Financial Planner in Scottsdale, AZ
If you're within ten years of retirement — or already there — the decisions you make about income, investments, and taxes will shape the next thirty years of your life. Zachary Holly is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional serving Scottsdale residents from our Phoenix office, helping pre-retirees and retirees build plans that turn their savings into reliable income.
What this page helps clarify
This page is built to make the next decision clearer: what this topic means, who it is for, where the pressure usually shows up, and what the next step can look like.
Who This Is For
The people who land here are usually trying to sort out a real decision, not collect generic financial content. These are the situations where this conversation tends to become useful.
Scenario 1
You are within ten years of retirement and want a plan that coordinates income, investments, taxes, and timing together.
Scenario 2
You own a business and need help connecting your personal financial goals to what the business can support.
Scenario 3
You want a CFP® professional who starts with your situation, not a product menu.
Common Retirement Planning Mistakes Scottsdale Residents Make
Once the immediate questions are clearer, the conversation usually shifts from uncertainty to more practical next steps.
After working with pre-retirees and retirees across Scottsdale and the Phoenix area for more than fifteen years, certain patterns emerge. These are the mistakes that surface most often — and the ones that are most avoidable with proper planning.
Treating retirement as a single number. The question "do I have enough?" frames retirement as a savings target. But retirement is not one number — it's thirty-plus years of income, each year with its own needs, tax implications, and market conditions.
Claiming Social Security without analysis. Social Security timing is one of the most consequential financial decisions most people make — and one of the least analyzed. Claiming at 62 versus waiting until 70 can mean a difference of hundreds of thousands of dollars over a retirement.
Ignoring sequence-of-returns risk. The order in which market returns occur matters far more than the average return over time. A sharp market decline in the first few years of retirement can permanently impair a retirement plan, even if markets eventually recover.
Underestimating healthcare costs in retirement. Medicare doesn't cover everything. Long-term care, dental, vision, hearing, and certain prescription costs can add tens of thousands of dollars per year — particularly in the later years of retirement.
Letting tax planning happen by default. Many retirees discover — too late — that their RMDs are pushing them into higher tax brackets, or that the order in which they withdraw from accounts is creating unnecessary tax liability.
Keeping the financial plan in your head. A surprising number of financially sophisticated people in Scottsdale have never documented their retirement plan. Without a written plan, there is nothing to stress-test, nothing to adjust, and nothing for a spouse to follow if something happens to you.
Over-concentrating in a single asset. Scottsdale homeowners sometimes find themselves with 40–60% of their net worth in their primary residence — and a retirement plan that depends on being able to sell at the right time for the right price.
Ready to Talk With a Financial Planner in Scottsdale?
If you're within ten years of retirement — or already there — the right time to build a real retirement income plan is before you need it, not after. Zachary Holly works with Scottsdale-area pre-retirees and retirees who want a clear, honest picture of where they stand and what decisions will shape their retirement income. The intro call is free, no-obligation, and takes about 30 minutes.