I'm Nicole Lapin, the only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand.

It's just wrong.

Here's the way most people picture it they think their retirement

account is basically a piggy bank that they slowly empty out until they have nothing

and then they die first of all that is so dark but the good news is I'll teach you a much better way to think about it that is much lighter on the bummer factor as well.

But first to really understand the flawed conventional thinking here, let's put some numbers behind it.

People start by thinking how many years they want to be in retirement, so let's call it 25.

And then they start thinking about how much they want to spend per year in retirement.

Let's call it 60K a year year because why not? So with that framework you'd think to yourself okay I need 60K a year 25 years in retirement that's 1.5 million dollars and And then starting the year I retire,

I take 60K from that fund every single year

until I have my last 60K.

And then, good night, folks.

Right now, I really just want us to debunk the idea

that the function of a retirement account

is to be drained entirely.

So if you do have that $1.5 million,

and the budget and the timing works out perfectly that you happen to run

out of money the second you go to the big money rehab in the sky.

Sure, that's fine, I guess. You didn't run out of money, which is good, but what about the next generation?

Did you want to leave any money behind for them?

And then the million dollar question, literally, what happens if you outlive your savings?

If you start thinking about your retirement accounts differently,

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