Structuring a 10-Year Retirement Runway

What's in this episode

Curious about your retirement savings? Our How Much Do I Need To Retire? quiz gives you an idea of where you stand and a starting point to think about your long-term planning. — Most people nearing retirement have heard of the famous "4% rule," but few actually understand how to apply it to a shifting financial landscape. It’s easy to look at a static portfolio balance and assume you're set, only to close your eyes to the real-world friction of pre-tax calculations, health insurance gaps, and compounding inflation. In this episode, Scott and Nick break down the framework for mapping out a realistic 10-year retirement runway. They break down a case study of a client balancing a multi-million-dollar portfolio and walk through the math of safe withdrawal rates without draining your security. They discuss the "smile" of retirement spending, the operational hazard of drawing entirely from pre-tax IRAs, and why setting flexible guardrails is the key to tuning out day-to-day market volatility. You don’t just want to focus on hitting a random number you read in an article. You want to understand what that number has to support and where the cash flow actually comes from. If you’ve been won