"When comparing spending strategies, many retirement researchers make simplifying assumptions that individuals have Social Security and maybe one or two other lifetime income sources that are not deferred and, in total, are expected to be received linearly in constant real dollars over a retiree's lifetime planning period. They also assume that individuals will determine their annual spending by summing these individual sources of income and will spend exactly this amount each year.... The primary problem with summing individual sources of income to determine how much one can spend in a year is that it increases the odds that a retiree's spending strategy will be inconsistent with the retiree's spending goals."

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