This article appeared as a paid placement.

I have asked thousands of retirees and pre-retirees what retirement means to them. I've heard answers including relaxation, freedom, family, travel, time and more.

One thing I never hear is "money," even though that is what most retirees spend their time thinking about. They go to seminars, read books and peruse articles such as this one to try to improve their retirements through the improvement of their financial situations. And they focus much of their time on finding the next best investment for their assets, jumping from one investment vehicle to the next and one financial adviser to the next, looking for the silver bullet to solve all their retirement woes.

What are those woes, you ask? They fit into a few individual boxes: liquidity for emergencies, income to last a lifetime, growth for inflation protection and estate planning for our legacies.