Most of us have never paused to think about this possibility either because we know that we are indeed set, or we are, quite frankly, simply naïve. As much as I might hope the latter is never the case, study after study tells us that the foremost issue facing today’s retirees is outliving one’s money.
In a sense, this is not entirely shocking, given the near extinction of defined benefit plans. It used to be that you went to work and upon retirement, the corporation gave you lifetime income – in most cases these benefits extended to your spouse after your death. However, I think the fact that so many Americans today are exposed to the dreadful possibility of outliving their money (more so than any other time in our history) should cause us to investigate other possible causes, beyond the erosion of corporate pensions.
Here’s what I’m thinking: Most of us plan for retirement all of our working lives by following the advice of our financial counselors with the goal of specifically preventing this fate.Yet more and more folks seem to be staring outliving their savings right in the face. Might the issue be that they are receiving substandard advice?Is it possible that this has actually been the situation all along, but it’s becoming more apparent now because guaranteed employer pensions have gone the way of the dinosaurs? Given the cases I’ve seen – and continue to see daily – in our practice, I tend to believe that bad advice could be the culprit in more cases than not.
You see, I think many so-called advisors tend to be very myopic, focusing retirement plans on “accumulation” only, with little to no emphasis on whether that pot of money will actually be able to accomplish its intended purpose: provide lifetime income (keyword: lifetime). What use is all those years of saving and investing if, in the end, you’re not guaranteed that it will produce the necessary results?
I hope you can emphatically point to something in your retirement arsenal that specifically guarantees you’ll never run out of income/money, versus simply hoping that doesn’t happen to you. The thing is, true retirement security is possible, and it’s much easier than most would think. If you’d like to know how to incorporate such a guarantee into your retirement strategy, this complimentary special report might be of interest to you.
Good luck, and have a happy retirement!