The Retirement Spending Myth: Why the 80% Rule Gets It Wrong

Most retirement plans assume your spending will stay flat, or that you will need about 80 percent of your pre-retirement income. But retirement does not actually work that way. In this episode, Tyler Emrick, CFP®, CFA®, explains what the research shows about how retirement spending changes over time and why relying on outdated rules like the 80 percent rule can lead to over-saving and under-living or under-planning altogether. Drawing on research from David Blanchett’s Retirement Spending Smile, Morningstar data, and EBRI studies, Tyler covers: Why retirement spending is not a straight line How spending often declines in mid-retirement and rises again later The Go Go, Slow Go, and No Go phases of retirement How fear of running out of money causes many retirees to under-spend A practical way to estimate your real retirement spending needs Have questions? Need help making sure your investments and retirement plan are on track? Click to schedule a free 20-minute call with one of True Wealth's CFP® Professionals.

You can listen to The Retirement Spending Myth: Why the 80% Rule Gets It Wrong online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

The Retirement Spending Myth: Why the 80% Rule Gets It Wrong is an episode from Retire Smarter by Kevin Kroskey, CFP® & Tyler Emrick, CFA® CFP®.

This episode is 20:56 long.

This episode was published on Mar 5, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Retire Smarter when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.