Asset Accumulation

As you get older and greyer, you’ll plan for your pre-croaking days by accumulating assets. That just means you'll get more and more of them. You’ll do this by buying stocks and bonds that will grow over time.

You’ll then decumulate your assets when you retire. The goal: to accumulate enough assets such that their "throw" or dividend or interest payment more than covers your retirement needs (like are you really going to bet that Social Security will be around for anyone other than the very poorest in society?)

Specifically…if you think you’ll need 50k a year, net after taxes to live nicely in central Arizona, you’ll need to have accumulated say, $200k in bonds throwing off 5% a year pretax, 4% after or 8 grand; and stock worth $1 million throwing off 4% yields gross to net 3% after tax or about $30k a year and $10k a year comes in from that apartment rental investment you did in your 40s.

All told, you juuuussst make the lifestyle you want. And if you don’t, well, Uber is still hiring drivers until the robots take those jobs too.