Will my money run out in retirement? The one number that answers it.

It is the most common retirement fear there is, and most people try to answer it with the wrong number. They know their savings balance to the dollar. Ask what portion of their essential expenses is covered by income guaranteed for life, and the room goes quiet.

Two kinds of retirement money

Every retirement dollar comes from one of two places. Guaranteed income arrives no matter what markets do: Social Security, a pension if you have one, guaranteed income products. Market money depends on returns and withdrawal rates, and rules of thumb like a four percent withdrawal are probabilities, not promises. Retirement can last 25 to 30 years, and a bad market stretch early on can permanently damage a portfolio you are drawing from.

The floor idea, in one sentence

If your essential expenses are covered for life by guaranteed income, you mathematically cannot run out of money for the things that matter. Everything above the essentials, the travel and the spoiling of grandkids, can ride with the market, because a bad year dents the extras instead of the groceries.

Finding your own answer takes three numbers

1. Your essential monthly expenses: housing, food, healthcare, utilities, insurance.
2. Your guaranteed monthly income for life. Your Social Security statement at ssa.gov shows your projected benefit.
3. The gap between them, if there is one. That gap is the actual size of your retirement question.

We built a 30 second check that maps exactly this, and it is free. If your essentials are covered, you will hear that. If there is a gap, you will see it plainly, and what to do about it becomes a calm conversation instead of a midnight worry. That is what a floor is for: peace of mind that does not depend on the market having a good decade.