"As you enter the phase where you're going to be receiving income and drawing down assets, you need a different style of investment," said Keith F. Hartstein, president of the John Hancock Funds.
In fact, the idea for the Social Security calculator sprang from the more comprehensive tool, which takes into account all of your savings and comes up with a plan on how to draw down those assets most efficiently.
"At the other end, though, we currently have the system where you can own your family home as a couple and have more than $1m in assets and still draw down on a part-pension.
Many retirees may be drawing down their assets and don't need to build equity in their home, so they may prefer a 30-year term.
But a rapidly ageing population saves less because people draw down their assets when they retire.
"We will continue to draw down".
Earlier this year, Bernanke suggested that the Fed might start drawing down its asset purchases; he abruptly reversed course when long-term interest rates, and particularly mortgage rates, started rising.
Other analysts wonder whether phased retirement is not just a new way of turning America's veteran employees into contingent workers, allowing corporations to subsidize their compensation costs by drawing down surplus pension assets.
Rather than taking on debt, the bottom 50% could therefore be funding their consumption by drawing down their limited assets, which is concerning as it makes them more vulnerable in the long run.
In practice, however, returns to marginal agriculture, irregular unskilled work and petty trade are so low that these households end up drawing down on their assets rather than building them up.
