Posts by Bill Bengen

Dear Bill, Thank you for your invaluable work and accessible writing style! I understand that a Safemax changes over a portfolio life given changing underlying returns. However, what’s unclear to me is whether one changes their withdrawal percentage away from the 4.7% (assuming the standard configuration plus COLA adjustment to the original percentage notional)?  J.…

Love your book! One clarification, on page 142 (hard cover) you state that retires that did not encounter a large bear market early in their retirement improved their safemax by more frequent rebalancing, but Figure 9.3 shows the opposite, can you explain? Thanks.  M,   Dear M., Thanks for your note and your interest in…

Hi. I enjoyed reading your book but I remain confused as to how to calculate my individual SAFEMAX. Tables 2.2-2.4 show SAFEMAX rates base on CPI and Shiller Cape for “standard configuration.” Later in chapter 12, table 12.7 demonstrates the SAFEMAX finder for a specific configuration (different asset allocation, different legacy, and planning horizon). Are…

Do you have tables for the Cape-Schiller past 23.99 or do we just assume anything past that is 4.7%? The current ratio is 38.94, so not really sure what to do. Also, do you have a simple worksheet or webpage that people input their own numbers and computer things based on your book (without holding…

Thanks Bill for all your research, I loved the new book. Did you analyze how investing in Gold would impact the 4.7% safemax. My hypothesis is if you adjusted the 40% intermediate bond allocation to 20% with the remaining 20% going in a gold etf like GLDM, that safemax would improve. Historically, I believe gold…

I’m enjoying your book and got to the spending smile part. I would love to see the effect over 30 and 40 year retirement lengths. My basic understanding is that one could withdrawal maybe 1% less of cpi every year. How would that effect the SWR for 30 and 40 year periods with the base…

Just finished your book this morning. I may have a few questions, but one that comes to mind right away is why not consider other CAPEs or more specifically a weighted average CAPE based on our own unique equity portfolio. Right now the Shiller CAPE is crazy high because of it only tracks the S&P…

ASSET ALLOCATION Great book. Looking at Figures 8.6A & 8.6B, there are only small periods of time when having a large percentage of bonds would optimize portfolio performance. However, your common recommendation is 40% bonds and 5% cash. It seems like both of those positions are a hedge against poor stock market performance. However, they…

Hi Bill! I am up late reading because I can’t put down your new book! I am learning so much and appreciate all of your examples. Is there a tool or formula where we can add inputs to create a synthetic CWR template for our personal plan so we can monitor against our actual CWR?…

I just read your new book – Richer Retirement. What would the SafeMax initial withdrawal rate be for a 74 y/o whose asset allocation is 95% equities (index funds) and 5% cash ?  T.   Thanks for your note and your interest in my research. It’s really impossible to answer your question without more information.…