A Retirement Income & Spending Plan

In the early stages of retirement planning, it makes sense to focus on accumulating sufficient assets to retire. However, when you're actually in retirement you'll find that the key is to have enough income each year to support your spending. This post adds the income calculation to the existing retirement model. (See link at the end of this post.)

Retirement Expense Graph

Retirement Spending Sources

The graph above (click to expand) shows the

April 2010 Stock Market Update

100 Year Stock Market (Dow) Chart with 25-Year Moving Average

Dow 25-Year Moving Average

Note: for a more up-to-date version of the above graph, see 2010 Year-End Stock Market Update.

Above is the chart introduced and analyzed in 100 years of stock market (Dow Jones) history -- with the addition of the 25-year moving average (click chart to expand). As before, it begins around 1900; it uses this past month for this year's close. It shows that the market rarely falls very far below its 25-year moving average. When this was originally posted, I noted that the one big exception to the rule was the crash that preceeded the Great Depression. Since February '09, I have been updating this graph approximately once a month.

March, First Quarter/Year-To-Date & Recovery-To-Date Review

In early March 2009, I posted Dow At 25-Year Moving Average. The Dow continued lower for several more days before bottoming at 6547 on March 9 --