The 2nd vision we had for our investment offering was providing relief to the dreaded The Best Retirement Income Cliff that millions of retired (or nearly retired) Americans are now facing. This occurs when someone transitions from earning a high income at the peak of their career to retiring and living off income from Social Security. Wasn’t retirement supposed to be fun and carefree…?
Here is a real life example: A responsible saver is contemplating retirement at the age of 65. They are currently making 10k a month in salary and have saved up $2 million for retirement over the years. If they stop working there income would then consist of $3000 in Social Security benefits. How to they make up the missing $7000 they need to live on?
The typical options they have before them would be:
1. Take $7,000 out of savings each month and spend it to cover living expenses. But after 20 years of The Best Retirement Income 84% of their savings has vanished and after 24 year it’s ALL gone.
2. Place the funds in a volatile and ever changing stock market and gamble that it will return at least 7k a month to cover living expenses. Meanwhile their total life savings hangs in the balance waiting for the next pandemic to arrive.
3. Invest in a traditional basket of safe fixed income bonds typically earning around 2.5%. This earns them about $4200 a month in interest by investing their entire savings. However, they are still short $2800 every month forcing a drastic life style change and all the while having all your eggs in just one ‘basket’ of bonds.
A better way – Invest 1 million (half of the savings) with Mid Atlantic earning interest in excess of the $7000 to cover all the monthly living expenses. This eliminates any need to dip into their savings balance for living expenses and preserves all the savings balance they worked so hard for. BONUS: This also frees up the remaining 1 million in savings to properly diversify into other investments or fulfill retirement dreams and bucket list items.