27/04/2026
The retirement math everyone runs is completely broken. Financial experts tell you to plan for 30 years, but the average person plans for way less. They assume Medicare covers everything when it doesn't touch dental, vision, or the catastrophic costs of long-term care. They go 'safe' with investments, then inflation quietly shreds their purchasing power over three decades.
Here's the brutal part: these failures multiply each other. Live to 95 while playing it safe? You run out anyway. Skip your employer match because you want cash today? You lose decades of compound growth you can never recover. Your brain is wired for immediate rewards, which makes you terrible at this.
The actual mistake is sleepwalking into retirement with zero integrated plan for how longevity, healthcare, and inflation demolish each other over 30 years. Hope fails against these realities. You need an integrated plan that accounts for all three factors working against you simultaneously.
Which retirement assumption keeps you up at night when you actually run the numbers?