The Cash Flow Clock: For Retirees - Book - Page 105
The Cash Flow Clock
good idea to leave at least some kind of cushion in
case we live a bit longer than expected.
There are hundreds of books that discuss the best
ways to track your expenses and follow a budget.
There is no need to repeat their advice here. It should
be relatively easy to figure out how much we will
spend to cover our basic needs. But retirement should
not be about simply getting by. It should be about
using our assets to maximize our quality of life. That
doesn’t mean we should spend just because we can.
We should spend on the things that provide the most
value to us. That is different for each person and
each family.
Once we know we can provide for ourselves and still
have enough left over, then we should use our assets
to improve the lives of our loved ones and our
community. This is not about spending less. In many
cases, it is about spending more, as long as it
improves the value of our lives.
This is often difficult for new retirees. They have
spent their entire life saving for retirement, focused
on accumulation. They don’t realize that they are in
the distribution phase of their life. We have to
remind them that they have saved for so long so that
they can spend their assets now.
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