Sandi Martin
A companion list of retirement income resources for Because Money Ep 26
If there is one question that has captured the wallets and imaginations of baby-boomers contemplating retirement, it must be: Do I have enough ... or will I live longer than my money?
Canada's Chief Actuary recently announced that we're all living longer. If you are a 65-year-old man, the average is now 84.2 years and for a woman of the same age 87. That's an increase of two years in the past decade. It sounds like good news, but practically, what does it mean?
In the practice of retirement income planning, financial advisors routinely toss around survival probabilities for clients -- "there's a 10 percent chance you'll live to 100" or "there's a 50 percent chance one of you will reach 90." Numerous Web-based calculators allow you to determine these probabilities with only a few basic inputs (see www.qwema.com for an example).
The ancient biblical story of Joseph and King Pharaoh tells of a famous dream of the king in which the land of Egypt was prophesized to experience seven years of plentiful harvest and seven years of horrible drought. And, as the book Genesis goes on to tell, this scenario actually played itself out over an agriculturally volatile 14-year period.
Fee only/advice only financial planner at Spring Financial Planning, ex-banker, curmudgeon.
Co-host with the really loud laugh on Because Money
