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September 14, 2026 
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Perhaps the best measure of a how-to book is whether it lights up the group text. “The Forever Paycheck,” by the veteran money journalist Jean Chatzky, got my siblings and me going by page 9.
Our 83-year-old mother could spend more than she does. We wish she would, and she’s working on it. But she falls into a large class of people that Ms. Chatzky describes in detail — those who are uncomfortable with declining retirement account balances after decades of trying to boost them.
This is understandable. Once those years of shoveling money in are done, she writes, you need to figure out how to get the money out — to “reverse engineer the entire thing.”
But we don’t talk enough about how to do that — the tools, the timing and, most importantly, the complicated feelings around everything from the possibility of running out of money to the desire to leave money for favorite causes or relatives.
Ms. Chatzky believes people should help themselves to a more regular stream of income, especially those who don’t have a pension to match their Social Security payments. A simple annuity could be one way to do that with some of your savings, and Ms. Chatzky has done paid consulting work with the industry.
But she isn’t wedded to annuities. She also discusses bonds and the 401(k) providers that are starting to offer decumulation products and services, to help people do the opposite of accumulate.
I haven’t thought enough about what it would mean to boost the number of fixed, guaranteed payments available to me in retirement, and I haven’t quite cracked the code with my mother, either. I’m going to keep trying.
Have a good week, and please check out the roundup of recent New York Times money stories that we’ve linked to below.
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