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The Five Big Lies of Retirement Planning

According to British politician Ed Miliband, “...the only time we made progress, we did it by challenging the conventional wisdom.” Taking that challenge, Schwab’s Rande Speigelman exposes what he calls the Five Big Lies about retirement.

• You'll only need 70%–80% of your pre-retirement income – research shows that 50% spend the same after retirement, which may include increased expenses for health care, travel and leisure, and mortgage costs if you refinanced
• When you retire, you'll be in a lower tax bracket – assuming taxes don’t go up and your income is lower
• You can always just keep working - assuming there’s a market for seniors and your health permits
• The stock market will save you – experts predict lower rates of return in the future
• There's always Social Security – unless there isn’t and they start means testing

Thinking about all of that, here's one piece of conventional wisdom we may not want to challenge: Hope for the best and expect the worst.

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