- Joined
- Apr 14, 2006
- Messages
- 23,183
Even though I see and understand the numbers and have verifications from retirement calculators, it still doesn't seem real. It's like my financial anxieties from trauma in my younger years are preventing my mind from accepting it all, and instead are staying on high alert for what-ifs. Or maybe it's mentally popping out after so many years of laser-focused accumulation to get to a safe place.
Is that common?
More common that you might imagine. The young wife and I have sufficient pension and social security income that we don't need to draw on our portfolio to cover our regular living expenses. In fact, the first two years of retirement, we actually saved money. This year, however, we took a lengthy and luxurious vacation to Egypt and Jordan, and we had to draw on the portfolio to pay for it (<1% draw). Notwithstanding my analysis telling me we will never run out of money, it is still a weird and unsettling feeling to decumulate instead of accumulate.