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Mike Zarelli

Mike Zarelli

Mike Zarrelli, CFP®, EA is a financial planner at Foundry Financial and a guest on the Retirement Made Simple podcast.

Sep 12, 2026

Retirement Made Simple

Retirement Made Simple

Why a Pension Changes Everything in Retirement

Sep 12 · 7m

Kevin Lum
Kevin LumHOST
1:01
Mike, take it away.
Mike Zarelli
Mike ZarelliGUEST
1:02
Most people think about net worth in terms of assets and liabilities.
Mike Zarelli
Mike ZarelliGUEST
1:07
But when you have a pension, part of your retirement wealth may not even show up as an account balance.
Mike Zarelli
Mike ZarelliGUEST
1:13
For example, let's say you have a $5,000 a month pension.
Mike Zarelli
Mike ZarelliGUEST
1:17
That's providing you $60,000 a year of income.
Mike Zarelli
Mike ZarelliGUEST
1:20
Using the 4% withdrawal rule of thumb, you would need roughly $1.5 million invested to recreate that same level of income.
Mike Zarelli
Mike ZarelliGUEST
1:29
Of course, a pension is not the same as an investment account.

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