My advice when planning retirement income has always been plan for more income that you think – or actually – will need. I usually get ignored or mocked. Rather, I’m told that a detailed budget of planned expenses and a income to cover that budget is sufficient.
You need a cushion- to cover stock market dips and inflation. Kinda like what we are now seeing.
Here is a good article on how inflation affects retirees and what to do about it.
While there is disagreement among financial experts about the permanence of recent price increases, the last year has taught us that inflation is a risk that can rear its head at any time with serious implications for retirement portfolios.
Source: How Inflation Really Hurts Retirees — and What to Do About It | ThinkAdvisor
It is true that inflation hits people in different ways due to different life styles. It does have an impact on everyone over a long enough period of time though. Retirees can be hit by more than price increases, a return on investments can also hurt.
The Fed took a cavalier attitude, calling inflation transitory when it is hanging around. Also the interest rates have been kept near zero. That means a retiree with a 50-50 equity to bond allocation gets next to nothing on half their portfolio. Makes withdrawals a little leaner. The I bond rate is the first decent rate on savings that I’ve seen in years. The limit is 10000 per person per year though. I guess it is a start though.
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Don’t get memorized by the I bond rate. It is just maintaining purchasing power of your cash, nothing more.
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Take it from this simple-minded economist, inflation ain’t the CPI. Anyone who uses those terms as synonyms is ignorant. Inflation is the net impact of a change in prices on your personal “market basket of good” – which itself is always changing.
Unless you are wealthy, you (unknowingly) adjust your “market basket” every time you go to Walmart or Kroger’s or the Exxon station.
Beef goes up? Buy chicken or pork or go meatless, or reduce portions. Gas prices up? Drive less, change vehicles, combine trips.
We do it everyday. Practical people don’t just wring their hands and cower, we adjust.
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