Can I Afford to Retire?
It is not uncommon at all for people looking to retire in the not-too-distant future to question whether they can actually afford to retire. In the absence of a clear understanding of what their future retirement income will look like, most of those folks hoping to retire will simply choose to work longer out of fear of the unknown. This is similar to when those who are already retired spend too little in retirement because they just dont know how much they can safely afford to spend in retirement. Therefore, they err on the side of caution and underspend. Many times, the fear of not knowing if they can afford to retire is compounded when markets are close to all time highs. The concern is that if (when) the markets correct, they wont have as much money as they do now, and they are already nervous about having enough retirement savings to live on today, let alone if the market drops 20-30%.