Elon Musk recently suggested that within the next 10 to 20 years, advances in artificial intelligence and robotics could make saving for retirement unnecessary.

Maybe he’s right.

Maybe he’s wrong.

But there’s an important difference between Elon Musk and most of us: Elon can afford to be wrong about the future. Most of us don’t have that luxury.

Before becoming a financial planner, I was an engineer. And one of the most important principles I learned in engineering was the factor of safety.

When engineers design a bridge, building, or machine, they don’t assume everything will go perfectly. They build in a margin of safety because they know the real world rarely behaves exactly as expected.

We believe retirement planning deserves the same approach.

What if everything doesn’t go according to plan?

Consider a few possibilities:

• What if Social Security benefits are reduced?
• What if the market drops just as you retire?
• What if inflation remains higher than expected?
• What if you need to retire several years earlier than planned?
• What if you or your spouse needs long-term care?

We can’t know which of these things will happen—or whether any of them will.

But we can plan for the possibility.

That’s one of the reasons we place so much emphasis on retirement planning at Clarity Wealth.

A retirement plan shouldn’t simply answer, “How much money do I need?”

It should help you understand where your retirement income will come from, what could potentially disrupt that income, and what adjustments you could make if circumstances change.

And that plan shouldn’t be something you create once and put on a shelf.

Markets change. Tax laws evolve. Families change. Health changes. Your goals may change, too.

Your retirement plan needs to evolve along with them.

Because the last thing you want is to get several years into retirement and discover that your plan only worked if everything went right.

Build a margin of safety into your retirement.

If something has changed in your life—or you’re concerned about how a particular issue could affect your retirement—it may be worth revisiting the assumptions behind your plan.

And if you have a friend or family member approaching retirement who isn’t sure how prepared they are, encourage them to have that conversation as well.

Elon Musk may turn out to be right about what AI and robotics will mean for our future.

But I wouldn’t build a retirement plan that requires him to be.

The future is uncertain. A good retirement plan should be prepared for that.