Is $600,000 Enough to Retire?
Three couples. The same $600,000. Three different answers. In this video I run all three sets of numbers on screen, using the same free calculator you can run yourself in about two minutes.
What you will see in this video
Each couple has saved exactly $600,000. Nothing about the savings differs. What differs is the gap between what their guaranteed income already covers and what their life actually costs each month. That gap, not the stock market, is what decides whether $600,000 is enough. One couple is comfortable. One is close. One has a problem they cannot see yet.
Why your spending moves the needle more than the market
Most retirement math starts with a rate of return. This starts with your monthly number instead. When the essentials are already covered by income that arrives whether or not the market cooperates, a bad year becomes an inconvenience. When the essentials are not covered, every withdrawal taken during a down year sells more shares to raise the same dollar, and those shares are never there for the recovery.
That is sequence of returns risk. It does its worst damage in the first several years of retirement, and it is the reason two couples with identical savings and identical average returns can end up in completely different places.
Where Protected Lifetime Income fits
Protected Lifetime Income puts a floor under the parts of your life that cannot flex. The essentials first, then the adventures and experiences, and most of all the memories with the people you love. It does not replace your savings. It changes how much of your savings has to carry that weight, which is what frees the rest of it up to be spent rather than defended.
Run your own numbers
The calculator in the video is free and takes about two minutes: Is my savings enough to retire?
The full written guide, with the case studies laid out step by step, is here: Is $600,000 enough to retire?
Everything on this page is illustrative and hypothetical as of August 2026. It is education, not investment, tax, or legal advice. The couples shown are examples, not real clients, and your situation will differ. Withdrawal-rate rules of thumb are general guidance from published research and are not a prediction or a promise of any result. Protected Lifetime Income figures rely on the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company. Kurt H. Jackson is Life and Health Insurance Licensed in MO, NE, KS, IA, and FL, and is not a securities broker, registered investment advisor, or CPA.
Browse all of Kurt’s retirement videos on the Retirement Planning Videos page.