You can do everything right on paper — save diligently, spend reasonably, stay invested for the long haul — and still land in a very different retirement than

Many people can tell you their portfolio balance. Far fewer can tell you what else determines whether their retirement actually works.

That's understandable. The

For decades, you trained one financial muscle: save, invest, don't touch it. Then retirement arrives and asks you to do the opposite.

Nobody teaches that part