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How retirement planning and retirement spending calculators work and what are some of their flaws. Why figuring out how much money you will have when you retire and how long it will last is a lot like the work hydrologists do to figure out whether Phoenix or Los Angeles will run out of water.

How to estimate how long your assets will last in retirement and the steps you can take to take make them last longer.

Why lower retirement spending rates means most retirees will need to work some during their retirement years.

Why individuals need to save more for retirement and how to figure out how much more you should save.    

Why your retirement spending rate should vary over time based on individual and market circumstances.

How to deplete most of your assets before you die by using single premium immediate annuities.

The simple formula to sustain an early retirement without running out of money.

A traditional thirty year retirement will be out of reach for most people. How to live like you are already retired.

A preview of this season's episode on retirement strategy and retirement philosophy.

What could happen if the U.S. Congress doesn’t raise the debt ceiling and defaults on U.S. financial obligations.

Why the likelihood of a future fiscal crisis sparked by the national debt depends on whether there is a limited or an unlimited supply of money. Is it possible the federal government’s endless borrowing could crowd out the private sector and harm the economy?

Why Social Security will not collapse and the four actions government can take to make sure it won’t.

What does the U.S. government spend its money on. Why cutting federal spending and trying to lower the national debt reduces household income and spending, potentially causing a recession.

Why some nations are at risk of default on their national debt and others are not. Why the U.S. national debt will never be repaid.

Why all federal governments are insolvent but investors still line up to buy government debt at low interest rates.

This was the fourth episode of Money For the Rest of Us and the first attempt at explaining through a metaphor of a seesaw how households, businesses and governments all interact to create federal budget deficits and increase the national debt.

Season 2 of Topics will help you become an expert on all aspects the National Debt from how sustainable is it, the debt ceiling, budget deficits, Social Security and what happens if the U.S defaults.

To what extent is the U.S. dollar used outside of the U.S., what could cause the dollar shortage and would the impact be. 

How money originated thousands of years ago and why our relationship with money is driven by the stories we tell.

How federal governments allow banks to create the vast majority of the world’s money supply, and why that erodes the value of money over time.