USA Today - 11.11.2019

MONEY USA TODAY z MONDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2019 z 3B

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Dear Pete,
I just retired at 60 years old. I am a
single head-of-household male. No
children. When I retired my annual
salary was about $120,000. I have had
my house mortgage paid off for about
four years. No monthly debt load. I
have approximately $1.7 million in in-
vestable assets.
The job I left offered no real pen-
sion once I retired. Even though I have
taken a part-time job, I am still con-
cerned about outliving my savings.
Am I nuts to be concerned? – Dean
Pete the Planner: I never tell a per-
son not to worry, whether they should
be worried or not. We’re all wired differ-
ently. Instead, I’m going to use our time
together to illuminate a path to success,
and to help you identify some circum-
stances that could upend your plans.
I’m concerned you didn’t mention
your current income. In fact, I’ve con-
vinced myself you don’t know what it is.
If that’s the case, that’s a problem. Sure,
you likely make a variable level of in-
come from your consulting gig, but how
much is that and how does it set your
lifestyle? If you make less, do you spend
less? Or do you supplement an arbitrary
amount of income with an arbitrary
withdrawal from your nest egg?
Your nest egg, as you’ve acknowl-
edged, is not a bottomless bowl of
M&Ms grandma sets out around the
holidays. Your dollars are finite.
I can only assume you lived on your
$120,000 salary and that standard of
living has continued into your new re-
tirement. You paid off your home and
your debt prior to retirement, which is
fantastic. However, that doesn’t neces-
sarily mean you then set aside the mon-
ey which previously satisfied those
debts as savings on a monthly basis. If
you didn’t, then you increased your life-
style heading into retirement, which is

common, but not great.

In fact, paying off major debts just

prior to retirement can be incredibly

dangerous because of the risk of in-

creased discretionary income increas-

ing your lifestyle, heading toward a pe-

riod of time (retirement) in which your

available income is likely to decrease.

Additionally, if at retirement you

became solely responsible for your

health insurance premiums, then your

monthly obligations increased the mo-

ment your income theoretically de-

creased.

You must determine exactly how

much all of your monthly obligations

cost you. Once you’ve found this num-

ber, you have to ask yourself a very vi-

tal question – Is this sustainable?

For instance, if you spend $6,500 a

month consistently, then you must as-

sign income to handle those expenses

every month. If you simply spend

“whatever feels right,” you’ll find your-

self broke in a decade.

The importance of homing in on

your true living expenses is especially

practical as you approach the age in

which you’ll activate your Social Secu-

rity retirement benefits. It’s not un-

common for a person who has been re-

tired for a few years to unintentionally

increase their lifestyle once Social Se-

curity income kicks in.

Even $1.7 million can disappear in a

short period of time if you refuse to

budget. To replicate the lifestyle

you’ve just left behind in the work-

place, you’d need to withdraw 7% of

your nest egg on an annual basis. That

is not a sustainable plan. The more

consulting income you earn, the less

you’ll have to withdraw.

You also need to take the time to

think through how your consulting in-

come will wane. Will it decrease over

time as you purposefully put in fewer

hours? Or will your income come to a

screeching halt, whether it's voluntary

or placed upon you?

The pieces of a successful retire-

ment are all there for you. Just be sure

to assemble them correctly.

RETIREMENT

Pete the Planner

Peter Dunn

USA TODAY

A retiree may outlive his

savings even with a job

Question: On Wednesday, a pilot
accidentally triggered a hijacking
alert at Amsterdam's Schiphol air-
port by keying in the code in error.
How easy is it to do that by mis-
take? And how do flight crews act
when it’s not a false alarm?
Answer: For security reasons, I
can’t go into too much detail; howev-
er, there are special codes that pilots
send to air traffic controllers if they
have specific problems, such as an
emergency, loss of communication or
a potential hijack. These codes alert
the controllers, who then notify the
proper authorities.
The codes, assigned by air traffic
control, are unique to each flight. If
the pilot erroneously inputs one of
the critical codes, it can cause the
controller to believe there may be a
real emergency.
In the Air Europa case, the pilot
entered the hijacking code by mis-
take while teaching a junior pilot.
Normally, the first action by the con-
troller is to verify the code is real;
however, media coverage did not in-
dicate whether the verification oc-
curred.
Security officials are aware that
critical codes may get entered erro-
neously. But until they determine
that is the case, they approach the
aircraft carefully and treat the on-
board threat seriously.
The authorities in Amsterdam re-
acted properly and thankfully, it
turned out to be a false alarm.
John Cox is a retired airline cap-
tain with US Airways and runs his
own aviation safety consulting com-
pany, Safety Operating Systems.

ASK THE CAPTAIN

Even false

alarms

are taken

seriously by

controllers

John Cox
Special to USA TODAY

Isn’t it my right to recline?

Another pro-recline argument: If the

seat can recline, shouldn’t you be able

to?

You can do a lot of things on a plane.

For example, you can tell your life story

to your seatmate. You can eat a Lim-

burger cheese and Bermuda onion sand-

wich. You can press the flight attendant

call button repeatedly. But all are prob-

ably bad ideas.

“Seat recline is a moral issue,” says

Jennifer Aspinwall, a frequent air trav-

eler who writes the World On A Whim

blog.” What do you do if the person in

front of you reclines all the way? What if

you turn around to discover that a 6-

foot-4 passenger is seated behind you?

Do you eat your meal in your lap while

the tray table cuts into your stomach or

do recline as well and crush the legs of

the person behind you?”

Airlines should lock seats

So if there’s no room to recline your

airplane seat, and it’s wrong, why do so

many airlines still allow it? Because if

they didn’t, it would be an admission

that they no longer care about your com-

fort. Airlines are stacking you into a

plane like cargo.

“I wish all airlines would eliminate

the recline function,” says Larry Hicker-

son, a million-miler from Peoria, Arizo-

na. “Since airlines went to ridiculously

tight pitches, recline sets up an unten-

able situation.”

Right now, about half the people

reading this column probably want to

name their firstborn after me. The other

half want to kill me. And the airline

folks? They’re laughing.

The airline industry loves the seat re-

clining argument because it divides us.

And while we’re arguing about 2 inches

of personal space, they’re busy collect-

ing more money from passengers and

slowly – ever so slowly – removing even

more room. This debate is the perfect

distraction.

Whether you think reclining your air-

Stop reclining your airplane seat.

Two domestic airlines already limit

your ability to lean back in economy

class. Even if the airline doesn’t make

the decision for you, it’s the polite

thing to do. And, most important, it’s

the right thing to do.

“Seat reclining is one of the most ir-

ritating, inconvenient, self-indulgent

habits,” says Simon Sapper, an organi-

zational consultant and frequent trav-

eler based in London. “Period.”

But click around the internet for a

while, and you’ll find that this debate is

far from settled. Many of the blogo-

sphere’s “experts” believe it’s their

God-given right to recline. Ironically,

the loudest seat recliners don’t even fly

in economy class.

There isn’t room to recline

So, as a public service, let’s settle

this argument now. Reclining your air-

line seat is unacceptable because

we’re officially out of space. It’s rude –

and it’s wrong.

There’s no space to recline. Airlines

are trying to squeeze more passengers

on a plane to make more money. Before

airline deregulation, many economy

class seats had 36 inches of “pitch,” a

rough measure of legroom. Today,

some seats have as little as 28 inches.

If you recline your seat, you’ll prob-

ably end up in someone’s lap. Literally.

“I feel most folks would rather sacri-

fice the 2 inches of reclining backward

not to have someone sitting in their lap

for the distance of a flight,” says Mary

Camillo, a travel advisor from Middle-

town, New Jersey. “Airlines should in-

still on passengers what parents have

been trying to instill in their children

for years. That is, if you do not have

enough to share with everyone, then

wait until you do.”

line seat is wrong or not, let’s agree on

one thing: Greedy airlines got us to this

point. Fighting over the scraps of space

won’t fix it. If we ever needed thoughtful

government regulation, maybe it is now.

How to deal with a recliner

zAsk them to lean forward.Timing

and tone are important here. The mo-

ment someone leans back, gently tap

the person on the shoulder and politely

ask them if it would be possible not to

recline their seat. Be. Extra. Nice.

zGet a flight attendant involved.

Some leaners are clever and wait for you

to go to the restroom before leaning.

Then they feign sleep, which makes you

reluctant to bother them. You can al-

ways ask a flight attendant for help.

zMove airplane seats.If you see an-

other open seat in your class of service,

feel free to move, as long as the seat belt

sign isn’t illuminated. You might also

want to ask a flight attendant for per-

mission. As a reminder, the seats in

front of the exit row don’t recline. So

usually, an exit row seat means you’ll

keep your legroom. And maybe, your

sanity.

Polite flyers should decline

to recline their airline seat

On Travel

Christopher Elliott

USA TODAY

“The airline industry loves the

sea-reclining argument because it

divides us,” argues Christopher Elliott.

"And while we’re arguing about two

inches of personal space, they're busy

collecting more money from

passengers and slowly ever so slowly –

removing even more room. This

debate is the perfect distraction.”

JODI JACOBSON/GETTY IMAGES