Prof. Hugo Asquith
pension actuary
Cautious; plans for a long life
The Retirement Number
Two 401(k)s, Social Security decisions and health costs before Medicare. They want to stop work; the numbers are uncertain and the two of them disagree about what retirement is for.
Planned · not started yet
Money & personal finance Living with uncertainty Money under pressure Hard choices Family home Reflective Tense
The premise
Two 401(k)s, Social Security decisions and health costs before Medicare. They want to stop work; the numbers are uncertain and the two of them disagree about what retirement is for.
The protagonist
Ifeoma McAllister — 58-year-old Ohio nurse planning retirement with her husband Gordon
The council
Every council member is an original fictional character. None represents, quotes or is endorsed by a real person.
Dr Nalini Varma
retirement researcher
Evidence-led; distrusts rules of thumb
Deborah Kinsella
fee-only financial planner
Practical; plans around values, not just numbers
How the story moves
Two years to the planned retirement date; Gordon’s health scare forces an earlier decision than planned.
What readers take away
- Estimating retirement spending
- Social Security claiming ages
- 401(k) and IRA withdrawal rules
- Sequence-of-returns risk
- Withdrawal-rate research and its limits
- Health insurance before Medicare
- How annuities work
- Planning for long-term care costs
- Understand required minimum distributions
- Plan Roth conversions
- Understand Medicare parts A, B, D and Medigap
- Build a withdrawal strategy across accounts
The books
- 1The number Planned
- 2Social Security Planned
- 3The portfolio Planned
- 4Health Planned
- 5The date Planned
Book titles are working titles and may change before publication. No book is on sale until the complete series is finished, checked and released.