For generations, retirement planning has rested on the assumption that spending rises steadily with inflation — a tidy mathematical logic that real human lives quietly refuse to follow. Research by David Blanchett of Prudential Financial reveals that retirees consistently spend less than models predict, not because they must, but because their desires naturally contract as they age. This gap between assumption and behavior suggests that the famous 4% withdrawal rule may be more conservative than necessary, and that the so-called retirement crisis may be, in part, a crisis of the model rather t