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People are facing a tough retirement and it’s even harder for workers to save due to low-paying jobs, inflation and high rents. Now, middle-class Americans find it tough to own a home too, leaving them without a place to retire in.

I am so thankful my current employer uses Vanguard for our 401k. I rolled all my previous 401ks in to get lower fees. And it even has MBD Roth, which is a first for me!

My current plan is to “retire” early to a low-stress job that provides health insurance and enough income to get by while letting my 401k keep compounding for another decade (i.e. double) and putting me in a lower tax bracket that I can fill up with Roth conversions.

10 of the last 11 recessions occurred under Republican administrations. If we have to adjust how much we spend in retirement based on market performance, then it’s completely valid to be worried about retiring at the current time. It’s also completely valid to delay retirement to improve the odds of success. When Trump crashes the economy again, I want to have money coming in that I can invest in order to take advantage of his gross incompetence. That’s the bright side of this disaster.

This is my new favorite video of yours!

what are your thoughts on a SBLOC? I have some investments that have gained a whole bunch but I don't want to sell them to paid Capital Gains. I'm close to retirement

The most frustrating part of the software is the “portfolio allocation.” People’s financial lives can’t be summarized that easily, but there is a lot riding on which category is selected.

The title of this video … of course ! Get the heck out of there !

OMG, the tash! You looked like my dad!!!

My Edward Jones office says I can't convert my IRA to a Roth because, I'm not working. Is this right? And why?

These videos are very informative, but it seems like they always give examples for high wage earning households. I want to to see an example that resonates with the 98% of people who earn less than $100k per year mid fifties with far less saved in a 401K. No additional side money, small bank account, no brokerage account etc. The example I just laid out fits the majority, not the 2% he always uses in his examples. Personally my retirement savings will be where they need to be, but not until full retirement age and assuming Social Security doesn't go away or get reduced. I will rely on both SSI and my 401K.

Thought? Why not take less when markets are doing well and the market is "re-funding" your portfolio with a much needed infusion of growth? Conversely, when the market is down, take more? 'Sequence of Returns' as well as withdrawal rates (discussed) go hand-in-hand. I'm not suggesting taking greater sums on drawdowns or cutting back during spectacular gains...so much so that in either situation the withdrawal rate changes significantly impacts your quality of life. I'm focused on sustainability and think there are guardrails, as you mentioned, that we can think about as the markets always return to the mean.

i want to retire early so i can have enough income to pay the bills while i run off and do the jobs no one will pay me for.

Ari, one other aspect to consider is living abroad in Mexico, Thailand, the Philippines, other Southeast Asian countries, and Poland for the first year or two of retirement. The cost of living in these countries is significantly less than the US, plus travel from these countries is less. That allows a retiree to maybe retire earlier as they are not putting as much pressure on their retirement accounts to support them and their 401k or Roth keep compounding.

Dude. You didn’t say ANYTHING about how and when to do the conversations. I thought that was the purpose of doing this as a realistic case study. You could have made this a 5 second video stating that Roth dollars help with saving taxes later.

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Ari: As usual a great piece of content. This video really spoke to me, I'm in this exact spot. So much so that I followed the link to book a call. Honestly, I didn't expect that the bookings would be out that far. I'm kind of a spur of the moment guy so I stopped shot of booking only because I would hate to have to cancel because I forgot and was off spelunking in Norway....that's a joke, I have never spelunked. Anyway, I do have one question. Is there a charge for this preliminary call, I imagine there is.... something between the cost of a lawyer or a Swami (I think of you as a Financial Swami) Any info would be great.

Excellent! Thank you

Wait, wait, wait. There's one video after another on here about questioning whether you can retire with 401K savings of $1 million or $2 million or whatever. Of course you can. Because in addition to those savings, you'll likely own some real estate, be getting a pension and also eventually be collecting social security. So, you actually have a lot more than just the one or two million in your retirement account.

If this guy can't retire comfortably he's got a major spending problem.

"Oh yeah, my spouse" LOL

Dude ! Stop with the BS. I’ve lost 4:30 minutes of my life watching it since the beginning 👎

Because Roth IRAs are financed with after-tax resources and allow your contributions to grow tax-free over time, investing in one can be a wise decision. You will be able to keep more of your hard-earned money when you take money out of your Roth IRA in retirement since you won't be required to pay taxes on it. I had $5 million when I retired.

Hey Ari - thanks for the great content. At this point, I should get my CFP and hang a shingle for my retirement income plan - I think I like this stuff more than what I get paid to do! I had a thought while listening to the part where you modeled a more aggressive allocation in response to the high initial withdrawal rates. Of course, modeled in the software's flat return rates, it leads to a better outcome. But what about the reverse idea - getting more CONSERVATIVE in response? Hear me out: Since the biggest risk to an early retirement's high withdrawal rates is sequence of return risk, wouldn't that more aggressive allocation make it MORE likely to produce the bad outcomes, even though it might increase the "average" return scenario? Conversely, then, wouldn't a more conservative approach drag your average result down, but protect you from the most dangerous market conditions? I often mentally think of my own early retirement planning as two portfolios with different time horizons and withdrawal rates - a fixed-length mini-retirement with an eventual 100% withdrawal rate that gets me out to Medicare/SS age, funded by a very conservative portion of the overall portfolio, and then a portion that has 5-10 years (depending on how early I retire) before I even need to draw on it, and which only needs to do sustainable withdrawals after Medicare lowers my costs and SS kicks in - so it can be very aggressive. You sort of touched on this concept when you talked about having cash to pay for the remodel, etc. in this example, but I wonder if being explicit about this concept is a better way to think about withdrawal rates and early retirement, or if it's just needlessly complicating things. Curious to hear your thoughts, if you felt that was worth exploring in a video.

I'm 54 and my wife and I are VERY worried about our future, gas and food prices rising daily. We have had our savings dwindle with the cost of living into the stratosphere, and we are finding it impossible to replace them. We can get by, but can't seem to get ahead. My condolences to anyone retiring in this crisis, 30 years nonstop just for a crooked system to take all you worked for.

i recently came into some tax free money which has been sitting in my savings account for a few months and slowly dwindling before my eyes, I never had money, I am so afraid of doing something wrong with it (I want it to earn for my kids futures plus help me with mine) that I have done nothing with it. i am afraid just having in my account will mess me up with my disability and taxes. (I am not retired, just disabled and my Soc. Sec. basically is my disability payment. that is all I have till I die. I have been told to get a financial advisor, an account, and an estate attorney to build a trust. I don't know how to do that. the one attorney local I found that I am somewhat comfortable with will do a trust (estate plan that includes will) that includes a special needs trust for one of my kids for $4, 000 but then what do I do? i am so frustrated and in my frustration growing poorer. any suggestions?

I hope Jeff can share his wisdom with other Root Advisors so they can work better with their clients that may need encouragement

Yay comments. I'm 50 and looking for a fast forward button.

Omg!!! The mustache is the best!!!!

How do people, even with dependents, spend $8k/month without a mortgage? When we add big expenses separately, that’s a huge monthly spend, right?

Amazing video, A friend of mine referred me to a financial adviser sometime ago and we got talking about investment and money. I started investing with $120k and in the first 2 months , my portfolio was reading $274,800. Crazy right!, I decided to reinvest my profit and gets more interesting. For over a year we have been working together making consistent profit just bought my second home 2 weeks ago and care for my family.

you can retire with 300,000 if you can manage your money and are within a few years of social security.

Ari has all the retirement scenarios I can ever think of. Thank you @Ari

Thanks for the talk! I started with a CFP that does biblically-based investing and it made sense to me. I sleep better doing it and I'm doing well for my wife and myself at the same time! B

Excellent video, thank u! Ari can u do a video on LTC insurance vs. self-insuring/using savings? Or do u have one already?

Nice 1970’s porn stache. 😂😂

why do people separate travel out from their monthly expensives?

How realistic is part time income in retirement? I’m in IT. Getting a job in my field is nearly impossible at 55, much less 65. I don’t think it’s wise to assume I’ll have that option. That’s not even taking health into consideration. Even if jobs are available, is it wise to bet on being healthy enough to work?

Your tool is showing us “current allocation”? What is his current allocation? That matters.

The question of when or with how much depends on your expectations.

What about Long Term Care at the end of life. That could be a large number.

Thank you, Ari! This was really interesting to see how small changes, and especially spreading out large expenditures, can make a huge difference.

Won't waste my time watching this video.. But anybody with 20 million in assets and is "worried" needs to perhaps look at their lifestyle / spending. Give me a break. What percent of the country have 20 million? .1%... What a bunch of crap.

Is the spending amount per month after taxes or before in your worksheet?

Hi Ari! Great video! Where are the expenses for medical insurance before 65? It’s so expensive … in California. Thanks so much!

Is the 120k net or gross ?

I retired at 51. It’s been 3 years since then. I receive a pension which includes healthcare insurance benefits, I’m also a military veteran. When I was contemplating retirement, I needed my expenses to be less than half of my income, no more which included rent, groceries, dining, and utilities. The rest needed to go in my savings account to cover traveling several times a year. $60,000 covers that amount. But things changed. I moved to Colombia 🇨🇴. Living off of $25,200 a year now, so that increased my savings rate to around $4000 a month. Moving abroad was my plan all along, but I needed to make sure that I was able to survive in the United States first since that always could be possible.

$45, 000 for traveling? This is surely a red flag 😂

What do you think of VMFXX instead of BND for the 40% of your “bond” part of your portfolio since it has never broken the buck?