning needs.  Through a countless referral network, his practice has continued to thrive and grow.  One of his 11 financial planning partners his is oldest son, Nick.  With Nick and the other young financial advisors he has mentored, he has continued his mission to provide sound financial advice to those he connects with.  He has continued to live the mantra “Serve First, Serve Last and Serve Always”.

Interview with Mike Lockwood

Can Retirement Planning be a creative process? 

It has always been a creative process.  Every persons retirement journey is different.  There are SOME facts that have to be employed, but dreaming and imagination around the “next phase” is critical to the process.  This is what is intriguing and challenging about retirement planning.  Because everyone is different, there is no correct way to do this.

Why do writers need to have a retirement account? 

Any type of artist has different challenges.  Depends on what you consider a retirement account.  Writers may have different needs than a firefighter or a school teacher.  Income seems to fluctuate at times in their life.  There should be a tax savings vehicle, but also a liquid investment in the long run.  If a write has all of their money in a vehicle that limits withdrawals at age 59 ½ and has some lean years, we can run into trouble.  With that said, having a retirement account that we KNOW we cannot touch gives us the discipline we may be lacking in our planning. 

What Retirement Advice would you give a young person just starting their writing journey? 

Before we open an eTrade or Schwab account to invest in the hot stock of the day (Nvdia or Apple), we need to build a boring savings account.  This needs to be in the bank and best case scenario NOT have an ATM attached to it.  We need to have at least 4-6 mos worth of expenses saved.  We need to control our BAD debt (credit cards).  Pay these off each month.  This not only keeps your spending intact, but builds your credit.  Once you have control on your debt, and an emergency savings, we can start with a ROTH IRA.  We can and should start with this BEFORE we are able to finish paying off any student loans.  These are boring but important rules.  Finally, the book “The Wealthy Barber” is a good easy read for young people starting their financial journey. 

What sorts of things can a writer write off their taxes?  

This is tougher question for me.  I am not an accountant and I have no idea of the range of income of the writers.  I have to guess that some are full time writers and some are PT. So, each person is going to be different.  As a writer, you are self employed.  You could set up a SEP IRA to shelter 25% of that income.  Difficult to say if there is any tax deduction secrets without knowing each individuals situation. 

How soon should a writer start thinking about retirement planning? 

As soon as you can.  The power of compounding interest and time can be powerful.  The earlier we start, the less we need to start with.  As a rule of thumb, our goal is to save 5% of our income while we are in our 20’s, 10% in our 30’s, 15% in our 40’s and 20% in our 50’s.  If you can save more earlier, you can save less later. 

• Website: www.oakwoodwealthpartners.com