I just got out of a meeting with my client and I said I want to record a podcast episode.

Now most of the time, I will sit down and I'll run an outline and that's not what I'm doing today. And I've recorded north of 150 episodes of this podcast. If you've been listening for some time, thank you. But today might be one of the most important episodes I've ever recorded. And the reason for that is because you are probably a good saver. That is why you probably are where you are today or you're on a really good track to be able to retire early or you're just going,

you know what, I don't know where I am. And I want to distill a few really important things for you in a simple way so you can have a successful retirement. And I'm going to put it in one sentence for you. And then of course give you some real life examples because I just got out of a call an hour ago where I talked about this. So you are a successful saver. That does not mean you're going to have success in retirement. In fact, you won't. And here's what my client said. My client said, Ari, you're going to be so proud of me. I've got $3 million plus dollars and I have a very low withdrawal rate. I think I'll be a great client. I said, no, you won't. I'm like, what do you mean? I heard your podcast episode and I think you said it's good to have below a four or five percent withdrawal rate or something like that. And I said, yep, I talk about that. And they go, well, then what's the problem here? I go, the problem here is if you want to have the lowest withdrawal rate. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to work 20 more years, don't spend any money or have any fun. Your withdrawal rate will look awesome. Okay, it'll be very low. That's not the goal here. And so I'll ask a client, and I'll do this anytime someone will join or our firm or reach out to us. I'll say, what's the most amount of money that you can spend without running out. And they go, I don't know. I just don't want to run out. And I go, the point here is not to have the lowest

withdrawal rate. The point is actually to have the highest withdrawal rate without running out of money. I don't want you to die with five or six or ten million dollars. To me, I don't imagine that's what success is in retirement. Now, if you go, Ari, yep, I want to leave a million dollars to each child or to a certain air,

that's fine. But more often than not, you will be kicking yourself if you stay a good saver in retirement. Now, let me be clear. I am not saying go spend frivolously. I am saying, please, make sure that you have a strategy that tells you how much you can spend, kind of what is the maximum and what is the minimum? And I had client come to me and they said,

all right, I need to spend 8,000 a month to be able to, that tells you how much you can spend, kind of what is the maximum and what is the minimum.

And I had client come to me and they said, all right, I need to spend $8,000 a month to be able

to do the things I want to do. I said, how much could you spend if I forced you to spend? And they said, I don't know, I've never thought about it that way. I said, well, dream. So I guess I could spend maybe 10,000 a month, but I'm just not sure I haven't done it yet.

Now, this individual worked a really stressful job and didn't really have time to explore other hobbies to go to see what they could spend money on, but they're like, are you saying I need to go buy a fancy car and this? And I go, not at all. I want you to make sure that you are spending what you want to spend because if you don't, here's what you're on track for.

It's $12 million.

Does that sound like success to you?

Now, a lot of you have probably heard of or read the book Die with Zero, and it's a self-explanatory title, but I'm not trying to have my clients, you know, cash their last check, if you

will.

I do want to make sure that you're not going through life in

retirement going, hey, I'm kind of curious if I spend too much on this travel, does that mean my long-term care is going to be an issue? Or if I spend too much on my kid's wedding, does that mean I don't have to work six more months? I don't want you to have to even deal with those thoughts. I want you to be in the know.

I want you to truly know what's the most you can spend

and how to think through this.

And so to summarize it, you'd have to even deal with those thoughts, I want you to be in the know. I want you to truly know

what's the most you can spend and how to think through this. And so to summarize it, if you stay a good saver, you will not have success in retirement. Okay. You need to become a successful spender, not an overspender, a successful spender. Let me be clear. Now, a lot of you are going, Ari, you know, it felt like that was a good spender, I probably wouldn't be where I am today.

I go, that's right.

I don't think you would be. Let me be clear. Now, a lot of you are going, Ari, you know, it felt like if I was a good

spender, I probably wouldn't be where I am today. I go, that's right. I don't think you would be. If you were a great spender, you probably would not have two, three, four, five million dollars, which for most of you that are reaching out, that is what you have. And I know that because you're going, Ari, I'm a good saver. You're going to love seeing my account balance. And I don't. And the

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