The Buckets of Money® Retirement Solution: The Ultimate Guide to Income for Life

Chapter 1. Adapt to the Changing Landscape

In cartoons, when a boulder falls and drives a character into the ground, he's briefly stunned. We laugh at his frazzled look and empathize with his despair. But soon he shakes off the hurt, his flattened head returns to normal, and all is well. So we laugh some more. Trouble is, I don't think this last recession is like that.

The boulder that fell on us in 2007–2008 is likely to change the face of investing and retirement planning for a long time, perhaps forever. The market meltdown and the ensuing government response are reshaping the financial landscape. Old ways of thinking about retirement are going out the window. New ideas are called for.

In this chapter, I'm going to outline some of the changes we've seen, or are likely to see, and explain how I think they'll affect retirement planning in general. In the following chapter, I'll get more specific about how this could, or should, affect your planning.

The End of Easy

Whatever else you call the recent economic convulsion—the "Great Recession," a "severe downturn," or "the worst financial crisis since 1929"—it's what many have labeled "the End of Easy." The end of getting a mortgage without having to show you can repay it. The end of inflation that's so low it's barely perceptible. The end of government that takes a hands-off stance toward business. The end of relentlessly soaring home prices that make houses into virtual ATMs. And probably pretty much the end of the idea that you're going ...