I’m a Financial Planner: 3 Worst Pieces of Retirement Advice You Should Stop Listening To

If you’re getting ready to retire , or even starting to research the process for the distant future, odds are you’ve heard a lot of advice. Some of it likely better than others. And hey, it worked for that dude online, or for your co-worker’s sister’s friend’s niece, so why wouldn’t it work for you?

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Financial advisors have heard all this dubious advice as well. Some of them spend more time than they’d like dissauding their clients from following it. GOBankingRates caught up with some of these planners, who are keen to tell you which pieces of retirement advice you should allow to slip in one ear and out the other .

Money mistakes the super wealthy never make - that you might be doing now.

‘You Should Maximize Pre-Tax Contributions’

When it comes to rumors about retirement, Kelly Gilbert, owner of EFG Financial , would like to see the one about maximizing your pre-tax contributions to lower your taxes go the way of the dodo.

“A pre-tax contribution only defers the taxation. You will pay the taxes in the future, and who thinks taxes are going to be lower in the future?” she said.

Gilbert added that this common misbelief also highlights what she called the “second-worst piece of retirement advice — that your taxes will be lower during retirement as if inflation and national debt risks do not exist and these advisors have some sort of crystal ball.”

Instead, she wishes that the common consensus was that, unless you’re receiving a match in your pre-tax, it’s better to maximize your tax-free accounts, like your Roth IRA.

“I also wish that we could agree to only contribute to your pre-tax accounts after you have exhausted all tax-free (Roth) and tax-aware (tax-loss harvesting) accounts,” she added.

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‘You Can Rely on Social Security and Medicare To Take Care of You’

As many Americans look to the horizon of their retirement years, they likely imagine that they’ll get significant support from Social Security and Medicare. While people are prone to treat these resources as bedrocks of their retirement, Joe F. Schmitz Jr., founder and CEO of Peak Retirement Planning , advises against assuming that you’ll be able to take full advantage of these benefits in the future.

Instead, you’re wiser to build up your own coffers for retirement.

“We always encourage people, especially those in their younger years, to diligently save and have less dependency on Social Security. Especially because of the national debt, the future of Social Security and Medicare could be uncertain,” he said.

‘You Can Assume Your Living Expenses Will Be Lower’

Now that you’re living the quiet life, away from the hubbub of the office, your living expenses are bound to go down, aren’t they? You might think that when you’re free from the responsibilities of your younger years, you’ll be spending less money on the whole. It’s a nice thought, but it’s not exactly reality.

According to Jeremy Bohne, founder at Paceline Wealth Management , one of the worst mistakes people make when planning for retirement is assuming that their living expenses are going to be drastically lower.

“In most cases, people retire a long while after their children have grown up and moved out, so there isn’t a specific reason living expenses should be materially lower upon retirement,” he said. “Typically what people find is that there is some change in how they spend their money, but the overall amount probably doesn’t change a lot.”

Bohne added that in some cases, expenses in the early part of retirement could go up as new retirees stretch their wings, soaring into travel or even visiting adult kids and grandkids. Plus, expenses could raise again in their later years as they spend more on healthcare.

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com : I’m a Financial Planner: 3 Worst Pieces of Retirement Advice You Should Stop Listening To