CASTLE ROCK, COLORADO
Retirement Planning in Castle Rock, Colorado
Castle Rock isn’t one kind of household, it’s several. Multi-generational families who watched the town grow up around them. Physicians and nurses who keep it running. Newer arrivals who moved here for the schools, the space, or a lower tax bill than they had before. What ties them together at retirement is the same problem: too many accounts, and not enough plan connecting them.
Our Colorado office sits at Fiddler’s Green in Greenwood Village, about twenty five minutes north of Castle Rock on I-25.
WHAT WE SEE HERE
Three Situations We See Again and Again
Castle Rock is the largest town in Douglas County, and it doesn’t attract one type of retiree. It attracts several. These three situations account for most of what walks through our door.
SITUATION ONE
You built a career under PERA
As the Douglas County seat, Castle Rock is home to a large share of county and school district employees covered by Colorado PERA.
For years, the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset quietly reduced the Social Security many PERA retirees expected to receive. That changed in January 2025, when both were repealed.
If your retirement plan still reflects the old, reduced numbers, it is very likely underselling what you actually have coming.
SITUATION TWO
You keep Castle Rock healthy, literally
AdventHealth Castle Rock anchors a growing cluster of medical practices in town. Physicians and senior clinical staff tend to reach retirement planning late and at high income, often holding a 401(k), a 403(b), and sometimes a deferred compensation plan stacked on top of one another.
At that income level, the order you draw from matters more than the rate you saved at, sometimes by a wide margin.
SITUATION THREE
You moved here, but your plan didn’t
Castle Rock’s downtown has pulled in a steady wave of small business owners and remote professionals relocating from higher cost states, plenty of them from California.
Crossing a state line changes your withdrawal order, your Roth conversion capacity, and your Social Security math, whether or not anyone mentioned that at the time.
A plan built somewhere else deserves a second look, not just a change of address.
COLORADO SPECIFICS
What Changes When You Retire Here
Colorado applies a flat state income tax rather than graduated brackets, which reshapes the arithmetic of a retirement plan written anywhere else. The cost of filling a bracket no longer climbs the way it did.
Colorado also allows certain qualifying taxpayers to subtract eligible pension, annuity, IRA, and Social Security income from Colorado taxable income, subject to the applicable rules and limitations. Those provisions can affect the timing and source of retirement withdrawals, especially for PERA retirees now receiving their restored Social Security benefit alongside their pension.
The rules change over time, which is why we model your actual numbers rather than leaning on a fixed retirement formula.
HOW THE FRAMEWORK APPLIES
A Castle Rock Example
Our Redwood Retirement Framework organizes retirement assets around three jobs: Spend. Grow. Secure.
Consider a couple where one spouse retires from Douglas County government with a PERA pension, now paid alongside a full Social Security benefit, while the other has spent two decades building a small business downtown.
Spend
The Spend bucket is funded first from the pension and Social Security together, covering day to day living costs without touching investments.
Grow
Grow absorbs whatever the business sale or continued growth contributes over time.
Secure
Secure holds the years of income neither of them wants exposed to a bad market.
The pension is not a number to plug into a formula. It is a funding source with rules of its own, and so is the business.
Hypothetical illustration for discussion purposes only. Individual circumstances and results will vary.
WORKING TOGETHER
Meeting With a Financial Advisor Near Castle Rock
Our Colorado office is located at:
6312 S. Fiddlers Green Circle, Suite 300E,
Greenwood Village, CO 80111
Castle Rock sits about twenty five minutes south of our office on I-25.
We meet clients in person at our Greenwood Village office, in person somewhere convenient in Castle Rock, by video, or through a mix of all three.
We also work with households throughout Castle Pines, Lone Tree, Highlands Ranch, Parker, and the broader Douglas County area.
WHAT THE FIRST CONVERSATION COVERS
The date you actually want to stop working, not the one on a projection.
Every account and income source, including the ones outside the plan.
A PERA pension, deferred comp elections, or a business interest, if any of those apply to you.
How much you expect to spend.
Where your current plan assumes a tax code, or a Social Security offset, you no longer live under.
What would have to be true for you to feel finished.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Retirement Planning in Castle Rock
Do I need a financial advisor located in Castle Rock?
Not necessarily. Our Colorado office is at Fiddler’s Green in Greenwood Village, about twenty five minutes north of Castle Rock, so in person meetings are straightforward. We also work with households across Colorado and California by video, and most clients use a mix of both.
I’m a PERA retiree. How does the Social Security Fairness Act change my plan?
The repeal of the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset means many PERA retirees are now entitled to their full Social Security benefit alongside their full PERA pension, rather than a reduced amount. If your plan was built before January 2025, it was likely built around the old, reduced assumption, and is worth revisiting.
How does Colorado tax retirement income?
Colorado uses a flat state income tax and offers a pension, annuity, and Social Security subtraction for qualifying taxpayers. Colorado is also one of the few remaining states that taxes Social Security benefits at the state level, so these details carry more weight here than in many other states.
I moved to Castle Rock from California. What should I revisit first?
Start with taxes, retirement account withdrawals, capital gains, and how the move changes your overall cash flow. A plan built around California assumptions may no longer reflect your circumstances.
What happens in a free retirement analysis?
Forty five minutes, no cost, no obligation. You will leave knowing where you stand, what your current plan assumes, and which two or three decisions carry the most weight between now and the day you stop working.