I recently finished Jean Chatzky’s The Forever Paycheck
published in 2026. If I were 5 to 10 years from retirement, I
probably would purchase a copy; instead I read it on Libby. I
learned from it, but for us already in retirement a lot of
information given was no longer relevant. We had made our
decisions without this helpful book, and for the most part I felt
validated in those decisions.
Would I do some things differently if I had this knowledge?
Sure. However, some steps were not available to us. QLACs
which interest me did not come into being until 2014, for
example; and even Roth IRAs were only available starting
in 1998. We have a Roth but we only accumulated over a
small period of time compared to our 403(b)s and IRAs. We
did a few conversions, but one has to be careful of tax
consequences in any given year.
I wish we would have had a similar book back in 2007 when
we retired (and the few years leading up to that date). It isn’t
that we did not read books, newspaper articles, magazine
articles, and internet stories about retirement. We did, but the
emphasis was on accumulating money. Nobody talked much
about what to do when the accumulating period ended and
the spending period started. They might suggest withdrawing
funds from taxable accounts first, preserving the tax
advantage of IRAs. I had read about 4% withdrawal the first
year with inflation-adjusted withdrawals each subsequent
year. Ms. Chatzky addresses this procedure and shows that it
no longer holds up very well. We did not adopt it anyway,
though it was nice to have a concrete target.
The book’s subtitle suggests it is offering a new strategy; not
exactly because annuities have been an option for retirees for
a long time and most pensions are money annuitized by the
employer for the employee’s retirement. I found the Indexes
about Investments and Annuities more fully developed than
most books. The book offers other ways to develop a
“paycheck” and definitely states there is no one option to fit
all.
The “new” aspects are the emphasis on spending more of
your accumulated funds. People fear they will outlive their
pool of money. I have seen information suggesting that fear is
greater for pre-retirees than those already in retirement. As
this book intimates, retired people who have done the work of
introspection and discovering what is really important to them,
set their priorities to spend on what they value and in most
cases reach a point of contentment. There might be some
worry about how long the money will last, but they know how
to adjust. The Forever Paycheck is designed to remove that
last bit of worry and to offer a comfort level for spending on
your bucket
items and vision of retirement.
As you probably recall, 2008 was the start of the Great
Recession. Not a good time to be starting down the
retirement road. We had not found a financial advisor leading
up to retirement that we felt gave us value for the fees
charged. However, we went to a fee-based advisor in
Indianapolis for several sessions who helped us restructure
our portfolio and gave us courage to stay the course. As all
good advisors do, she gave us “tests” to determine our risk
comfort. Ms. Chatzky does likewise in her book.
In 2019, we signed up for a Financial Advisor with Vanguard.
We had “teleconferences” through the internet. We liked Bill.
He was a great help in bringing my husband’s IRAs scattered
with several companies into the Vanguard fold. Our portfolio
became less complex and easier for us to monitor. He called
about every 3 months wanting us to update him on our
retirement expenses and even our personal situation. I think
we had him for about 18 months before he left Vanguard. The
replacement advisor was not as personable. He lasted about
6 months. The second replacement was not a great
improvement. These advisors did some rebalancing of our
funds and answered a few questions, but again we found
ourselves thinking we were no longer getting value for the
fees we paid. We ended the relationship.
One of the things Bill brought up several times was that he
thought we should be spending more of our investment
money. We did take a few cruises and bought a new vehicle;
but we were used to living in a simple way. We found
enjoyment in non-expensive ways.
I sometimes think about the help an advisor would be in
reducing taxes now that we have to take RMDs. I have
thought again about a QLAC. I could do it with my funds as I
am still age-eligible (my husband is not), but at this stage of
life it seems like a not so beneficial effort. We would not get
the regular “paycheck” if I did not do it, but we would still have
those funds which only have to last us probably 10 to 15
years anyway. I mainly was thinking of replacing the income
that would be lost when one of us dies and my Social Security
would end. We have Social Security and my husband’s small
pension (which is not protected against inflation and has lost
purchasing power), but we really do not tap into our
investments despite Bill’s encouragement to do so.
We are not concerned about leaving an estate to heirs, but
we are concerned about long-term medical care (assisted-
living or nursing home).
The Forever Paycheck is very good at helping people
estimate the costs of retirement, assess risk tolerance,
evaluate what is important to their vision of retirement. She
offers many options to create a “paycheck” and gives detailed
guidance. She even offers advice to those who did not
accumulate funds for retirement.
I have read that she is affiliated with companies that sell
annuities. There are really two camps when it comes to
annuities: pro and con. She is definitely pro, but she does
discuss CD ladders, real estate and other ways to give you
regular income (a paycheck). I find her writing style easy to
comprehend. It is a long book to get through, however. I have
one quibble with the way she structured the “Indexes”. After a
thorough and detailed description about different options
(kinds of annuities for example), she ends with a list of pros
and cons for that product. That should be listed at the
beginning of the description. It would help her readers avoid
tedious details about products they can see from the pros and
cons they do not want. I suggest that you read that ending
summary before plowing through the details. You will save
yourself time and brain-cramping.
If you are not yet retired, read this book. If you are early in
retirement, read this book. If you are 19 years along the
retirement journey like me, you might enjoy the introduction
which discusses new studies about retirement, and a few
other topics in later chapters, but the return on your time
investment will not be as rewarding.
