This article appears as part of Casey Weade's Weekend Reading for Retirees series. Every Friday, Casey highlights four hand-picked articles on trending retirement topics and delivers them straight to your email inbox. Get on the list here.

Five of the seven featured here are as follows:

📌 Historically high equity valuations: The Shiller CAPE 10 suggests future real returns for U.S. equities of around 3.2 percent, which is lower than historical averages.

📌 Historically low bond yields: Bond yields have dropped, affecting the traditional 60 percent stocks/40 percent bonds portfolio. Expected returns are around 4.8 percent, lower than the 8.5 percent or 9.8 percent seen historically.

📌 Increasing longevity: Odds are in your favor of living longer. This increases the need for long-term care and an income that can last your lifetime.

📌 Lower GDP growth due to rising debt: High levels of government debt-to-GDP ratio can negatively affect economic growth, leading to higher taxes. Such conditions could impact future corporate profits and equity returns.

📌 Failure to fully fund Social Security/Medicare/Medicaid: Government programs face underfunding issues, which could result in benefit cuts, tax increases or other adjustments.

You may feel that retirement is easier today with a rockin’ stock market and sky high interest rates, but that doesn’t mean it’s time to rest on your laurels.