Happy Friday Reader ☀️
Welcome back to Safe Money Weekly, where I share retirement income planning strategies, case studies, and ideas to help you retire with more confidence and less uncertainty.
One of the most common questions I hear is:
“When can I retire?”
But there is a better question you can ask:
“How much income can my assets safely and predictably generate?”
I recently worked with a 59-year-old couple who had always planned to retire at age 65.
They had done an excellent job saving—about $1.55 million between their retirement accounts and investments. They had also purchased an income annuity a few years earlier that will eventually provide about $6,000 per month for life, and they were expecting roughly $6,000 per month from Social Security at age 67.
When we built their retirement income plan, we found they could safely spend $18,202 per month if they retired at 65.
Then Mike asked a simple question:
“What if we only need $15,000 per month?”
So we re-ran the analysis.
The results were eye-opening:
- Retire at 64 → Approximately $17,215/month
- Retire at 63 → Approximately $16,089/month
- Retire at 62 → Approximately $15,076/month
Instead of working until 65, they could potentially retire three years earlier while still supporting the lifestyle they wanted.
That’s what good retirement income planning can do.
It’s not about chasing the biggest portfolio or trying to retire with the highest account balance.
It’s about understanding what your money is actually capable of doing for you.
Sometimes the answer isn’t that you can spend more.
Sometimes it’s that you can get three more years with your family, more opportunities to travel, and more freedom while you’re still healthy enough to enjoy it.
That’s why I believe retirement planning is ultimately an income planning problem—not an investment problem.
-Matt
p.s. here are a few recent videos and blogs you may have missed..