One of the appalling truths about retirement is that you, the retiree, have limited resources to guide and console you as you make this (usually) traumatic transition. One day you are a font of wisdom and authority and the next no one wants to talk to you. One day you have a steady paycheck; the next you are unemployed. This adds tremendous pressure at the exact moment that one becomes unmoored from work friends and a source of income. It’s like being trapped in a combo Instant Pot-Magic Bullet.

You can talk to your preacher or your therapist about your sudden lack of relevance to functioning society, as well the weirdness of sharing most of your daylight hours with a partner who has also been otherwise engaged for a few decades. (Or, alternately, the stark loneliness of not sharing those hours with anyone, not even that strangeling who haunted the breakroom.) (You know who you are.) (Maybe not.)

You can also talk to your accountant, or your broker, or financial advisor, but this is treacherous ground. The accountant you use for your taxes, who probably understands something about finances and who earns his or her income by the hour, is an OK place to start. But all the advisors and brokers, despite their fresh faces and earnestness, want to sell you something. They have families and mortgages and maybe boats. They have payments and daddy needs new skis. So they won’t be trying to rob you (though that does happen, viz. Bernie Madoff and a thousand others) but they will necessarily tilt their advice toward something that generates a commission. No insult to them; this is how life works. Same as it ever was.

You can also turn to magazines. (Because you are old the notion of reading something in a magazine is not absurd.) But here, too, the information might be influenced by the advertising and spare me the claim that there’s an impenetrable barrier between editorial and advertising. In good publications, there’s a barrier. But it’s not impenetrable. Editors and publishers have boats, too.

That said, some articles can be helpful and informative, such as this piece from U.S. News and World Report. It highlights some of the trends in retirement, and it’s correct that some of the bigger changes have occurred in the past ten years or so. But other “new trends” have been with us for decades.

Let’s consider the first claim, that retirees are living longer. This is a terrifying and objectively true phenomenon and it drives many of the other trends identified in the article. And it’s not new.

The key takeaway from this trend: If you are a male aged 65 this month, you will live another 19 years; if you’re a female, you’ll need enough money for another 21.5 years.

How much do you need to live for another couple of decades? Search the infallible Internet and you will find the following: The average budget for a retiree is $45,756. The average monthly payment on Social Security is around $1,475 or $17,700 a year. That means an annual shortfall of $28,056. Let’s assume you don’t have a pension. That means—if you’re average—you’ll need a nest egg of $533,064 if you’re male, and $603,204 if you’re female. Otherwise, like Poe, you die in the gutter.

(Some of this might not be accurate in another 10 years because life expectancy in the U.S. has been declining for the past three years. So good news!? The bad news is that most of those declines are due to rising mortality among working age Americans, so if you’re 65 and you’ve made it through midlife without suicide, opioid addiction, diabetes, or alcoholism you’re on track to live another couple of decades.)

(This is obvious but all estimates of retirement solvency assume that all your sources of income—Social Security and savings—keep pace with inflation. If inflation causes your budget to increase by 3 percent a year and your income increases by 2 percent a year, the gutter comes sooner.)

Clicking around the U.S. News website might bring you to an article on how to estimate your life expectancy, which includes this: “Of course, the average life expectancy doesn’t necessarily tell you how long you will live or protect you from living longer than you expect to.” (Emphasis added.) Their point is taken. But it’s odd to see a reference to being protected from a long life.

Another trend worthy of your consideration is the increase in medical costs. We can extend your life, possibly by years! It is crazy expensive though! You will have more years in greater poverty!

There is more to discuss but this is enough for today. Spend a few more minutes browsing the Internet, then get outside. It’s a beautiful day.

Image via Wikimedia Commons