THE KEEP  METHOD™

A Retirement Spending Tool

The Keep is the portfolio value you need today—before withdrawing this year's living expenses—to fund the years ahead and still reach your long-term goal.

The Keep Calculator™ is an on-line, non-downloadable software calculator for retirement planning — providing temporary use of on-line non-downloadable software for providing online retirement calculators for individual consumers.

Articles

Plain-English articles for people who want to understand their Keep, year to year — the minimum that must stay in their portfolio to fund retirement all the way to longevity.

What Is the Keep Method?

Most retirement tools tell you how much you can withdraw each year. The Keep answers a different question: given everything you plan to spend, earn, and leave behind, what is the least your portfolio needs to be worth right now? One number, checked once a year.

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The 4% Rule vs. the Keep Method: What's the Difference?

The 4% rule is the most cited framework in retirement planning and one of the most misunderstood. Here's what it actually says, where it falls short, and how the Keep answers the question differently.

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Why Planning Retirement in Today's Dollars Makes More Sense

Most retirement projections show you inflated future numbers that are hard to picture. The Keep works in today's purchasing power, so $54,000 means what $54,000 means to you right now — not some future-adjusted equivalent.

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You're Not as Behind in Retirement Savings as the Average Says

Fidelity's savings benchmarks and the "average 401(k) balance" are population statistics that don't know your spending, your Social Security timing, or your landing goal. Here's why the Keep is the number that actually applies to you.

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How Social Security Timing Changes Your Retirement Keep

Claiming at 62 versus 67 versus 70 is one of the most consequential retirement decisions you'll make. The Keep makes the tradeoff visible: enter each claiming age and watch the Keep move. Here's what the math actually shows.

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Why a Falling Portfolio Balance Isn't Always a Problem

Watching your retirement balance go down feels wrong. But a falling balance is often exactly what a well-funded plan looks like from the inside. The Keep shows you the line between spending on plan and spending off plan.

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What Is Sequence of Returns Risk?

Two retirees can have the same average return over 30 years and end up in completely different places, depending on when the bad years hit. Sequence of returns risk is one of the most important concepts in retirement planning — and one of the least explained.

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Worth Watching — Responses to Other Creators

Your Retirement Has a Shape. The Keep Finds the Number Behind It.

A response to financial advisor Benjamin Brandt's video on the four shapes a retirement portfolio can take — and how the Keep calculates the exact number behind the two shapes worth choosing on purpose.

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$3 Million Wasn't the Problem. The First Two Years Were.

A couple retired deeply funded and still lost tens of thousands to tax sequencing mistakes in year one. What being above the Keep tells you — and what it honestly doesn't.

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More reactions to good retirement content, added as we find it.

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The Keep Method is also available as a short book on Amazon: The Keep Method: An Annual Retirement Spending Review by Cassandra Smiley Watts — a plain-English guide to the framework behind the calculator.
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Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the Social Security Administration.