Questions, answered honestly

It depends on your health, your other income, and how long you plan for. Claiming at 62 permanently reduces your check — often by 25-30% compared with your full retirement age — while every year you wait past full retirement age adds roughly 8% until age 70. For women, who tend to live longer, waiting often pays off. But "it depends" is the honest answer, which is why chapter 4 of the class walks through the decision step by step.

That is the central question of retirement planning — and it has a knowable answer once you look at your real spending, your guaranteed income (Social Security, any pension), and how much your savings must cover each month. A retirement can last thirty years, so the plan has to work at 90, not just at 66. The class chapter "Will My Money Last?" shows you how to run your own honest numbers.

Usually one Social Security check disappears — the household keeps the larger of the two, not both — and a pension may shrink or stop depending on the survivor option chosen years earlier. Meanwhile most expenses do not fall by half. Planning for the survivor while you are both healthy is one of the kindest financial things a couple can do, and it is exactly what chapter 11 of the class is about.

Less than your working income, but more than most people guess — and it is lumpy. Essentials like housing, food, and insurance run steadily, healthcare rises as you age, and the surprises (a roof, a car, helping family) arrive on their own schedule. The starting point is an honest monthly number built from what you actually spend now, not a rule of thumb.

Medicare covers a great deal of hospital and doctor care, but it is not free and it is not complete: premiums, deductibles, and co-pays continue, and dental, vision, hearing, and — critically — long-term care are largely not covered. Most people add a supplement or Advantage plan to fill the gaps. The enrollment windows have real deadlines with real penalties, so it pays to understand the parts before you turn 65.

It is worth planning for, because the odds are real: most of us will need some help eventually, and women both need care longer and do more of the caregiving. Medicare does not pay for ongoing custodial care, and a care need can cost more per year than most retirements spend. Options exist — insurance, hybrid policies, family plans, self-funding — but they are all better chosen early and calmly.

Your paycheck withholding disappears, but taxes do not. Up to 85% of your Social Security can be taxable, traditional IRA and 401(k) withdrawals are taxed as income, and required minimum distributions eventually force money out whether you need it or not. The order in which you spend your accounts can meaningfully change your lifetime tax bill — which is why it belongs in the plan, not in April.

The first years of retirement are the most vulnerable ones — a big loss early, while you are withdrawing, does damage that an identical loss ten years later would not. Planners call it sequence-of-returns risk. The defense is structural: keep the money you will spend soon somewhere a market storm cannot reach it, so you are never forced to sell investments at the bottom.

Yes — quietly, and more for retirees than for workers. At 3% inflation, prices roughly double over a 24-year retirement, so a plan that only works at today's prices only works for a while. Social Security adjusts for inflation, but most pensions and fixed payments do not, so a portion of your plan needs to keep growing even after you stop working.

No — but the honest window for improving the plan is now. The final working decade is when catch-up contributions, Social Security timing, spending decisions, and downsizing choices have their greatest effect. The worst plan is avoiding the numbers because they feel scary; they are almost never as scary as not knowing.

Plenty of people manage their own retirement, and everything on this site is built to educate you either way. Where a good advisor earns their keep is in decisions you only make once — claiming Social Security, choosing pension options, structuring income — where a mistake cannot be undone. If you do work with one, work with someone who teaches first and never rushes a decision.

Start with the 12-minute film — it is free and it will reframe how you think about the next thirty years. Then take the class one chapter at a time, download the worksheets, and if there is a live viewing near you, come; it is the fastest and warmest way through the material.