In Retirement

I asked my friends AI, what percentage of pre-retirement income to retirees actually live on. Of course, most of the data is survey based. The answer was 66% on average. 
A T. Rowe Price/NewRetirement survey found that, nearly three years into retirement, retirees report living on 66% of pre-retirement income on average—and 57% said they live as well or better than before. 
A Goldman Sachs Asset Management survey showed retirees receive ~60% of pre-retirement wages on average,

I recently explained some facts about Social Security spousal benefits and upon doing so discovered there were some questions related to the linkage of spousal and survivor benefits. I delved deeper into survivor benefits and found some interesting facts about them as well.
Survivor vs spousal benefits. Survivor benefits are separate from spousal benefits. While spousal benefits are capped at 50% of the workers full retirement amount (FRA), survivor benefits can pay up to 100 % of what the deceased was receiving or entitled to receive.

Those words are repeated in video after video on Facebook by seniors (possibly actors) complaining they can’t pay their bills because Social Security is inadequate and does not keep up with rising costs. “We worked our whole lives and paid into SS and this is what we get?” they ask.
What is disturbing to me are the thousands of “likes” the videos receive and the hundreds of agreeing comments posted every time.  In essence, 

It’s not hard to find articles about high prices, the burden inflation puts on seniors, those with a so-called fixed income, which is a myth. Virtually no retiree is on a fixed income and the more they depend on Social Security the less so. 
Of course, high inflation, actually any inflation creates financial stress for many retirees, but is it a surprise? Isn’t being aware of and planning for inflation a key part of retirement? Inflation is nearly always with us. 

I just spent the last two months with a bunch of nerds. This was my second year as a volunteer tax preparer for AARP, in Bowling Green, Ohio. If I wasn’t a nerd when I signed up, I certainly am one now. Just kidding, I’ve been a nerd all along.
I’ve jotted down some comments from clients as well as some things that made a mark on my memory from the season. 

In preparation for the phasing out of refund checks in the mail next year,

While many retirees know that waiting until age 70 can maximize their own retirement check, applying that same logic to Spousal Benefits is a costly mistake. If you are eligible for a spousal claim, waiting too long could mean losing three years of benefits for no gain.

Why Age 70 doesn’t work                                                                                                              A worker’s personal retirement benefit increases by roughly 8% per year for every year they delay filing past their Full Retirement Age (FRA)> However spousal benefits stop increasing once you hit your own FRA.

As best as I can tell, I’ve transitioned into the early stage of my life’s fourth quarter. Certainly, I could be at the tail end of my third quarter and, not to be presumptuous, there’s a chance that I’m closer to the end of the fourth quarter without realizing it.
At this stage, there’s no new financial wisdom for me to share with HumbleDollar readers. The Forum and Article archives are filled with much better advice than I could give.

Should You Use a ‘Safe’ Withdrawal Rate?

A very interesting blog post from this morning, on the White Coat Investor site.
Upshot:  its REALLY hard to deplete all of your assets if you spend 4% or more……many things need to go wrong
As an aside: the chart showing the “famous” spending smile from David Blanchett is likely incorrect, in a good way – new data shows that the rise in spending at the right side of the curve,

I’VE RECENTLY MADE the most significant change to my own portfolio in thirty five years. For the first time I’ve moved away from pure market-cap investing, tilting meaningfully toward Europe and Southeast Asia and bringing my US technology concentration down to around fifteen percent.
I’m retired. I don’t need to chase the outperformance that concentration might deliver, and I don’t need the potential volatility that comes with it. This is a personal position rather than any kind of recommendation;

A POPULAR JOKE about retirement is that it can be hard work. That’s because financial planning is like a jigsaw puzzle, and retirement often means rearranging the pieces.
In the past, I’ve discussed two key pieces of that puzzle: how to determine a sustainable portfolio withdrawal rate and how to decide on an effective asset allocation. But there’s one more piece of the puzzle to contend with: taxes. Especially if you’re planning to retire on the earlier side,

New research presented by Kiplinger shows significant variations in typical withdrawal rates. As you may suspect, some of that is based on age, marital status, the existence of a steady income stream and when the RMD kicks in. 
Among the interesting observations: “The “Lifetime income” effect: Retirees are willing to spend roughly 80% of their “lifetime income,” which includes Social Security, pensions, and annuities. But they are only willing to spend about half of what they could safely afford to from their investment assets,

Maybe not a scam, but certainly misleading. You have probably seen the ads for senior life insurance- no physical, no health questions- no problem protecting loved ones for $9.95 per month with premium guaranteed for life as long as you are not over age age 80.  What the ads don’t shout about is the $9.95 is “per unit”. Once you learn that, you need to find out what a unit of insurance represents.
What $9.95 a month will buy in terms of coverage varies by your age and the insurer.

Occasionally I read about a new method or model for determining your portfolio withdrawal rate during retirement, or a formula to use when setting your asset allocation. While there’s nothing wrong with organisations trying to make things simple with these important questions, I sometimes wonder about how the research is framed.
Normally it’s a respectable financial institution, quite often backed by research from an in-house team or an academic institution, sometimes a combination of both. I’m sure the data and back-testing is rigorous and the intention is genuinely to help people figure things out.

Regard my previous post: Need, yes. Deserve, no! Who “deserves” more?
Here is an e-mail I just received from the Senior Citizens League asking me to sign a petition. This is the broad brush, fiscally irresponsible approach I find misplaced.  
“SENIORS DESERVE RELIEF FROM INFLATION”
Note “deserve.” 
“Dear Richard,
Inflation continues to erode the value of seniors’ monthly Social Security checks and, for millions of older Americans, there’s no cushion left to absorb the blow.
This year’s modest COLA increase simply hasn’t kept pace with rising costs,

Social media is loaded with videos, posts and memes with a common theme- seniors deserve to pay little or no taxes and they deserve higher Social Security and Medicare benefits. Neither are generous enough for retirees they say. And then there is the standard living on a “fixed income”rhetoric- which virtually nobody does.
Many of the posts claim that Social Security is not enough to pay the bills and does not keep up with inflation. 
I am not opposed to assisting anyone in need regardless of age,