A worked example · sixth in the series
No more paycheck. Six years of runway.
Every other profile in this series spends years, sometimes decades, working before the paycheck stops. This one starts the day after — 65 years old, Social Security already claimed, no salary at all. It's also the wealthiest household in the series on day one: $605,168, the highest starting net worth of any profile here, no mortgage, and a Federal Reserve-median 401(k). None of that changes what happens next. Social Security covers barely a third of the budget, and by 2032 — just 6 years in — every dollar of cash, equity and bonds is gone. That's the fastest depletion of any profile in this series, and this household still has 14 more years to live on nothing but the house.
Net worth today — the highest in the series
Until cash, equity & bonds are gone — the fastest in the series
Liquidity pool — low
Assets at 84 — the house, held flat for 14 straight years
Methodology
A profile with no accumulation phase
Same discipline as every other profile in this series — a named government or industry survey per figure, median over mean where both exist — but the shape is different. There's no salary, no work-stop date, no claim-Social-Security date: this household already made those decisions before day one. Four things had to be worked through, all disclosed rather than glossed over.
| Input | Value used | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Household income | Social Security only, $2,083 / mo | Social Security Administration — average retired-worker benefit, 2026, the same figure used across every profile in this series. Here it's the only income item, starting immediately — no Salary item exists in this profile at all. |
| Life expectancy | 84 | Social Security Administration, 2025 Trustees Report actuarial life table — life expectancy at age 65 specifically (82.5 years for men, 85 for women, averaged and rounded), not the CDC at-birth figure (80) every other profile in this series reuses. A real refinement: someone who has already reached 65 has, on average, more years left than a newborn's life expectancy implies. |
| Retirement savings | $197,400 | Federal Reserve Board, official Survey of Consumer Finances data-viz table — median retirement-account balance, families aged 65-74, 2022. The highest retirement-savings figure of any profile in this series, consistent with this bracket sitting at the peak of the accumulation curve. |
| Cash savings | $13,400 | Federal Reserve Board, official SCF data-viz table — median transaction-account balance, ages 65-74, 2022. The highest cash figure of any age bracket in the survey. |
| Home value | $415,000 | National Association of Realtors — median existing-home sale price, 2025 |
| Mortgage balance | $0 — paid off | U.S. Census Bureau, 2024 — 73% of homeowners aged 65-69 carry no mortgage, the majority position at this age. The first profile in this series with no mortgage item at all. |
| Car loan balance | $20,632 | LendingTree — average auto loan balance, Baby Boomer borrowers (ages 61-79), 2025 study. The lowest rate of any generational cohort used in this series (9.80%) but the longest average term (70.1 months, rounded to 6 years); monthly payment ($380) independently amortized from that balance, rate and term, the same convention used for every profile in this series. |
Outcome · Cashflow
The 2026 budget
Social Security brings in $24,996 — barely a third of the $68,088 this household spends in year one. Dispono's Budget hub shows the rest, $35,786, coming straight out of investment withdrawals, plus a little dividend and interest income on what's left. There's no "Invested (surplus)" line anywhere in this profile — it starts drawing down savings on day one and never stops.
- Withdraw Investments$35,786
- Social Security$24,996
- Dividends$2,139
- Interest$1,588
- Discretionary$16,800
- Utilities, insurance & property tax$12,000
- Groceries & household$10,800
- Healthcare & insurance$9,000
- Transportation$6,000
- Home maintenance$3,600
- Withdrawal tax$3,579
- Auto loan (principal)$2,655
- Auto loan (interest)$1,905
- Tax$1,750
Projected annual income vs. expenses by category, age 65 → 84
There's no work-stop marker on this chart and no claim-Social-Security marker either — both of those decisions already happened before year one. What the chart does show: the blue "Withdraw Investments" segment shrinking year by year as the account empties, until it disappears entirely around 2031-2032 and never comes back. Three more real years, in the same category-level detail as 2026:
- Social Security$27,598
- Withdraw Investments$18,241
- Dividends$247
- Discretionary$18,549
- Utilities, insurance & property tax$13,249
- Groceries & household$11,924
- Healthcare & insurance$9,937
- Transportation$6,624
- Auto loan (principal)$4,326
- Home maintenance$3,975
- Tax$1,932
- Withdrawal tax$1,824
- Auto loan (interest)$234
Equity is down to $19,386 by the start of this year, from $167,790 in 2026 — five years of withdrawals have used up all but the last sliver. One year later, that sliver is gone too:
- Social Security$28,150
- Discretionary$18,920
- Utilities, insurance & property tax$13,514
- Groceries & household$12,163
- Healthcare & insurance$10,135
- Transportation$6,757
- Car payment$4,108
- Home maintenance$4,054
- Tax$1,970
No "Withdraw Investments" line anywhere in this year's income — there's genuinely nothing left to withdraw. Social Security alone covers well under half the budget, leaving a real $43,486 shortfall that nothing in this account can fund. Thirteen years later, at the end of the plan, the shape hasn't changed at all — only the numbers have grown with inflation:
- Social Security$36,414
- Discretionary$24,474
- Utilities, insurance & property tax$17,482
- Groceries & household$15,734
- Healthcare & insurance$13,111
- Transportation$8,741
- Car payment$5,314
- Home maintenance$5,245
- Tax$2,549
A $36,414 Social Security check against a $92,650 budget — a $56,236 annual gap, and this household has been carrying some version of that gap every single year since 2032, for 14 years running.
Outcome · Investments
The investment picture
$605,168 today — the highest starting net worth of any profile in this series, and the only one with no debt beyond a single car loan. It buys six years, not a lifetime.
- Real estate (home)$415,000
- Equity (401(k))$167,790
- Fixed income (401(k))$29,610
- Cash$13,400
- Debt (auto loan)−$20,632
- Auto loan — 9.8%, 6 yrs left−$20,632
- No mortgage — paid off before this plan starts.
Projected portfolio composition, age 65 → 84 (baseline scenario)
Outcome · Analysis
What Dispono's risk analysis finds
The gauges tell a split story: today's balance sheet looks comfortable (no mortgage, a right-sized cash buffer), but the forward-looking measures — the ones that account for 84 years of runway needed and only 6 years of liquid assets on hand — read thin across the board.
Today's cash balance against today's budget — this one measure looks fine, purely because there's no mortgage weighing on the monthly number.
The single car loan payment against Social Security income — the lowest debt-to-income ratio in the series, and the only profile with no mortgage dragging it up.
Cash plus fixed income against monthly essentials — close to target, but this measure doesn't see the equity that's about to run out too.
The raw multiple is 14.6× — the highest net worth in the series against Dispono's benchmark for a 65-year-old, which by now expects 18×-26× annual essential spending saved up.
The house, and nothing else, against that final year's $90,101 budget — the same "Thin" reading every profile in this series gets once liquid assets are gone.
A healthy share of spending is discretionary today — but that flexibility is exactly what disappears once liquid assets run out and only Social Security remains.
Income and assets are still projected to broadly keep pace with inflation over this shorter, 19-year horizon.
Stress-testing the plan
Five scenarios, same mechanism as every companion profile — except here the liquid-asset window is so short (6 years) that almost nothing has room to change the outcome at all.
| Scenario | What's stressed | Assets at 84 | Multiple | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baseline | Current plan, no changes | $415,000 | 4.6× | |
| Lower returns | Expected return 5% → 3.5% for the full period | $415,000 | 4.6× | |
| Higher inflation | Inflation 2% → 3% for the full period | $415,000 | 3.9× | |
| Crash early | Equity −30% in year one (2026) | $415,000 | 4.6× | |
| Crash mid-way | Equity −30% "at 65" — already 65, so modeled in year one | $415,000 | 4.6× |
Four of the five scenarios are byte-identical to Baseline in dollar terms. Only Higher inflation moves the multiple at all, and only by inflating that year's budgeted-expenses denominator — not by touching the $415,000 numerator. With just 6 years of liquid assets to work with, neither a return cut nor an equity crash has room to change where this plan ends up.
Testing a fix
Cutting spending doesn't move the dollar figure either
Same test as the companion profiles, run as a real range rather than one extreme case: five discretionary cuts, re-running the real account after each one and reading the real "Assets at age 84" result.
| Discretionary cut | Assets at 84 | Multiple | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0% (baseline, $1,400/mo) | $415,000 | 4.6× | |
| 5% ($1,330/mo) | $415,000 | 4.7× | |
| 10% ($1,260/mo) | $415,000 | 4.7× | |
| 25% ($1,050/mo) | $415,000 | 4.9× | |
| 50% ($700/mo) | $415,000 | 5.3× |
The dollar figure never moves — not once, all the way up to cutting half of all discretionary spending starting today. Cash, equity and fixed income are already exhausted by 71 regardless of what happens to the discretionary budget; a cut can only shrink the final year's budgeted-expenses denominator, which is why the ratio drifts from 4.6× to 5.3× while the numerator sits frozen at exactly $415,000 throughout.
Key insights
What this profile actually tells you
Four findings, each tested the same way as everything else across this series: by changing the real account and reading the real result.
Finding
The wealthiest household in the series runs out the fastest
$605,168 today is more than any other profile in this series starts with — no mortgage, a Federal-Reserve-median 401(k), the highest cash buffer of any age bracket. None of it matters against a household with no more paycheck at all: liquid assets are gone in 6 years, versus 11-12 for the next-fastest profile (55-year-old) and decades for the youngest ones. More money at the start doesn't buy more time when there's no income left to top it up.
Finding
Social Security alone was never meant to cover this budget
$24,996 a year against a $68,088 budget in 2026 — Social Security alone covers barely a third. Every companion profile in this series that reaches 65 gets a partial-year bridge or a phased transition; this household starts at the wide end of the gap on day one, with a $43,486 annual shortfall showing up as soon as the account runs dry in 2032, and staying roughly that size or larger for the rest of the plan.
The limits of a cut
Even a 50% spending cut can't rescue money that's already gone
We tested real cuts, up to eliminating half of all discretionary spending starting today. Projected assets at 84 stay at exactly $415,000 in every single case. The rating improves slightly only because the cut shrinks the final year's budgeted-expenses denominator — not because a single extra dollar survives to be spent. For a household already 6 years into its own runway, spending discipline today is structurally incapable of stretching money that's already exhausted.
Read this as a warning
"Already retired" isn't a finish line
Every profile in this series eventually reaches the same $415,000 floor - the paid-off house, and nothing else. What differs is how long it takes to get there and how long a household then has to live on it. This profile reaches that floor faster than any other (6 years) and then has to sit at it longer than any other (14 years) — a reminder that "already retired, house paid off, no debt but a car loan" describes a starting position, not a solved problem.
Read the whole picture
Three numbers worth remembering
The average 65-year-old American at retirement holds more net worth than any other profile in this series — $605,168 — with no mortgage and the largest 401(k) and cash cushion of any age bracket. None of it changes the arithmetic of a household with no more paycheck: Social Security covers roughly a third of the budget, liquid savings are gone within 6 years, and what's left for the remaining 14 years of this 20-year plan is the same floor every profile in this series eventually reaches — the paid-off house, and nothing else. Not a single stress test, and not even a 50% cut to discretionary spending, moves that $415,000 number by a single dollar.
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