The traditional “withdraw 4 percent a year and your money should last” rule of thumb just doesn’t cut it anymore. Planning for retirement today is much more complicated and, for many, necessitates keeping some assets invested in securities,

throughout retirement, in order to provide long-term inflation protection.

What happens simultaneously with taking withdrawals to satisfy your income needs? The answer is often described as a “double whammy,” when the account loses value due to distributions and a market decline. Not only can this plausible scenario take place, but it can also take place many times throughout your retirement. Mitigating the “double whammy” effect requires slowing down – slowing down the distributions and receiving less income or slowing

down the market decline by selling out and locking in the losses. Neither of these actions should be part of a long-term retirement plan.