Sunday Morning Discussions: Retirement Income Style Awareness
Details
Join us for a discussion about RISA (Retirement Income Style Awareness). RISA is a framework created by Wade Pfau to help personalize retirement income and withdrawal strategies based on psychological preferences.
The core idea is that disagreements about retirement planning are often driven not just by math, but also by psychology and personal preferences. The framework looks at two dimensions:
• Safety First vs. Probability Based
(guaranteed income vs. relying on market returns)
• Optionality vs. Commitment
(keeping flexibility vs. preferring structured long-term solutions)
This creates four broad retirement income styles:
• Total Return
• Time Segmentation
• Protected Income
• Risk Wrap
Below are some articles that go into more detail. You can read one or both:
- https://www.kitces.com/blog/risa-framework-retirement-income-planning-client-preferences-total-return-strategy-risk-tolerance/
- https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/retirement-income-style-awareness-profile-risa-review/
If you’d like to take the assessment to determine which style aligns best with your preferences, here is the link:
Here are some possible discussion questions to think about. Feel free to bring your own questions as well!
• If you took the RISA assessment, did the results line up with what you expected, or were you surprised?
• What pros and cons do you see for Safety First vs. Probability Based approaches? Where do you land on that spectrum?
• What pros and cons do you see for Optionality vs. Commitment? Where do you land on that spectrum?
• Is your retirement planning most driven by maximizing expected returns, minimizing failure risk, emotional comfort, behavioral sustainability, or something else?
• Do you think people should adapt their strategy to match their psychology, or try to train themselves to follow what they believe is mathematically optimal?
• Should guaranteed income sources receive more attention in the FIRE community (such as TIPS ladders or annuities)?
Please note: The coffee shop kindly hosts us with the expectation that each attendee makes a purchase. Please plan accordingly.
Venue: East Simpson Coffee Company
Website: https://www.eastsimpsoncoffee.com/
Please note, we will be meeting upstairs instead of the side building this time.