This Assumption Could Destroy Your Retirement Plans
One of the trickiest things about planning for retirement is that it's hard to estimate your living costs years in advance. Imagine you're in your 30s and are trying to get a handle on what retirement might cost you. At this point, you might be 35 to 40 years away from that milestone. How on earth are you supposed to run numbers when we don't know what inflation has in store for healthcare, housing, and the other expenses you're apt to grapple with?
Plus, you may be too young to have a solid sense of what you want your retirement to look like. You might think you'll be happy spending your senior years traveling the globe. But as you get older, the idea of staying closer to home might hold more appeal.
That's why retirement planning is a tough thing to do -- no doubt about it. But one assumption you shouldn't make in the course of retirement planning is that you'll manage to get by as a senior with a fraction of the income you're used to living on. In reality, you should actually plan to replace the bulk of your income during retirement -- no matter what your specific lifestyle ends up looking like.
Source Fool.com
