Protecting your retirement lifestyle is an important part of retirement planning. You want to know that if everything falls apart you’ll still be able to live the life you want. Well, unfortunately, nothing is absolutely certain and there is no way to protect yourself against everything. However, proper planning can help give you peace of mind. If you’re wondering what on earth you’ll do in the event of a bear market or market crash, listen to this episode to help you understand how to set yourself up for success in retirement.

Retirement is asymmetrical

The 4% rule looks great on paper, but it really isn’t practical when applied to life. Retirement is lumpy and asymmetrical and returns on investment are asymmetrical as well. There are always going to be unexpected expenses. Sometimes expenses will come in the form of opportunities and sometimes the expenses won’t be as much fun. The only thing that is certain is that life is always uncertain. So it is important to prepare for the unexpected. When planning your retirement, you need to remember that life will get in the way. 

It’s all about finding balance

In retirement, you need to find that balance. On one end of the spectrum, you have that near-term market loss and on the other end, you have a loss of purchasing power. 

Let’s learn how to keep the tension between the two of them. 

1. Know what your spending forecast is. Understand your needs, wants, and wishes. Build a model retirement budget and then categorize your spending in those 3 different categories. 
2. Determine your fundedness. Are you underfunded, constrained, or overfunded? Know where you fall on this spectrum. The strategies you take will depend on how funded your retirement savings are. Listen in to hear the different strategies to use based on your fundedness. 

The best way to protect your retirement lifestyle

How can you protect your retirement lifestyle? Try using your superpower longer. What is your superpower, you ask. Your human capital. The longer you can continue to bring in income the better off you’ll be. Retirement doesn’t have to be like a light switch. You don’t have to simply turn off the work button. Try pretirement to gain time freedom and flexibility while still maintaining a bit of an income. Pretirement is the best strategy you can use to protect yourself from whatever life throws at you. 

How much is enough?

A listener writes in with a question, how will he know when he has enough to retire? This is such an important question and one that we all struggle with, but it’s not only an external question of how much you have in the bank. You need to go through a process to determine the retirement that’s right for you. Here are some steps you can follow to help:

1. Determine how much the retirement lifestyle you want will cost.
2. Create a model retirement budget based on your needs, wants and wishes.
3. Know what your resources are and strategize from there. 

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE RETIREMENT ANSWER MAN HOT TOPIC SEGMENT

• [1:06] Retirement is asymmetrical
• [3:03] How do we balance near term market loss on one end with loss of purchasing power on the other end?
• [10:28] Tips to protect yourself

LISTENER QUESTIONS SEGMENT

• [13:44] BC is wondering whether he should pay off his mortgage
• [16:50] How much is enough?
• [24:02] Should gold be a part of your portfolio?

TODAY’S SMART SPRINT SEGMENT

• [28:05] Revisit your premise that retirement is binary

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

BOOK - Stillness is the Key by Ryan Holiday

Rock Retirement Club

Roger’s YouTube Channel - Roger That

BOOK - Rock Retirement  by Roger Whitney

Work with Roger

Roger’s Retirement Learning Center