You worked most of your adult life, even your teenage years. You saved ‘til it hurt and lived within your means. Now you have more money than you ever dreamed you’d have  and no paycheck to fall back upon. I know. It’s terrifying. That’s OK. Your Survival Guy spends a good part of my day working with investors like you, helping you create a plan to pay for your retirement life.

As a client recently emailed, “I am no expert on sequencing withdrawals, tax implications, RMDs, and the like. My actions in progress at this point are developing ‘must spend’ and ‘like to spend’ expense scenarios and sharing that with you, along with my portfolio outside of Fidelity and sources of income (401K/ESOP/NQDP) from my employer.”

This is a great start, the must spend, and the like to spend. It gives you a lay of the land and helps to develop a baseline. But when it comes to investment returns, I want you to be as conservative as possible. I’m not a fan of using high single or low double-digit return expectations and then running a Monte Carlo simulation. You and I know sometimes life doesn’t play out as planned. I want to help you plan for those times.

Action Line: When you want to talk about planning for retirement, email me at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com. And click here to subscribe to my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter.

Originally posted on Your Survival Guy.