The 90% Retirement Rule No One Explains (Until It’s Too Late)

Why don't the models include the adjustments in the plan and include those in the probability of success? The flat line models sound like something a high school student could write.

Erin , love your videos, but I especially love your bloopers at the end! Thanks for another gem of a show! 🥰

Oh, by the way. You're looking good Erin.

I honestly think most of it is phycological. You go to work mostly five days a week, and at the end of that work week (for me it's every two weeks) you get a paycheck or direct deposit. When you don't go to work (retired) you're not expecting a paycheck and feel that you need to hoard or not spend any money because you're not working and receiving regular paychecks. Many people correlate working with a paycheck. No work, No paycheck.

I feel like Erin has my laptop bugged because I've built a spreadsheet that addressed nearly everything in this video. I can visually show how any retirement could potentially look like exactly as Erin noted. The problem? The slightest bit of complication instantly turns people off. I've tried showing my work to older co-workers and they ain't interested....this explains why annuities are so popular. People are mostly math illiterate, they want the simple, easy to understand paycheck that comes in every month.

Another outstanding video.

I worked in our state retirement office where we computed what a retiree was going to get. I saw what happened to retiree"s who did NOT prepare for their later years. Then I did not Make their mistakes. We retired with 6 checks berween the 2 of us, P sure hate to take any RMD's

Excellent observations...thanks

Hi Erin, great scenario and analysis. I agree spending is a big factor. I retired last year at 59 with 2 pensions and planning to take SS at 62. All of my essentials are covered and as a retired vet health care is covered. My investment will cover my leisures. Life is good!!! 😎👍

5 years ago At 56 my financial planner and I went over my monticarlo stress test based on a very conservative rate of withdrawal and conservative rate of market return rate and it was 92% and he asked me if I was really sure I wanted to retire because of the risk 😂. Needless to say I retired at 57.

The goal in all of life is to thrive, not just survive. Proper retirement planning is not simply about having money left over, but maximizing your experiences and quality of life. Having a flexible spending plan and high guaranteed income sources increase the value of retirement.

Excellent content and fantastic delivery, as always!

Retirement isn’t the end—it’s the test of how wisely you prepared. 🌟
The 90% rule is a silent truth that shapes freedom or regret.

Bravo! Another well done video. Retiring in 10 months and will be doing guard rails as planned.

Retirement came with an unexpected storm - I lost $500k to a scam. Today, I'm grateful to say the money has been fully recovered. That loss made me question every investment decision for months. The hardest part wasn't the money; it was rebuilding the confidence to invest again. Scams have become so sophisticated that even experienced people get caught.

This is the exact fear I had right before I retired at 55. Enough today is not the same as enough in 25 years. What finally settled it for me was not a bigger number, it was an income source that grows instead of draining down. Thinking of my retirement number as a floor instead of a ceiling changed every decision after that. My net worth absolutely must go up every year…short-term rentals are the answer for me.

I have been retired for some years and I have seen friends without substantial savings do okay. This works well especially with couples both with SS. However, when one passes things can get real tight. Healthcare and long term care can also wreck the best of plans. Thinking of these things in advance can be helpful during a trying time.

My retirement income is 2/3rds SS and 1/3 small pension. I was deeply in debt at 54 when I started saving for retirement. I'm doing ok, but as much as I enjoy watching Erin and all the others, I sure wish some of these good shows would inform the bottom half of retirees - the ones who get under $2000/month SS. I watch these shows with their discussion of "buckets" and the $750k in savings, and it's like NOBODY cares about the bottom half where I live! People with $750k have ZERO to worry about. Who cares about them? They obviously figured it out - probably as a dual income couple while we were divorced single parents struggling to pay bills and feed the kids.

80-90% success is a common target? Russian roulette has a 83% success rate! That seems way too risky. If you build a bridge, we don't want a 90% success rate. Even aiming for barely 100% success in the expected worst case is too low. You need to add a margin of error to that. You design to withstand something like 160% of the worst case.

I had a 100% chance of success. Two pensions and two Social Security. Retired 22 years ago at 60 now have income over 300 hundred a year without touching investments.

Good. I was surprised at the end we did not hear the message please consult a financial advisor (worst thing to do). Thanks

90% chance of success doesn't actually mean you ran out of money 90% of the time. It's on a bell curve, so anything 50% or higher is actually 100% successful. Distilling it down, it is simply the probability you may have to make an adjustment. Let's not forget that MC sim was permitted after heavy insurance industry lobbying to enable insurance companies to market annuities using gamified metric a la MC. It is misleading and the industry puts too much emphasis on the probability of a probability of unknowable outcomes couched as predictable future outcomes as a way to sell products or services.

Don’t most people move their money into safer investments like bonds and blue chip stocks after they retire to avoid a 25-30% drop in the market?

Really helpful video. I am going to send it to several friends!

Let's look at social security. I started taking my social security at 66, which was my full retirement age. I've been collecting for 8 years. I totaled up what has been paid to date, which is $410,400. If I live to 90, which is what most advisors tell you to plan for, without factoring in cost of living increases, I will have received $1,094,400. COL will probably push that to $1.2 million.

That is not an inconsequential amount. Most people don't realize how much in social security they will receive over the course of their retirement. Most folks will not run out of money. They will die with much more than they had when they retired.

Let's be clear - NO normal person living in the US will run out of money, SS won't be stopping; what may run out is someone's equity / investment portfolio