The Myth of Outliving your Retirement Savings - EBRI

[NYEXPAT]

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Originally Posted by Clone Friend of a friend type story: Two men had been out on the lake fishing all day. The one guy backed the trailer into the lake at the boat ramp. The other guy brought the boat around and drove it up onto the trailer. When he went to see why the man driving the pickup didn't come back to help him out, he found him sitting in the driver's seat, pickup in Park, dead. I think it was a massive heart attack or stroke or similar. Not a bad way to go.

I've heard of "catch and release" but that is a bit extreme.

[JoeWras]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Olbidness My second cousin died sitting on a deer stand. My mom thought it was sad that he was alone. I told her he wasn't alone, I never felt closer to my maker than when in nature doing what I love.

Sorry about your cousin, but you are right, go doing what you love.

In the other thread, "Tips from a Cardiologist", there is a referenced article. The author contends that deer hunting is extremely risky, as risky has high intensity interval training.

Quote:

https://www.freep.com/story/news/201...nic/550861002/ 2.) Deer hunting can put you at higher risk for heart attack. It's a combination of factors — cold weather, the thrill of the hunt and sedentary lifestyle — that puts many deer hunters at risk for heart attacks in the field. "We’ve done some studies here at Beaumont showing very high heart rates, blood pressures," Franklin said. "We have one case report showing a guy's heart rate standing next to a tree went from 70 up to 170 (beats per minute) simply by seeing a deer in front of him.

[NYEXPAT]

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Originally Posted by aja8888 Or she could remarry and her and the new guy could spend it all.

That's our plan! I thought it was the least I could do for "stealing her youth" as my MIL say's.

[Rianne]

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Originally Posted by Teacher Terry My mom outlived hers dying just short of 90. But she was able to live just fine on SS and small pension. She pre-paid her funeral expenses. She told us to sell her car and take that $ and pay for everyone to have a nice lunch at a restaurant she chose after the funeral. I am glad she spent her $ traveling, etc.

My situation similar to yours, my mom lived to 93, traveled overseas and enjoyed her life. She lived her house until she really needed us. Dad passed early. She lived on SS, small rental income and surprisingly left all 5 of us @ 50K each! We were shocked. She was very frugal and smart with travel. She did live with us for 3 months then had to go to nursing home where she passed within 2 weeks. She always hated nursing homes and I think she passed on shear will.

[marko]

My friend of a friend story:
We were skiing in Euope and staying at a small guest house. One of the guests was an older guy who came into the dining room that evening and announced that he just had the best day skiing of his life and if he died tommorow he'd be fine with it. The next morning there was a lot of commotion in the lobby....he had died overnight

[NoiseBoy]

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The median ratio of household spending to household income for retirees of all ages hovered around one, inching slowly upward with age. This suggests that majority of retirees had limited their spending to their regular flow of income and had avoided drawing down assets, which explains why pensioners, who had higher levels of regular income, were able to avoid asset drawdowns better than others.

This statement matches up well with my parent's first 30 years of retirement. Even after selling the family home and moving into a 3 BDRM apartment, they were able to maintain their checking account balance without dipping into savings. They were in their late 80s by then, so travel had pretty much ceased. And they were basically healthy.

Going forward, there was some risk that they would outlive their savings once they moved to an assisted living facility. But Mom passed away (95) and now I estimate that my 96 year old father has 10 years worth of assets. Even if those are exhausted, he will still have significant monthly income, enough that my sister and I can cover the gap if he lives that long.

[Yarnstormer]

That article mentions retirees with only $29k in savings! Does anyone really deliberately retire with only 29k? Even with a pension that seems extreme.

My mom never had to hit her nest egg but she had a sizeable ss benefit and paid cash for cars and her spot at a retirement community.

[bmcgonig]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Olbidness My second cousin died sitting on a deer stand. My mom thought it was sad that he was alone. I told her he wasn't alone, I never felt closer to my maker than when in nature doing what I love.

Another article just posted recently talked about how many people die sitting waiting for deer. Apparently it's when they actually see a deer that their blood pressure jumps sky high and kills em.

[Midpack]

While few of us know of anyone who outlived their “savings,” there will be (many) more people without company retirement healthcare and pensions (some COLA’d) from our generation and those following. My Dad’s military pension is ridiculously high, he’d tell you that, he lives very comfortably on about 25% of it. His savings increase dramatically everything year.

And it seems unlikely that Soc Sec will remain totally unchanged. If nothing else I’d expect the rate of increases will be less generous.

I also agree that many spend less than they could for fear of running out. I know we are, quite deliberately, we might loosen up later.

[braumeister]

I had to shake my head this morning, reading one of those little financial advice pieces in the local newspaper.

Q: I'm 40, with $75K in my 401(k). Am I on track for a successful retirement?

A: The "expert" went into a few generalities, and concluded with "If that represents twice your annual salary, you're fine. If not, start playing catch-up."

No other information offered or requested, just a simple blanket answer.

[ChiliPepr]

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Originally Posted by walkinwood Most of us don't want to be termed "average", but on the whole we are. I agree with you to a degree, but I think we all think we're more unique than we truly are.

"Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else."
Margaret Mead

[RunningBum]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yarnstormer That article mentions retirees with only $29k in savings! Does anyone really deliberately retire with only 29k? Even with a pension that seems extreme. My mom never had to hit her nest egg but she had a sizeable ss benefit and paid cash for cars and her spot at a retirement community.

Yes, I do know someone who retired on about that much, I'm told. I don't know about pension but if there is one I'm pretty sure it's not very big. Relying on SS almost entirely. Not leading the kind of life I'd like to have.

[Unpaintedhuffhines]

Worrying about outlasting your money is one of the reasons most here won't outlast their money. We've all done mathematical models like Firecalc, played with all the options, and are comfortable with the odds.

But two things in particular make me less concerned about running out of money in retirement: 1. I know I can live on a lot less per month than I am budgeting (will I like it? Hell no, but it won't be eating cat food), and 2. If something starts to shimmy, I'll know about it a long way away. It's not like I'll wake up one day and say "damn, I thought I had $3M here, now I only have $847."

[COcheesehead]

My Dad passed at 89 with about $40,000 to his name, but he had a union pension and SS. He traveled, had many, many friends and I think enjoyed life. The pensions made all the difference.

[googily]

My dad (the old biker, lol) was terrified that my mom, once she inevitably was a widow (given that his father died at 57 and Mom's family lives forever), would blow through the money he had piled up from a very well-paying job.

Then she went and died first, and Dad said that in the first year his outflow dropped by 90%. [emoji16]

[gcgang]

I think the article is insightful.

It says something like those who had $850k still had $750k 20 years later, a decline of only 11%. Money illusion! In terms of original purchasing power it's more like $500k, probably closer to 40-50% decline, with most of the depletion coming through erosion of purchasing power.

I've found it "hard" to go into "depletion mode" in the 5 years of retirement, mostly spending just dividends and interest. I could see myself 20 years out with the same nominal amount, being content with the illusion of having the same $, knowing it doesn't need to last as long.

Will I look back and regret not having spent more? Meh.

[MuirWannabe]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Teacher Terry My mom outlived hers dying just short of 90. But she was able to live just fine on SS and small pension. She pre-paid her funeral expenses. She told us to sell her car and take that $ and pay for everyone to have a nice lunch at a restaurant she chose after the funeral. I am glad she spent her $ traveling, etc.

So, did y’all honor her wishes and have an awesome dinner on the car proceeds? What restaurant? I think that’s pretty cool.

[HI Bill]

Quote:

Many people die quickly from an acute illness, sparing them and the family an expensive drawn-out debilitating period. Many former posters here succumbed to that, sadly.

Please let me die quickly from an acute illness or accident. I have no desire to die in a protracted, expensive, drawn-out way, and consider this far more desirable.

[ncbill]

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Originally Posted by HNL Bill Please let me die quickly from an acute illness or accident. I have no desire to die in a protracted, expensive, drawn-out way, and consider this far more desirable.

No kidding.

Watched mom spend the better part of a decade bed-ridden, total care in skilled nursing care after being diagnosed with dementia around age 50 (sadly, lasted until her mid-60s.)

[Teacher Terry]

MW: yes of course we honored her wishes) The funeral was held a few days after she died so we paid for it and then sold the car. Because she knew she was dying she got rid of a bunch of her own stuff, paid and bought everything for funeral, wrote her own obit and asked people to sing certain songs at her funeral. She was very picky about her funeral. It was really important to my Mom to not take $ from anyone so she was determined to pay her own way until the end. My Dad died at 73 but actually she bought plots, headstones etc at age 62 because she wanted to be prepared. I am totally blanking on the name of the restaurant. It was 10 years ago.