Not Afraid, Just Counting

You have been told you are too careful: that retirees sit on their savings out of fear, and that a guaranteed paycheck would set them free to spend.

Walt Haugen did retirees’ tax returns for thirty years, and he asked them what the money was for. The answer was not fear. It was three bills that had not come in yet.

The nursing home: more than half of Americans turning 65 will need serious long-term care, and Medicare does not pay for custodial care. The widow’s check: when one spouse dies, Social Security pays the survivor one check, never both, while the bills barely change. And inflation: a fixed $1,000 a month from 1996 buys less than half of what it bought then.

Not Afraid, Just Counting gives the case for spending more its due. Then it shows what a guaranteed paycheck covers and what it leaves out, where the cheapest one is sold, and how to price the three bills on one page. What the count leaves free is yours, to spend or give away with a clear conscience.

Count the three bills. Then spend the rest.