“All you can do is eat into the principal.”
You are most certainly correct — that’s why it’s so important for people to save for retirement while they are working, so they have enough to last them through times like this even in retirement.
Many times people say they can’t afford to save, but actually they can’t afford not to.
When you are young and your salary is limited, you marry and ned Healths insurance, you need life Insurance, Fire Theft, and Homeowners ,Automobile Insurance, you need to put money away for the kids college.
All that before you even eat.
Then you do get to save a couple of dollars and they pay interest of 0.10%. Social Security looks like it’s going in the crapper and Obamacare just rationed your Mama’s meds, and said she wasn’t worth saving, so she spends what little she had on the meds Obamacare will not pay for. You are left with nothing , and you want them to save half million to retire on.
It aint easy.