The Moment the Power Goes Out
June 8, 2026
Listen Now
Subscribe
Ready to talk with an advisor?
The advisors at American Retirement Advisors have been having these conversations for over 25 years. A no-cost discovery session is the fastest way to find out where you actually stand.
Schedule a Discovery Session
Show Notes
Eddie and Betty's Conversation
Well, hello everyone, and welcome back to The American Retirement Advisor podcast. I'm Betty, here with my husband Eddie, and today we're talking about something that really got us thinking. Our COO Ian Schaeffer wrote this piece about the difference between being reassured and being truly taken care of, especially when things go wrong. And Eddie, when I first read it, it reminded me of that awful hotel experience we had in Colorado.
Oh, don't remind me. We drove six hours, the kids were cranky, and when we got there, they just kept saying 'sorry, the system's down, but it'll be fixed soon.' Meanwhile we're standing in the lobby with our suitcases, getting hungrier and more frustrated by the minute.
Exactly. And that's the point Ian makes in his article. There's this huge difference between someone just telling you everything will be fine versus someone actually being prepared to take care of you when things go sideways. But honey, walk me through how this connects to retirement planning, because that's really what caught my attention.
Well, it's actually a perfect parallel. Ian talks about how in retirement, the power is going to go out. Not maybe, but definitely. The market will have terrible stretches during those twenty or thirty years you're relying on it for income. That's not being negative, that's just looking at history.
Right, so the question isn't whether bad things will happen to the markets. The question is what happens to you when they do. And I think most people don't really think about that part.
That's exactly it. Most folks, when that market downturn hits, they get what Ian calls 'reassurance.' They get a phone call or maybe just a voicemail saying markets always recover, stay the course, hang in there. And look, that's technically true, but it's completely hollow when you're watching your account balance drop and wondering if you can still pay your bills.
It's just words, isn't it? When you're scared about your financial future, having someone tell you it'll be okay doesn't actually make you feel okay. It's like that hotel clerk telling us the system would be back up soon while we're still standing there with nowhere to sleep.
Exactly. But what Ian's talking about is the other approach. Being truly taken care of means the work was already done, long before the storm hit. It means there's income set aside that doesn't care what the market did this month, so your checks keep coming no matter what.
Now that sounds appealing, but help me understand the mechanics of that. What does it actually mean to have income that doesn't care about the market?
Well, there are different ways to structure that, but the basic idea is you don't have all your retirement income riding on whether your investment accounts are up or down in any given month. Some of it can come from sources built to keep paying you steadily, no matter what the market does that month, so the checks keep coming either way.
So instead of having to sell investments when they might be down to pay for groceries, you've already got that covered?
Right. The plan was built to absorb a bad year without touching your daily life. So when those ugly headlines start rolling in, you're not refreshing your account balance in a panic at three in the morning. You're having your coffee because someone already made sure you'd be fine.
I love that image. But Eddie, this all sounds great in theory. Does this actually work when real disasters hit? Because we've certainly lived through some scary market times.
Well, Ian writes about this from experience. He talks about 2008, when it felt like the whole financial world was coming apart. The clients who had been truly prepared weren't the ones calling in terror. They were calm.
2008 was terrifying. I remember watching the news and just feeling like everything was falling apart. People were losing their homes, their jobs, their retirement savings.
But here's what's interesting about what Ian observed. The clients who were prepared weren't calm because someone promised them the market would bounce back on schedule. Nobody could promise that. They were calm because their own lives weren't in danger either way. The income was handled. The plan had already accounted for a storm like that.
So they could watch the news with some distance because it wasn't coming for their kitchen table, as Ian puts it. That's a powerful way to think about it.
And it wasn't just 2008. He mentions they saw the same thing in late 2018, when the market dropped hard and fast right before the holidays. Same story. The people who were prepared felt worlds apart from the people who were only ever reassured.
You know what strikes me about this? It's not really about predicting when bad things will happen. It's about being ready for them before they do.
That's exactly right. Ian makes the point that we can't predict the next downturn because nobody can. But what we can do is make sure that when it comes, and it will come, you're already taken care of. You could lose power, so to speak, and still not lose your peace.
I think a lot of our listeners are probably wondering, though, what this actually looks like in practice. If someone came to sit down with one of our advisors, what would this kind of planning involve?
Well, that's where I'd really want to point people to our team because the specifics depend so much on each person's situation. But the general idea is creating what Ian calls a plan that can absorb a bad year without touching your daily life.
Right, because everyone's daily life looks different. Someone might need $4,000 a month to cover their essentials, someone else might need $8,000. Someone might have a pension helping out, others might not.
Exactly. And the timeline matters too. Someone who's 50 and planning for retirement in 15 years has different options than someone who's 65 and retiring next year. The exact strategies and products that make sense, that's really a conversation for one of our advisors who can look at your specific situation.
But what I think we can say is that this approach is fundamentally different from just putting everything in the market and hoping for the best, right?
Oh absolutely. And it's different from the approach where you just try to accumulate as much as possible and figure you'll wing it when you retire. This is about intentionally designing your financial life so that you can weather the storms.
Ian talks about how that calm feeling is what clients remember most. Not a rate of return, but the feeling of being okay when everyone around them wasn't. That really resonates with me.
It makes sense when you think about it. What good is a great rate of return if you can't sleep at night? What's the point of having a big account balance if you're terrified to spend any of it because you don't know what the market will do next?
Right. And I think there's something about getting older that makes this even more important. When you're 30 and the market crashes, you figure you've got decades to recover. When you're 70, you don't have that luxury of time.
That's exactly it. Time is the one thing you can't get back. And if you're already retired or close to it, you need to know that your income is going to be there whether the market is having a good year or a terrible one.
So let's get practical for a minute. If someone's listening to this and thinking about their own situation, how do they know if they're set up to be truly taken care of versus just reassured when trouble hits?
Well, Ian suggests asking yourself this: if your current plan would leave you waiting in the dark, hoping someone calls to tell you it'll be fine, that's worth fixing before the lights ever flicker.
That's a great way to think about it. So if you're someone who would be constantly checking your account balance and losing sleep every time the market has a bad week, you might not be as prepared as you think.
Right. Or if your retirement plan basically boils down to 'sell some stock when I need money' without any consideration of what happens if you need money right after the market takes a big hit.
Because that's exactly when you don't want to be selling, right? When everything's down?
Exactly. It's like being forced to sell your house in a down market because you need the cash. You're locking in losses at the worst possible time. But if you've got income sources that aren't tied to those market swings, you can ride out the storm.
I keep coming back to Ian's hotel analogy because it's so vivid. That moment when something goes wrong, you really see the difference between organizations that are prepared and ones that just hope for the best.
And think about how much that one moment colors everything else. Ian talks about how one bad hour can poison five good days, or it can disappear completely. Same delay, same problem, but a completely different experience depending on whether someone was ready for it.
That's so true. We've all had those experiences where something went wrong, but the way it was handled made all the difference. You end up remembering how well you were taken care of instead of the problem itself.
And the flip side is equally true. If you're not prepared, that one bad experience colors everything that comes after. In retirement terms, if you hit that first major market downturn and you're not prepared for it, it can make you anxious and conservative for years afterward, even when things recover.
Which could actually hurt you in the long run if you become too scared to stay invested at all.
Exactly. Fear can be just as dangerous as overconfidence. But when you know you're truly prepared, when you have that peace Ian talks about, you can make better decisions because you're not making them from a place of panic.
So what does Ian mean when he says that peace is the real product? Because that's a interesting way to think about financial planning.
I think he's getting at something really important there. A lot of financial planning gets focused on numbers, rates of return, account balances. But what people actually want is to feel secure. They want to know they're going to be okay.
Right. The numbers are just a means to an end. The end goal is being able to sleep at night, being able to enjoy your retirement instead of worrying about it.
And that peace, that security, that comes from knowing the work was already done before you needed it. It's the difference between hoping everything will work out and knowing it will, regardless of what the market does next month.
You know, as we're talking about this, I'm thinking about our own situation. We've been through market ups and downs over the years, and the times when we felt most stressed were when we weren't sure if we were prepared.
That's right. And the times when we felt most at peace were when we knew we had done the work ahead of time. When we knew that even if things got bad, we had a plan for that too.
I think that's what Ian means about being prepared for the moment instead of just reacting to it. It's having thought through the what-ifs before they become reality.
And look, nobody can prevent market downturns from happening. Nobody can guarantee that every year will be a good year. But what you can do is make sure that when the inevitable bad years come, they don't derail your life.
So if someone's listening to this and recognizing that maybe they're not as prepared as they'd like to be, what should they do? Ian suggests sitting down with an advisor while the weather is still calm.
That's smart advice. It's so much easier to make good decisions when you're not in crisis mode. When the market is doing fine and you're not panicking, that's the perfect time to think through what you'd want to happen if things got tough.
Right. Don't wait for the storm to start thinking about whether you have an umbrella. And I think what's nice about Ian's approach is it's not about fear-mongering. It's not about assuming everything will go wrong. It's just about being prepared so you can enjoy the good times without worrying about the bad ones.
Exactly. Ian's goal that he lays out is simple but powerful: when your power goes out someday, and it will, you should already have a cold drink in your hand and nothing to worry about.
I love that image. You're not scrambling around in the dark looking for a flashlight. You're sitting comfortably because someone already made sure you'd have light and everything you need.
And that someone is you, working with good advisors while you have the time and clarity to plan properly. The work gets done on the front end so you can relax on the back end.
Well, this has been such a helpful way to think about retirement planning. Not just about accumulating money, but about creating real security and peace of mind. If you're listening and thinking you'd like to explore what this kind of planning might look like for your situation, I'd encourage you to reach out to our team at American Retirement Advisors. The number is 602-281-3898.
And remember, the best time to plan for storms is when the weather is calm. Don't wait until you're standing in that hotel lobby with your bags, so to speak. Do the work now so you can relax later.
Thanks for joining us today, everyone. We'll be back next week with more practical insights to help you navigate your retirement journey. Until then, take care of yourselves and each other.