As Americans, we’re accustomed to having options. There’s always another answer, another solution, another way to lick a problem. (Sometimes, though, I think that’s how we got ourselves into the mess we’re in right now. Don’t have the money? Charge it. Can’t afford the bigger house? Leverage yourself beyond sanity.)
But what if you’re retired—not “almost retired” or “newly retired,” but actually well into retirement—and the market downturn has depleted your retirement savings? What are your options?
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On March 31, I was in New York City as a member of a panel speaking with a group of financial advisors on the issue of retirement income. Being back in the city brought back a lot of great memories, and it was fantastic to walk around my old neighborhood with my wife and our two young children.
I’ve been working on various aspects of retirement issues for more than 15 years now, both at Vanguard and before that in NYC, and I’m still amazed at how badly people want to think that there’s a “product” answer to retirement. I guess the grand vision is that people will get to retirement, drop everything, and put all their money into a perfect solution.
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The impact of unnecessarily complicating our lives became clear to me this weekend.
With 260,000 miles on our two cars, we decided this was the time to get that new car we’ve been talking about. We did the research, bought the car, and parked it in the garage. For now, we’ll use it on weekends and use our older ones until they’re too expensive to run.
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