10/22/2026
Two people retire with the same savings and earn the same average return over 25 years. One is fine. One runs short.
The difference is when the bad years showed up.
Here's why that matters. While you're saving, a down market is almost a good thing. You keep buying at lower prices and time does the rest. Once you retire, that flips. You're pulling money out instead of putting it in, so a down market means selling more shares to generate the same income. Those shares are gone, and they can't recover when the market does.
Averages hide this completely. Two portfolios can average the same return over a long stretch and leave you in very different places, purely because of the order the good and bad years arrived.
This is why the first several years of retirement carry more weight than the ones after. It's also why "how is this invested" and "where is my income coming from" are two different questions.
Planning for it usually means keeping near-term income out of harm's way and building in flexibility on withdrawals. That's the Income pillar of the S.H.I.E.L.D. framework we use with Bucks County families.
Questions? Call our Newtown office at (215) 860-3101.
๐https://retirepaladin.com/
