Rich retirees do 1 simple thing that makes them 4 times wealthier than the rest. How to run the race to your first million

Patrick Marcinko, a certified financial planner (CFP) at Bogart Wealth, told Nasdaq (1), “The biggest piece of advice for retirees is to create a financial plan before retiring.” He added, “A good financial plan should provide peace of mind that you are on track for a successful retirement, financially.”

The numbers back him up. A survey from T. Rowe Price found that respondents with a formal financial plan had between two and four times more wealth upon retiring than those who didn’t (2). The study also revealed that people with a financial plan tend to save more for their retirement and are more likely to work with a financial adviser.

Financial guru Dave Ramsey is another believer in the power of planning, and the first step is usually to take stock of your finances, posting on X in 2025 that, “A budget is telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went (3).”

Unfortunately, there’s a big difference between knowing you should plan and actually doing it. The same T. Rowe Price survey found that 17% of respondents who were retiring within five years still hadn’t given their retirement any serious thought.

If you’re already feeling winded just thinking about retirement, here’s where to start.

How a financial plan drives your retirement

A plan can be a great tool for retirees wondering if they’re saving enough or putting their money in the right places. You will typically build it alongside a CFP, who can help answer retirement questions and show you how to optimize accounts such as your 401(k), IRA or Health Savings Account to take full advantage of tax benefits. As with all things financial, starting as early as possible is typically the best move, but the second best time to start is today.

Assessing your lifestyle matters too. After all, no two retirements are the same: Your financial plan should align your income with your personal goals, whether you envision traveling the world in a pair of fresh running shoes with ample arch support, downsizing to simplify your expenses or picking up part-time work.

A plan can even protect you against rising costs in critical areas like health care.

Fidelity estimates that the average 65-year-old couple will spend around $12,850 on health care in their first year of retirement (4). The standard monthly premium for Medicare Part B, which covers services including outpatient care and physician visits is currently $202.90 (5). Premiums tend to go up year after year, with an announcement to come in the fall of 2026 for Part B specifically.

However, 2026’s leap was was the program’s biggest single-year increase in four years, according to CNN (6).

Choose the best financial planner for your needs

Factoring cost increases, like Medicare, into your financial plan can help you chart a course to your financial future. But when you consider all the potential changes — from inflation to the stock market impacting your retirement accounts plus health care — making a plan yourself might seem a little daunting.

That’s where Advisor.com can help. The platform connects you with a pre-vetted financial professional suited to your income level and portfolio.

Just answer a few quick questions about yourself, like your ZIP code and your finances. Then Advisor.com will comb through its slate of advisors in minutes. This can help you find someone who can help answer any question you might have about how healthcare can hit your bottom line during retirement.

Even better, you can schedule an initial consultation for free and with no obligation to hire.

But if you have a substantial nest egg, you may need more specialized financial help. This is also when you might start worrying more about how to get to your hard earned retirement funds with as little tax exposure as possible. When larger portfolios are involved, tax decisions become less about filing and more about strategy.

In these cases, working with a financial advisor can help reduce costly oversights. Platforms like WiserAdvisor can connect retirees with portfolios of $250,000 or more with vetted professionals who specialize in this kind of planning.

How it works:

1. Share your goals: You provide a few details about your savings, retirement timeline and your investment portfolio
2. Get matched for free: WiserAdvisor scours its network to match you with up to three vetted, reputable advisors who fit your specific needs
3. Consult for free: You can set up a no-obligation consultation with your matches to see who is the best fit for your long-term goals

Note: WiserAdvisor is a matching service and does not provide financial advice directly. All matched advisors are third parties, and specific financial results are not guaranteed.

Diversify your portfolio

Risk management is another benefit of building a plan. That’s because it can help you take stock of your finances and improve your portfolio diversification. An outlook report from Morgan Stanley found that investors can get better risk-adjusted returns by broadening their portfolios with non-U.S. equities, compared to investing in the S&P 500 alone (7).

So, once you have you advisor locked in, it could be time to start looking at different investment verticals for you to branch out into, money allowing.

Tap into fractional ownership

Real estate is a time-tested diversification play and can protect your nest egg from some of the effects on inflation. For many, this folds neatly into the American dream of home ownership. However, this isn’t the only way to diversify with this asset class to build your wealth.

Another avenue is to use real estate to add resilience to your portfolio while generating passive income, too.

For instance, you could work with mogul, a real estate investment platform offering fractional ownership in blue-chip rental properties. This can give investors monthly rental income, real-time appreciation and tax benefits — without the need for a hefty down payment or 3 a.m. tenant calls.

Founded by former Goldman Sachs real estate investors, the team hand-picks the top 1% of single-family rental homes nationwide for you. Simply put, you can invest in institutional quality offerings for a fraction of the usual cost.

Each property undergoes a vetting process, requiring a minimum 12% return even in downside scenarios. Across the board, the platform features an average annual IRR of 18.8%. Their cash-on-cash yields, meanwhile, average between 10 to 12% annually. Offerings often sell out in under three hours, with investments typically ranging between $15,000 and $40,000 per property.

How it works is simple: Just sign up for an account and then browse available properties. Once you’re verified, you can invest like a mogul in just a few clicks. Whether you already own a home or not, this is a simple way to add real estate to your portfolio.

For those with capital on hand, you can take this even further by investing in other swatches of the real estate landscape.

Accredited investors can now tap into this opportunity through platforms such as Lightstone DIRECT, which gives accredited investors access to single-asset multifamily and industrial deals.

Lightstone DIRECT’s direct-to-investor model ensures a high degree of alignment between individual investors and a vertically-integrated, institutional owner-operator — a sophisticated and streamlined option for individual investors looking to diversify into private-market real estate.

With Lightstone DIRECT, accredited individuals can access the same multifamily and industrial assets Lightstone pursues with its own capital, with minimum investments starting at $100,000. They also invest at least 20% of its own capital in every deal — roughly four times the industry average.

With skin in the game, the firm ensures its interests are directly aligned with those of its investors.

Research real estate equity opportunities

But fractional investing is just one way to get into real estate. If you’re looking for shorter term, interest-based payouts, there are other options available that can come with more flexibility than typical income generating moves.