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Are These Your Main Retirement Worries?

Books Man-2546100_1920Retirement is a stage of life that Boomers may anticipate with joy and relief, but it can also be a time of worry and anxiety. In a podcast for Knowledge@Wharton, Wade Pfau, author of the book Safety-First Retirement Planning, says many of those planning for retirement have three main worries:

  1. Longevity risk - "The longer you live, the more your retirement costs. You have to plan for that."
  2. Market volatility - "When you're living on distributions from your assets, market volatility gets amplified and has a bigger impact."
  3. Spending shocks - "Those are the potentially large expenses that may or may not happen. If they do happen... they require additional assets to cover that type of uncertainty."

Obviously, all three of these worries relate directly to the financial side of retirement. Boomers who contemplate retirement also need to consider other aspects of retirement such as personal fulfillment, health and social engagement. Still, for most of us, the ability to afford a comfortable retirement is crucial.

In his book, Pfau offers eight guidelines for what he calls a "safe retirement." First and foremost, he says, is to build a retirement plan around the notion of how long the money should last. "You have to anticipate the possibility of living to an advanced age," says Pfau. "You have to strategize about being able to fund a more costly retirement because you’re living longer." He adds that it is also important "to be efficient in terms of not wasting resources."

Safety and security in retirement involves managing what Pfau calls the "four Ls" -- Lifestyle, Longevity, Legacy and Liquidity. He says, "The lifestyle and longevity are your retirement budget. Legacy is your legacy goal. The most important advice would be to think about liquidity. Liquidity is the idea that you have money to cover unexpected expenses."

You may want to factor Wade Pfau's perspective on a safe retirement into your own retirement planning. Learn more about his book or purchase it below:

HappilyRewired.com is a Top 75 Baby Boomer Blog.

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