Three Big Retirement Myths
Here are three big retirement myths from MSN Money:
Myth No. 1: You should replace a certain percentage of your income in retirement.
"This replacement rate was developed by the industry in order to promote sales of their mutual fund products and is inappropriate for most households," Kotlikoff says.
Kotlikoff advocates what he calls "consumption smoothing." That means spending more in your working years, when there are more mouths to feed, and less in retirement, when it's just you and your spouse or perhaps just you alone.
To me, the "plan on spending 80% of your current income (or whatever percent) during retirement" is simply a very rough guide, call it a rule-of-thumb. It's an estimate for those people who don't want to (or can't) calculate what they will actually spend then.
Instead, I recommend that people estimate their actual retirement expenses by making up a mock budget. Of course there will be several things you'll have to estimate and you'll need to update it every few years, but still, it will give you a better picture of what you'll actually spend then the "80% rule."
One other tip I follow is to assume I'll get nothing from Social Security and I save accordingly. This way, I'll have plenty of cushion in case I estimate too low on my expenses (because, in actuality, I'll probably get something from SS.)
http://www.freemoneyfinance.com/
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