Will Your Money Last If You Retire Early? Visualizing Longevity Risk

[Lootman]

This is good because I think a good number of people devote a large amount of thought, effort and worry on a very low probability event - living to be very old and running out of money.

This matters because it can be very expensive to remove that last 1% or 2% of risk. It can mean working years longer and/or being so frugal that retirement is miserable.

Particularly in a country that will provide baseline provision of services if you do end up broke, I'm not sure that being paranoid about tail risks is worthwhile. Life is for living, not worrying about not dying.

[JMN2]

Besides, why would one worry about not dying? That is quite easy to arrange. I haven't worked in 12 years, during those years I have had a divorce and was forced to sell some properties at a loss. My overall pot is still about the same it was 12 years ago, and I have not even touched it but have been living off cash buffers (I like to earmark) and one or two "lottery" wins while contributing into ISA and SIPP. I don't have any children (that I'm aware of). If I get cancer I won't fight it. If worse comes to worst I can still sell the house and live a year or two in luxury somewhere in Nice or similar. By that time I've probably seen everything that interests me. But, I just don't enjoy spending money so it seems to last for a long time.