Retirement Withdrawal Strategies Forum

Not trusting the numbers

My husband and I have been working towards Coast FI as long as we've been married. Now that the calculators are all telling us we're there, I'm having a hard time believing it. We're not super young but we're not 'retirement age' either. We've always planned that we'd quit our stressful jobs and keep some sort of less stressful work, for one of us to have benefits, but now that that time sees to be getting closer it seems like there is no way it can be a possibility and I find myself looking for...

etravels16 547 XP

5 days ago 23 Share

Roth Conversion after 59.5

Can anyone confirm this statement? "After age 59.5, Roth conversions (to Roth account which met 5-year rule in 2020) do not have their own 5-year clock?"

scenic_route 24 XP

2 weeks ago 7 Share

Kiplinger "Retirement Report" - does anyone have opinions?

I enjoy Kiplingers Magazine since it offers me a holistic view of various financial topics\_ I use it as a quick read ( free from local library) to remind me to check on certain areas that I may have neglected ( phone plans, auto insurance , etc ) I welcome input from this community on their Financial Reports Publication \_ Thank You in advcance

Dmartin 72 XP

2 weeks ago 3 Share

I call malarkey - inflation is NOT lower in retirement. Lets debate...

I often hear "you spend less" in retirement. For that, I agree. But that REALLY means you "consume less" in retirement. I think far too many people confuse it with "inflation is lower because my personal expenses don't go up by as much". That is a change/reduction in consumption; it is NOT a reduction in inflation. I suspect prices for the same basket an average RETIREE would buy go up MORE than the basket of goods for a non-retiree. So here is the mix-up and why I think retirees and those plann...

wcschenk 239 XP

3 weeks ago 36 Share

Is Projection Lab Premium Worth The $129?

Played on Projection Lab for a couple of hours this week. Seems pretty great. I mostly love the organization around it. I like I can make certain expenses go up or down faster than inflation ( I do that manually now). I like that I can modify future returns and inflation. The details around your net worth tracking with basis and purchase value vs. current value are all great. For people who like A LOT of detail in their planning, is the paid version of Projection Lab worth it? Why or why not? So...

wcschenk 239 XP

3 weeks ago 14 Share

Risk based guardrails w/o using Firecalc?

Is there a way to use Aubrey William's risk based guardrails calculator without using firecalc? The reason I ask is that the portfolio options in firecalc do not include anything beyond the most basic choice of stocks and bonds. No gold, REITs etc…. Has anybody figured a way to do the risk based guardrails math with another simulator like portfolio visualizer or test folio? OR has anybody figured a way to use Firecalc with a portfolio including alternative assets like gold, REITs and managed fut...

dm7 364 XP

1 month ago 15 Share

Does anyone else thinks we should adopt the 30x rules instead of 25x?

Given newer research on retirement sustainability—especially work incorporating sequence-of-returns risk (SORR), longerFI horizons, and updated return assumptions such as those discussed in recent analyses of Karsten (ERN) and others —the traditional 25× rule (4% rule) should be rounded up to the \*\*30× rule\*\*. It effectively lowers the withdrawal rate to about 3.333%, which meaningfully improves resilience against early negative market sequences and extends portfolio durability for early ret...

Anonymous

1 month ago 34 Share

Choose FI: FI Plan Tool + Planning for Large Lump Sum LTC

Hello all. This is my first post, so please be kind! I used the FI Plan tool provided. However, I don't know how to account for a key aspect. I have decided to plan & set aside $400K for likely future (self-funded) LTC. However, I don't know how to get the FI Plan Tool to include this. Ideas? For context, I am single, no kids, so I need to fully plan to take care of myself. Hopefully, by aging in place. However, I experienced having to move my mother into a CCRC. Luckily, her upfront buy-in wasn...

ghartler 85 XP

1 month ago 6 Share

treat pension as a bond

I know someone has asked this before, but I didn't find it on a search. I have been trying to figure out bonds, but I am not getting it. I originally wanted to target 80% equities and 20% bonds (or maybe 75/25). I hope to retire in about 5 years (@55) and the expected pension will cover about half of my expenses. The expected draw down on our retirement accounts is expected to be about 3.5% to start. Would you treat a WA state pension as a bond fund? That seems safe enough to let the 401k, 457 a...

jerodvandehey 59 XP

1 month ago 9 Share

Asset Transition Nearing FI (jumping off the moving train)

The FI number is near, about 10% to go and well within the 5-year critical period. But, the portfolio is still riding at max-accumulation, max-risk levels of equity. I'm working out the best way to shift the allocation to acknowledge the nearness of FI but without pushing that timeline back too much – safely stepping off the moving train, as it were. Then I read [Big ERN's article](https://earlyretirementnow.com/2017/09/13/the-ultimate-guide-to-safe-withdrawal-rates-part-19-equity-glidepaths/) t...

dmcdonou 307 XP

1 month ago 16 Share

Backdoor Roth workaround when you don't have a 401K

Is there a work around for the pro rata rule? It says you have to treat all IRA accounts as one combined account, meaning opening a new Traditional IRA for a Roth conversion would mean tax implications that would require tax due on the total balance of all accounts rather than just the conversion amount. I do not have a 401K plan, only traditional IRAs as I am self-employed. I use Gusto so I looked to see if I could open one up there but the management fees are too high to do that for backdoor R...

MissEllie 75 XP

2 months ago 10 Share

401k investment transition as get closer to FI

Hi, I am currently invested in 100% equities in my 401k, but would like to transition to more of a risk parity type portfolio as I get closer to FI. I am currently about 10 yrs away from withdrawing funds. I am limited by the funds available. There are a lot of TRP target date funds, with some of those more bond heavy and focused on income. Some of the more conservative TRP funds have about a 6% annual growth since inception, but have about a 17% drawdown period when I entered them on portfoliov...

ijmahler5 111 XP

2 months ago 5 Share

HSA Accounts: one or two for married couple?

Reading this passage below, does it say, if you are married, and one has the health insurance in their name ( spouse and dependents on that insurance), both the spouse with the insurance policy and the spouse under that policy can EACH have a HSA account? Or only one HAS account, under the spouse that has the insurance policy covering the family? ***Married Spouses*** *The IRS treats married couples as a single tax unit, which means if one or both of you are using a qualified family health plan,...

MissEllie 75 XP

2 months ago 3 Share

Is anyone doing FIRE without being optimal intentionally?

For some reason I always find myself seeking out the optimization discussions about the quickest or most efficient way to FIRE (I suppose the boring middle will do that do a person). It seems like there is a consensus among the smart people here that you max the tax advantaged accounts then put the rest in the brokerage, then you do the low or no tax 72(t) plus the low or no tax Roth Conversions, and you stay in the 0% LTCG area, and you manage income for ACA subsidies and all that good stuff. I...

travisleffel 219 XP

2 months ago 21 Share

Planning Tools vs 4% rule

I am curious as to what people thing about the difference between using a planning tool to determine retirement date vs the standard 4% rule. It seems to me that the planning tool takes into account a lot more of the nuances of spending and can better calculate taxes. In our plan there is a 2-3 year difference in the estimated retirement date.

reynoljb 78 XP

2 months ago 14 Share

Jordan Grumet's pushback on "Die with Zero"

A couple weeks ago Jordan Grumet ("The Purpose Code" author) wrote a substack post (and released a podcast episode) pushing back on the ethos of "overaccumulation is bad" and (quoting from below): > *if you die with money left in the bank, you’ve essentially wasted precious life energy working for dollars you never got to enjoy.* I found Jordan's take on this refreshing, as I think the FIRE community has been going overboard stressing about overaccumulation and maximizing spending in retirement....

JDFI 5,550 XP

2 months ago 6 Share

Econome 2027

Anybody heading to Cincy for Econome 2027? I lucked out and scored a ticket. I've never been to an FI conference, although I've been a part of the community for several years (whatever that means). What do I need to do in preparation? I assume people have some general questions, or maybe have a networth/fi tracker that they take. I'm trying to figure out what I want to get out of this. Networking/making connections with like-minded folk is at the top. I feel like I'm on an island of sorts as of...

zachary harr 383 XP

2 months ago 6 Share

Upcoming ChooseFI Podcast Episode: "Why Having Enough Doesn't Feel Like Enough"

Upcoming ChooseFI Podcast Episode: "Why Having Enough Doesn't Feel Like Enough" Brad and I are recording a different kind of "deep dive" next week that explores why financially intelligent, secure people still struggle to make financial decisions. We'll discuss some hidden psychological mechanisms that keep people stuck even after the math says they're okay. Before we press "Record," I'd love to hear from you: If you've reached (or nearly reached) financial independence, what has been the hardes...

Cody Garrett, CFP® 264 XP

2 months ago 16 Share

Gap between employer and subsidized-ACA insurance: what to do?

ACA plans are often the approach taken by early retirees, and with planning they can be good enough. But, the annual subsidy depends on your annual income, and with the 1BBB and the return of the cliff, getting that right is a huge deal. Calibrating it for a full year is often necessary to ensure you stay under the cliff, but what if you don't have a full year to cover? Consider a situation where you're considering leaving a job with employer-sponsored insurance but it is late enough in the year...

dmcdonou 307 XP

2 months ago 6 Share

Accurate open market costs of Healthcare

My husband and I are close to FI and we're needing to start estimating the realistic cost of healthcare. We're waffling between going to the open market and one of us taking on a PT job with benefits depending on how much it will cost us. We're only 46/53 so we have a number of years yet to cover ourselves. Can anyone recommend sites that give accurate estimates for the cost of healthcare on the open market?

etravels16 547 XP

2 months ago 7 Share