DEPRESSION “How could this have happened? I write about this stuff in my work. I know that retirement is expensive and that people are living longer than ever, which means the money has to go even further. This is awful. I should have seen this coming. I wonder how cat food tastes?”

Fortunately, I don’t have the discipline to wallow. My attention span is too short. And so, in a surprisingly short amount of time, I broke through to the other side.

ACCEPTANCE “Well, facts are facts. We are not going to have eight times our current income socked away when we finally hang it up. Probably not seven, either. But you know what? To quote that great sage William Stephen Belichick, otherwise known as the head coach of the New England Patriots, ‘It is what it is.’

“And there are some advantages in the fact that we are going to fall short. For one thing, I don’t have to agonize every day whether our retirement accounts closed up or down. The final figure will be, to quote Bill, whatever it is, and I think I am O.K. with that.

“We can’t increase our retirement savings contributions without jeopardizing how we live now — and I like how we live now. And I am not going to regret the fact that we paid for the kids to go to the colleges of their choice (although it would have been nice if even one had picked a state school).

“Yes, we have home-repair services on speed-dial, but Alison loves this place, faulty wiring and all. And the saying is on target: Happy wife, happy life.