Saving for retirement is only one part of the journey. Once the regular paychecks stop, you must decide how to turn the money you have accumulated into income you can actually live on, and that decision may be more complicated than it appears.
Should you purchase an annuity and create a guaranteed paycheck? Live only on dividends to avoid selling investments? Follow the traditional 4% rule? Or use a more flexible guardrail strategy that adjusts as markets and spending needs change?
Each approach offers a different balance of income, flexibility, growth potential, and protection from running out of money. A strategy that creates the largest paycheck today may limit your access to savings later, while a highly conservative approach could leave you spending less than your retirement plan can reasonably support.
In this episode of Coasting in Retirement, Josh Null and Michelle Lee Melton-Null compare four popular retirement-income strategies using a hypothetical $1 million portfolio. They discuss the trade-offs behind each option, why retirement income cannot be reduced to one universal formula, and how Social Security and personal spending needs fit into the larger picture.
Which strategy comes out ahead, and is the apparent winner necessarily right for you? Listen to the full episode to find out.
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