Your retirement will be unique to you, but it often helps to have some rules of thumb as a guideline.
Over time it may make sense to revisit those rules. For example, experts used to talk about retirement being based on a three-legged stool: a pension, Social Security and personal savings. Such a scenario isn’t applicable for most people these days, or at least not those working for a private-sector company.
Fewer employees have pensions that guarantee lifetime monthly payouts. There’s a lot of uncertainly about the financial stability of Social Security. This means some of the advice that worked in years past won’t apply to future retirees.
And now with the coronavirus pandemic throwing tens of millions of Americans out of work and causing extraordinary stock market volatility, it’s time to give a makeover to some retirement rules of thumb.
