Dave’s Dad’s “Solution” to Financial Planning

Financial planning is challenging because you have to make many assumptions, including how long you’re going to live. Dave’s Dad has a “solution” to that problem.

Listen to the full episode with Robb Engen for some real financial planning tips—available everywhere now!

💈💈💈

My father, as a way of ending, you’ll like this said a couple of years ago when he was 90 that he thinks that the way we can make all this financial planning easier is if we, um, we all kill people who are 85 and he said, then we know exactly when we’re going to go and it makes the planning easier. And I said, it seems a little harsh Dad. And I said, but also do I have to point out that you’re 90

And he said, no, I, he said, I’d be grandfathered in because I thought of it. So he said, I’m safe, but he said, anybody else above the 85 has to go, but you know, kidding aside, and he was obviously kidding. He does make a point about the most challenging thing you and I deal with when we help people. We don’t know how long they’re going to live. That’s the single most difficult

Yeah, when you say, when can I retire, how much can I spend, how long is my money going to last, you know, when are you going to die? Then I can answer, I can answer all that for you, but until we can.

It’s the key variable in the equation, and we don’t know the answer. And we don’t really know the answer to returns, etc. either. So there’s a lot of guesswork here. You have to use common sense, and to your point earlier, you almost have to be conservative. I mean, if you don’t end up pointing that out, you can really get bitten at some point.