We never figured real estate into retirement assets. You have to have a roof over your head; the fact that a house has resale value is meaningless while you live in it, and you always have to have a place to live somewhere. So, we didn’t include the value of any property in our financial plan.
The only thing that mattered to us was having enough in the investment portfolio to throw off, at 2-3% inflation-adjusted annually, enough to live off of comfortably for at least 35 years. We worked two years beyond that number and had no trouble turning off the earning spigot. As I posted on the Have You made It thread, drawing from that hard-earned pile is why we built it in the first place, that’s what it’s there for, so no concern about using it as it was meant to be used. It’s funding the life we planned for this last stage of our lives, and we are enjoying it anxiety free.
This is our calculus as well. We don’t have a crystal ball but, barring an apocalypse, we’re all set. Should Armageddon occur, we’ll all screwed, and no amount of planning or hard work will save us, so we don’t waste time worrying about that scenario.