It’s been almost six years since I retired and started this blog with a lot of help and encouragement from my buddy, Kin Chan. Initially I started out with a simple spreadsheet (Excluding Social Security V 1.0) and a description of a recommended process to be used to determine the amount a retiree could afford to withdraw from accumulated savings each year.
While the calculations have remained the same since 2010, the primary focus of this blog has morphed somewhat away from simply determining the amount to withdraw from savings to developing a reasonable spending budget. And I have to admit that my skills as a number-crunching actuary have sometimes made it difficult for my readers to figure out what I was talking about.
While the Excluding Social Security (now version 3.1) spreadsheet can be a good tool for some readers, others may benefit from just the basics. Therefore, I have put together a one-page explanation of the Actuarial Approach that discusses how to use basic actuarial principles and present values to develop a spending budget (or to check to see that your spending plan is otherwise on track).
