Recommendations from the media and financial planners regarding retirement spending rates deviate considerably from utility maximization models (models that assume consumers optimize how they spend money).

We argue that wealth managers should advocate dynamic spending in proportion to survival probabilities, adjusted up for exogenous pension income and down for longevity risk aversion.

We conducted a study to attempt to derive, analyze, and explain the optimal retirement spending policy for a utility-maximizing consumer facing (only) an indeterminate lifetime. We deliberately ignored financial market risk by assuming that all investment assets are allocated to risk-free bonds (e.g., Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities [TIPS]). We made this simplifying assumption in order to focus attention on the role of longevity risk aversion in determining optimal consumption and spending rates during a retirement period of indeterminate length.

By longevity risk aversion, we mean that different people might have different attitudes toward the “fear” of living longer than anticipated and possibly depleting their financial resources. Some might respond to this economic risk by spending less early on in retirement, whereas others might be willing to take their chances and enjoy a higher standard of living while they are still able to do so.

In particular, we focused exclusively on the impact of life span uncertainty—longevity risk—on the optimal consumption and retirement spending policy. To isolate the impact of longevity risk on optimal portfolio retirement withdrawal rates, we placed our deliberations on Planet Vulcan, where investment returns are known and unvarying, the inhabitants are rational and utility-maximizing consumption smoothers, and only life spans are random.

The main results of our investigation are as follows: Counseling retirees to set initial spending from investable wealth at a constant inflation-adjusted rate (e.g., the widely popular 4% rule) is consistent with life-cycle consumption smoothing only under a very limited set of implausible preference parameters—that is, there is no universally optimal or safe retirement spending rate. Rather, the optimal forward-looking behavior in the face of personal longevity risk is to consume in proportion to survival probabilities—adjusted upward for pension income and downward for longevity risk aversion—as opposed to blindly withdrawing constant income for life.

Literature on Retirement Spending Rates

Within the community of retirement income planners, a frequently cited study is by W.P. Bengen (1994), in which he used historical equity and bond returns to search for the highest allowable spending rate that would sustain a portfolio for 30 years of retirement. Using a 50/50 equity/bond mix, Bengen settled on a spending rate between 4% and 5%. In fact, this rate has become known as the Bengen or 4% rule among retirement income planners and has caught on like wildfire. The rule simply states that for every $100 in the retirement nest egg, the retiree should withdraw $4 adjusted for inflation each year—forever, or at least until the portfolio runs dry or the retiree dies, whichever occurs first.

Indeed, it is hard to overestimate the influence of the Bengen study and its embedded “rule” on the community of retirement income planners. The 4% spending rule now seems destined for the same immortality enjoyed by other (unduly simplistic) rules of thumb, such as “buy term and invest the difference” and dollar cost averaging. And although numerous authors have extended, refined, and recalibrated these spending rules, the spirit of each rule remains intact across all versions.

We are not the first to point out that this “start by spending x%” strategy has no basis in economic theory. The goal of our study was to illustrate the solution to the life-cycle problem and demonstrate how longevity risk aversion—in contrast to financial risk aversion, so familiar to financial analysts—affects retirement spending rates.

Numerical Examples and Cases

Note that we use the following terms (somewhat loosely and interchangeably, depending on the context) throughout the article: (1) The retirement spending rate is an annualized dollar amount that includes withdrawals from the portfolio, as well as pension income, and is scaled to reflect an initial portfolio value of $100; (2) the portfolio withdrawal rate is the annualized ratio of the amount withdrawn from the portfolio divided by the value of the portfolio at that time; and (3) the initial portfolio withdrawal rate is the annualized ratio of the initial amount withdrawn from the portfolio divided by the initial value of the portfolio.

Recall that we are spending our retirement on Vulcan, where only life spans are random. Our approach forced us to specify a real (inflation-adjusted) investment return. So, after carefully examining the real yield (a rate that has been adjusted to remove the effects of inflation) from U.S. TIPS over the last 10 years on the basis of data from the Federal Reserve, we found that the maximum real yield over the period was 3.15% for the 10-year bond and 4.24% for the five-year bond. The average yields were 1.95% and 1.50%, respectively. The longer-maturity TIPS exhibited higher yields but obviously entailed some duration (interest rate) risk. After much deliberation, we decided to assume a real interest rate of 2.5% for most of the numerical examples, even though current (fall 2010) TIPS rates were substantially lower.

As for longevity risk, we exercised a great deal of modeling caution because it was the impetus for our investigation. We assumed that the retiree’s remaining lifetime obeys a (unisex) biological law of mortality under which the hazard rate increases exponentially over time. This notion is known as the Gompertz assumption in the actuarial literature, and we calibrated this model to common pension annuitant mortality tables.

In most of our numerical examples, therefore, we assumed an 86.6% probability that a 65-year-old will survive to the age of 75, a 57.3% probability of surviving to 85, a 36.9% probability of reaching 90, a 17.6% probability of reaching 95, and a 5% probability of attaining 100. Again, note that we do not plan for a life expectancy or an ad hoc 30-year retirement. Rather, we account for the entire term structure of mortality.

Our main objective was to focus attention on the impact of risk aversion on the optimal portfolio withdrawal rate and especially the initial portfolio withdrawal rate. Therefore, we display results for a range of values—for example, for a retiree with a very low and a relatively high coefficient of relative risk aversion.

To aid a clear understanding of mortality risk aversion, we offer the following analogy to classical asset allocation models. An investor with medium risk aversion would invest 40% of her assets in a stock (equity) portfolio and 60% in a bond portfolio, assuming an equity risk premium of 5% and volatility of 18%. Our model does not have a risky asset and does not require an equity risk premium, but the idea is that the coefficient of relative risk aversion can be mapped onto more easily understood risk attitudes. Along the same lines, a very low risk-aversion value would lead to an equity allocation of 150%, and a high risk-aversion value implies an equity allocation of 20% (all rounded to the nearest 5%).

Finally, to complete the parameter values required for our model, we assume that the subjective discount rate, which is a proxy for personal impatience, is equal to the risk-free rate (mostly 2.5% in our numerical examples). This assumption suggests that the optimal retirement spending rates would be constant over time in the absence of longevity risk considerations. Again, our motivation for all these assumptions is to tease out the impact of pure longevity risk aversion.

In the language of economics, when the subjective discount rate in a life-cycle model is set equal to the constant and risk-free interest rate, a rational consumer will spend his total (human plus financial) capital evenly and in equal amounts over time. In other words, in a model with no horizon uncertainty, retirement spending rates and spending amounts are, in fact, constant, regardless of the consumer’s elasticity of intertemporal substitution.

The question is, what happens when lifetimes are indeterminate?

Let us take a look at some results. We will assume a 65-year-old with a (standardized) $100 nest egg. Initially, we allow for no pension annuity income; therefore, all consumption must be sourced to the investment portfolio that is earning a deterministic interest rate. On Planet Vulcan, financial wealth must be depleted at the very end of the life cycle (say, age 120), and bequest motives are nonexistent. So, the optimal retirement spending rate at retirement age 65 is $4.605 when the risk-aversion parameter is set to a medium level (see Table 1), and the optimal retirement spending rate is $4.121 when the risk-aversion parameter is set to a high level.

Note that these rates—perhaps surprisingly—are within the range of numbers quoted by the popular press for optimal portfolio withdrawal (spending) rates. Thus, at first glance, these numbers seem to suggest that simple 4% rules of thumb are consistent with a life-cycle model. Unfortunately, the euphoria is short-lived. The numbers (may) coincide only in the first year of withdrawals (at age 65) and for a limited range of risk-aversion coefficients (most importantly, no pension income). As retirees age, they rationally consume less each year—in proportion to their survival probability adjusted for risk aversion. For example, at our baseline medium level of risk aversion, the optimal retirement spending rate drops from $4.605 at age 65 to $4.544 at age 70, and then to $4.442 at age 75, $3.591 at 90, and $2.177 at 100, assuming the retiree is still alive.

Note how a lower real interest rate (e.g., 0.5% in Table 1) leads to a reduced optimal retirement consumption/spending rate. Indeed, in the yield curve and TIPS environment of fall 2010, our model offered an important message for Baby Boomers: Your parents’ retirement plans might not be sustainable anymore.

The first insight in our model is that a fully rational plan is for retirees to spend less as they progress through retirement. Life-cycle optimizers (i.e., “consumption smoothers” on Vulcan) spend more at earlier ages and reduce spending as they age, even if their subjective discount rate is equal to the real interest rate in the economy.

Intuitively, they deal with longevity risk by setting aside a financial reserve and by planning to reduce consumption (if that risk materializes) in proportion to their survival probability adjusted for risk aversion—all without any pension annuity income.

Including Pension Annuities

Let us now use the same model to examine what happens when the retiree has access to a defined-benefit pension income annuity, which provides a guaranteed lifetime cash flow.

Table 2 displays the optimal policy for four different retirees with varying degrees of longevity risk aversion, each with $1 million in investable retirement assets. The first retiree has no pension, the second has an annual pension of $10,000, the third has an annual pension of $20,000, and the fourth has a pension of $50,000.

Table 2 shows the net initial portfolio withdrawal rate (i.e., the optimal amount withdrawn from the investment portfolio) as a function of the risk-aversion values and pre-existing pension income. Thus, for example, when the medium-risk-aversion retiree has $1 million in investable assets and is entitled to a real lifetime pension of $50,000—which, in our language, is a scaled nest egg of $100 and a pension of $5—the optimal total retirement spending rate is $10.551 in the first year. Of that amount, $5.00 obviously comes from the pension and $5.551 is withdrawn from the portfolio. The net initial portfolio withdrawal rate is thus 5.551%.

In contrast, if the retiree has the same $1 million in assets but is entitled to only $10,000 in annual lifetime pension income, the optimal total retirement spending rate is $5.873 per $100 of assets at age 65, of which $1.00 comes from the pension and $4.873 is withdrawn from the portfolio. Hence, the initial portfolio withdrawal rate is 4.873%.

The main point of our study can be summarized in one sentence: The optimal portfolio withdrawal rate depends on longevity risk aversion and the level of pre-existing pension income. The larger the amount of the pre-existing pension income, the greater the optimal retirement spending rate and the greater the portfolio withdrawal rate.

The pension acts primarily as a buffer and allows the retiree to consume more from discretionary wealth. Even at high levels of longevity risk aversion, the risk of living a long life does not “worry” retirees too much because they have pension income to fall back on should that chance (i.e., a long life) materialize. We believe that this insight is absent from most of the popular media discussion (and practitioner implementation) of optimal spending rates. If an individual has substantial income from a defined-benefit pension or Social Security, she can afford to withdraw more—percentage-wise—than her neighbor, who is relying entirely on his investment portfolio to finance his retirement income needs.

Table 2 confirms a number of other important results. Note that the optimal portfolio withdrawal rate—for a range of risk-aversion and pension income levels—is between 8% and 4%, but only when the inflation-adjusted interest rate is assumed to be a rather generous 2.5%. Adding another 100 basis points to the investment return assumption raises the initial portfolio withdrawal rate by 60 to 80 basis points. Reducing interest assumptions, however, will have the opposite effect.

Longevity risk aversion manifests itself by (essentially) assuming that retirees will live longer than the biological/medical estimate. Only extremely risk-tolerant retirees behave as if their modal life spans were the true (biological) modal value. Note that this behavior is not risk neutrality, which would ignore longevity risk altogether.

In the asset allocation literature, the closest analogy to these risk-adjusted mortality rates is the concept of risk-adjusted investment returns. A risk-averse investor observes a 10% expected portfolio return and adjusts it downward on the basis of the volatility of the return and her risk aversion. If the (subjectively) adjusted investment return is less than the risk-free rate, the investor shuns the risky asset. Of course, this analogy is not quite correct because retirees cannot shun longevity risk, but the spirit is the same. The longevity probability they see is not the longevity probability they feel.

Again, an important take-away is the impact of pension annuities on retirement spending.

Table 3 reports the optimal retirement spending rate at various ages, assuming that a fixed percentage of the retirement nest egg is used to purchase a pension annuity (“annuitized”).

Note that the pricing of pension (income) annuities by private sector insurance companies usually involves mortality rates that differ from population rates owing to anti-selection concerns. This factor could be easily incorporated by using different mortality parameters, but we will keep things simple to illustrate the impact of lifetime income on optimal total spending rates.

Results are reported for a retirement age of 65 and planned consumption 15 years later (assuming the retiree is still alive), at age 80. A variety of scenarios are illustrated in which 0%, 20%, 40%, 60% or 100% of initial wealth is annuitized—that is, a nonreversible pension annuity is purchased on the basis of the going market rate.

Table 3 shows total dollar retirement spending rates, including the corresponding pension annuity income. These rates are not (only) the portfolio withdrawal rates that are reported in percentages in Table 2. For example, if the retiree with medium risk aversion allocates $20 (from the $100 available) to purchase a pension annuity that pays $1.2661 for life, optimal consumption will be $1.2661 + $3.9976 = $5.2637 at age 65. Note that the $3.9976 withdrawn from the remaining portfolio of $80 is equivalent to an initial portfolio withdrawal rate of 4.996%.

In contrast, the retiree with a high degree of longevity risk aversion will receive the same $1.2661 from the $20 that has been annuitized but will optimally spend only $3.5352 from the portfolio (a withdrawal rate of 4.419%), for a total retirement spending rate of $4.8013 at age 65.

If the entire nest egg is annuitized at 65, leading to $6.3303 of annual lifetime income, the retirement spending rate is constant for life—and independent of risk aversion—because there is no financial capital from which to draw down any income. This example is yet another way to illustrate the benefit of converting financial wealth into an income flow. The $6.3303 of annual consumption is the largest of all the consumption plans. Thus, most financial economists are strong advocates of annuitizing a portion of one’s retirement nest egg.

Reacting to Financial Shocks

Using our methodology, one can examine the optimal reaction to financial shocks over the retirement horizon. Take someone who experiences a 30% loss in his investment portfolio and wants to rationally reduce spending to account for the depleted nest egg. The rule of thumb suggesting that retirees spend 4% to 5% says nothing about how to update the rule in response to a shock to wealth.

To understand how this approach would work in practice, let us begin with a medium-risk-adverse retiree who has $100 in investable assets and is entitled to $2 of lifetime pension income. With a real interest rate of 2.5%, the optimal policy is to consume a total of $7.078 at age 65 ($2 from the pension and $5.078 from the portfolio) and adjust withdrawals downward over time in proportion to the survival probability to the power of the risk-aversion coefficient. The wealth depletion time is at age 105.

Under this dynamic policy, the expectation is that at age 70, the financial capital trajectory will be $86.668 and total consumption will be $6.984 if the retiree follows the optimal consumption path for the next five years.

Now let us assume that the retiree survives the next five years and experiences a financial shock that reduces the portfolio value from the expected $86.668 to $60 at age 70, which is 31% less than planned. In this case, the optimal plan is to reduce consumption to $5.583, which is obtained by solving the problem from the beginning, but with a starting age of 70. This result is a reduction of approximately 20% compared with the original plan.

Of course, this scenario is a bit of an apples-to-oranges comparison because (1) a shock is not allowed in our model, and (2) the time-zero consumption plan is based on a conditional probability of survival that could change on the basis of realized health status. The problem of indeterminate versus deterministic investment returns and mortality hazard rates obviously takes us far beyond the simple agenda of our study.

In sum, a rational response to an x% drop in one’s retirement portfolio is not to reduce consumption and spending by the same x%. Consumption smoothing in the life-cycle model is about amortizing unexpected losses and gains over the remaining lifetime horizon, adjusted for survival probabilities.

Summary

To a financial economist, the optimal retirement spending rate, asset allocation (investments), and product allocation (insurance) are a complicated function of mortality expectations, economic forecasts, and the trade-off between the preference for retirement sustainability and the desire to leave a financial legacy (bequest motive).

Retirees can afford to spend more if they are willing to leave a smaller financial legacy and risk early depletion times. They should spend less if they desire a larger legacy and greater sustainability. Optimization of investments and insurance products occurs on this retirement income frontier. Ergo, a simple rule that advises all retirees to spend x% of their nest egg adjusted up or down in some ad hoc manner is akin to the broken clock that tells time correctly only twice a day.

We are not the first authors—and we will certainly not be the last—to criticize the “spend x%” approach to retirement income planning.

Conclusion: Back to Planet Earth

How might a full indeterminate model—with possible shocks to health and their related expenses—change optimal spending policies? Assuming agreement on a reasonable model and parameters for long-term portfolio returns, the risk-averse retiree would be exposed to the risk of a negative (early) shock and would plan for this risk by consuming less. With a full menu of investment assets and products available, however, the retiree would be free to optimize around annuities and other downside-protected products, in addition to long-term-care insurance and other retirement products. In other words, even the formulation of the problem itself becomes much more complex.

More importantly, the optimal allocation depends on the retiree’s preference for personal consumption versus bequest. A product and asset allocation suitable for a consumer with no bequest or legacy motives is quite different from the optimal portfolio for someone with strong legacy preferences. In our study, we assumed that the retiree’s objective is to maximize utility of lifetime consumption without any consideration for the value of bequest or legacy.

Although some have argued that a behavioral explanation is needed to rationalize the desire for a constant consumption pattern in retirement, we note that very high longevity risk aversion leads to relatively constant spending rates and might “explain” these fixed rules. In other words, we do not need a behavioral model to justify constant 4% spending. Extreme risk aversion does that for us.

That said, we believe that another important take-away from our study is that offering the following advice to retirees is internally inconsistent: “You might live a very long time, so you better make sure to own a lot of stocks and equity.” The first part of the sentence implies longevity risk aversion, while the second part is suitable only for risk-tolerant retirees. Risk is risk.

One thing seems clear: Longevity risk aversion and pension annuities remain very important factors to consider with regard to optimal portfolio withdrawal rates. That is the main message of our study, a message that does not change here on Planet Earth.

Delaying Retirement, But Not Your Retirement Dreams

Financial Planning

Discussion

Robert from TX posted over 14 years ago:

It is complex and hard to follow at first but without the full study that it warrants I believe --at his point that it makees a lot of sense but this may be because it seems to follow what I have somewhat intuitively been doing for the twentysix years of my retirement---so far. I plan to study it more as I can devote more time .

Ted from CA posted over 14 years ago:

Back in 2003 AAII published a chart in the annual "Top Mutual Funds" titled "Withdrawal Plans: How long will your Capital Last?". The ordinate (vertical axis) showed "average annual growth % from 1%-12% (of capital) and the abscissa (horizontal axis) showed "If the annual withdrawal rate of your capital is: 5%-16%. In other words, you could determine how long your capital would last withdrawing from 5-16% annually with a growth rate of 1-12% annually. It is the single best chart I've ever seen (in my 68 years) for determining retirement spending at a glance because financial circumstances change continually and unexpectedly. Simply looking at the chart will allow determination in a few seconds whether you should increase, decrease or leave as-is your withdrawal rate. I've never seen the chart again despite a couple of serious searches. Happily, I cut it out and have it taped over my desk. It would really be nice if AAII would reproduce that chart for those who might be interested.

Mark from TX posted over 14 years ago:

The Chart that Ted mentions would be very interesting to review. I would appreciate AAII following up on this as well.

Jerome from AZ posted over 14 years ago:

At first I thought there would be some humor imbedded in this article because of the title, but upon trying to understand the contents, the joke must have been on me. I don't really understand much of it even though I have an accounting background and took courses in statistics and am very comfortable with numberrs! So, having read Ted's comments about a chart that appeared some time ago, I'd rather see that chart than try and decipher this article.

Chipper from NJ posted over 14 years ago:

Wow Robert you were able to follow it? I couldn't. Does anyone know what it means in plain English?

Norman from CA posted over 14 years ago:

Interesting Robert. Your 2003 AAII published chart seems like a valuable tool because of the changing parameters effecting portfolio withdrawal rates. Hopefully AAII will reproduce this for subscribers.

James from MD posted over 14 years ago:

I'd like to see AAII publish a link to the chart as well.

Norman from CA posted over 14 years ago:

Whoops, I was responding to Ted's post, not Roberts.

Don from TN posted over 14 years ago:

Wonderful article! What exactly did it say? The 4% rule isn't very good. How much you withdraw depends on: how afraid you are of outliving your money, how much you want to leave to your heirs, the rate at which your investments earn a return, how much pension income you also receive, and whether you choose to hold some investments as an annuity. Given all that, you would probably withdraw somewhere around 4 - 6% per year. Oh, and P.S., we made a lot of assumptions in our model that aren't real. The Reader Digest version of this article would have been much better than the real thing. It pays to remember that if you put all the economists in the world in a row, they only thing they couldn't reach would be a conclusion.

Donald from VA posted over 14 years ago:

While I have a copy of the chart, I would like to have it expanded to show withdrawal rates from 2% to 16%. Can AAII acomplish that?

M from TX posted over 14 years ago:

My take-away is that your withdrawal rate should change (on a yearly basis) as circumstances change. Having the chart Ted mentions would make this yearly re-calculation simple. One assumption that all the retirement tools have is that you don't retire until 65, does anyone know of a tool that allows for any retirement age? I was fortunate to be able to retire in my mid-fifties with a pension.

George from OH posted over 14 years ago:

I was able to to save millions in my retirement account-but this article tries to summarize how to spend it in a few words and simple formulas. Life is not that simple! But thanks for the try!

David from FL posted over 14 years ago:

As others have noted, I would like very much to see the summary chart Ted mentioned, or perhaps an updated version that puts the monetary data in graphic, rather than narrative, form. If that is not possible, then I would agree that the article itself is of limited value. I have a pension, Social Security and a portfolio, and a life insurance plan, but I still can't use the article by itself to make monetary decisions.

Dennis from CO posted over 14 years ago:

Although the authors didn’t state it explicitly, but several reviewers did, spending during retirement should be flexible considering the different types of incomes, rates of return, and expenses to be encountered, i.e., retirement entertainment and travel expenses early in retirement and possibly long term care and health costs later in retirement along with any end of life estate considerations. An interesting non-AAII research article dated November, 2010, and entitled, “A more dynamic approach to spending for investors in retirement,“ looked at three spending strategies during retirement. It attempted to assess withdrawal strategy trade-offs considering different inflation rates, spending strategies, and different asset class returns as well as suggesting guidelines for an initial withdrawal rate.

Jacob from TX posted over 14 years ago:

Interesting article. Somewhat hard to follow, but I think I understand the main concepts. As I am recently retired at 57, am looking at buying an annuity with some of my retirement savings, this article makes sense, i.e. makes the point that annuity income removes some of the longevity risks allowing one to spend a greater % of their " net egg" with somewhat less concern then they would have without that annuity income.

Joseph from NY posted over 14 years ago:

Here are links to the article mentioned by Dennis A discussion of the study, fairly easy to understand: https://personal.vanguard.com/us/insights/article/retirement-savings-03012011 The study itself: http://us.vocuspr.com/newsroom/ViewAttachment.aspx?SiteName=vanguardnew&Entity=PRAsset&AttachmentType=F&EntityID=725290&AttachmentID=24be5cd2-6174-40d0-b3f2-f74988b09216

Jean from IL posted over 14 years ago:

Ted from Calif. and others: Here's the link to AAII's "Withdrawal Plans: How Long Will Your Capital Last?" table: http://www.aaii.com/classroom/article/fund-mechanics-investing-redeeming?page=3 It's found in our Investor Classroom area - it's under Step 3 of the Fund Mechanics: Investing & Redeeming article. We don't have an expansion of this table. Jean from AAII

Richard from FL posted over 14 years ago:

Good article if you live on planet Vulcan. But here on planet Earth I prefer this method: Find large financially stable companies who have a long history of paying stable and growing dividends. Invest my assets into these companies and my withdrawal rate equates to the dividend yield at time of purchase. Of course my life style is dictated by my withdrawal income (dividends) not the other way around. Now as time goes on and these companies steadily increase their dividends, my withdrawal rate (based on the amount invested) goes up not down like on planet Vulcan. My portfolio value may go up and down with the whims of the market but my dividends are steady eddy, rising with company growth and inflation effects. Hey, and no fancy computer statistical analysis schooling required.

Charles from WI posted over 14 years ago:

Milevsky and Huang are like a chemistry teacher my dad had in high school 80 years ago. Very smart but unable to communicate below an academic level. Anyone reading this post already has an advantage over the average investor/victim looking to be sheared by retail broker dealers. Taking personal responsibility means educating oneself, developing an investment process based on your own convictions, then executing the plan without external or internal distractions. The central problem of financial planning is how to create an inflation adjusted life income from a lump sum of money; that is a defined benefit from a defined contribution lump sum in the parlance of retirement plans. Easy to promise, hard if not impossible to deliver. Milevsky and Huang's model simplify the mathematics by assuming away all the variables that matter in real life. During the debt crisis of 2008 many large bets were based on math models that had worked in the past. When they failed to work is when they were needed the most and we all know what happened. The best one can hope for with these models whether they are marketed under the name of Monte Carlo simulations, stochastic modeling or other similar buzzwords is that an "acceptable" level of failure be it 1, 3, or 5% is still unacceptable to those of us who have failed. We take little comfort in the success of others when we are broke. Keep getting smarter, minimize investment costs, and live below your means and you will likely die before your money does.

Ted from CA posted over 14 years ago:

To Jean @ AAII Thanks very much for publishing the link to the chart "Withdrawl Plans: How long will your capital last?"!

Donald from TX posted over 14 years ago:

You really had to want to read this article to get through it. I believe it tried to say, " If you have a guaranteed pension income for life, you are well ahead of those who must rely on what they saved for retirement without the benefit of a guaranteed pension." Of course you can spend more, because the basic necessities are taken care of with the guaranteed pension. The savings beyond that are a luxury that you can enjoy as you see fit. I am blessed with several pensions earned during my working years that sufficiently take care of my retirement needs. The million dollars I have in retirement savings and investments continues to be untouched. The first time I will have to withdraw from those savings will be the age 70 1/2 mandatory withdrawal from the IRA. Even then I will likely withdraw the required amount, pay the taxes due, and save the rest. I know my heirs will likely need it much more than me. Nothing has changed. It all boils down to what you need in the way of income to meet your needs. Those needs vary by individual. This was an interesting article that required an intensive amount of concentration just to understand why it was being written.

Thomas from NY posted over 14 years ago:

I think it alln boils downn to smoothing consumption. ESPlanner is a software package that goes into this in more detail and enables one to build a consumption model based upon some of the variables identified in this article Tom

John from IL posted over 14 years ago:

Mohse & Huaxiong: Table 3 suggests that a utility maximizing retiree (no bequest or legacy motives) annuitizing 100% of his/her investable assets can withdraw between 35% and 60% more per annum than if he/she remained self invested. In the real world, such a retiree is highly likely be able to withdraw more per annum than stated in Table 3, because he/she will invest in a balanced portfolio, not just in risk-free bonds, and would benefit accordingly. Annuitization, as reported in previous AAII Journal and financial press articles, has a significant and positive role to play in retirees' investment strategies (asset allocation). But if Table 3 is correct and taken literally, utility maximizing retirees (no bequest or legacy motives) will rush out and sell all their investments, cancel their AAII subscriptions, and annuitize 100%. This isn't going to happen, and for good reasons. I believe that Table 3 is misleading.

Martha from ME posted over 14 years ago:

yes, I remember the old withdrawall plans chart and it was excellent ---unfortunately I do not have it "taped over my desk"! Can you please reprint it?

Richard from CA posted over 14 years ago:

Sounds like the withdrawal chart is a commmand request. I hope to see it!

Doug from WA posted over 14 years ago:

Not to make this a commercial, but Bud Hebeler has a touted software planning tool to help in this murky area.

Robert from CO posted over 14 years ago:

One issue not addressed here is the idea that the retiree may wish to accomplish something early on in retirement when young enough to have the requisite strength. Climbing mountains in other parts of the world, sailing, biking, etc. In this scenario it might make sense to plan to outlay a significant sum early on to realize a dream with the expectation that expenditures will be less once that period of activity is ended. Alternatively, the retiree may plan on helping a family member with a financial need(college tuition for example). Life is far to complex to assume that the presented model (elegant as it may be) will suffice. The Vulcan reference was appreciated though.

Mary from ME posted over 14 years ago:

I applaud the comments made by Jean from Illinois - this is a great plan. I'm taping this over my desk and referring to it often.

Jean from IL posted over 14 years ago:

If you missed it above: the withdrawal chart referred to in these comments is at this link: http://www.aaii.com/classroom/article/fund-mechanics-investing-redeeming?page=3 It's found in our Investor Classroom area - it's under Step 3 of the Fund Mechanics: Investing & Redeeming article. Jean from AAII

Lee from TX posted over 14 years ago:

Thanks Ted and Jean, I found the chart easily. Just a cut and past away.

Robert from GA posted over 14 years ago:

Although I got the gist of this article, I did not derive any new conclusions from it. As a detail-oriented layman, and one who retired early with limited income and assets, I have studied my financial situation very thoroughly. I simplified my analysis by doing the following: 1. Tracking my expenditures in detail well before I retired. After several years, I was able to project my future annual expenditures with a variance of plus or minus 10%. 2. I assumed that future inflation would cancel out future returns, as a conservative hedge. 3. I subtracted my annual defined pension and social security from my previously determined average annual expenditures. This left me with a shortfall that was not acceptable. I then pared the shortfall by examining every expenditure and reducing expenses where it hurt the least. Actually, the hurt was minimal, to my surprise. Raising insurance deductibles, dropping unread subscriptions, refinancing my mortgage to reduce my outgo, etc., were things I should have done earlier. Nothing essential to our lifestyle was cut. 4. My shortfall in pension income was then about $6,000 per year. I divided my personal liquid assets by this shortfall to determine the years that my savings would last at this rate. I came up with a number of years that exceeded my expected longevity. If I had not had this result, I would have pared costs further, but that proved unnecessary. 5. I did not include my wife's income and savings in my calculations, as they were modest compared to mine. I considered this our disaster hedge against unexpected expenses or living longer than I calculated. 6. I also examined my wife's financial situation year by year, determining how she would be left financially if I died in year 1, year 2 etc. out to age 100. In all years, her financial situation equaled or exceeded my pre-death position. Having adequate whole life insurance in lieu of having a survivor annuity as a part of my defined pension insured that the loss of pension income would be mitigated by insurance proceeds and sale of certain assets upon my death. 7. I post all expenditures and income weekly, and update and re-examine my projections once a month to see if I'm still on track. If not, I make any necessary adjustments. Note: Doing all of this on a computer spreadsheet takes a lot of tedium out of the process. Any changes I make are automatically reflected throughout the spreadsheet. All of this took some time to set up, but I considered it vital to my family's financial security. When considering any new purchase, I am able to quickly assess the impact of that purchase on our long-term security, and make a sound decision. This technique may seem laborious to many, but I know of no better way. I will welcome suggestions for improvement, should anyone else be doing something along the same lines.

John from CA posted over 14 years ago:

If the majority of your retirement "savings" are in a traditional IRA you have required rates of withdrawl at 70. We are fortunate; it appears those requirements will be sufficient income -- as of now. Perhaps we'll leave a few $$ for the grandkids.

Richard from FL posted over 14 years ago:

Interesting Chart at: http://www.aaii.com/classroom/article/fund-mechanics-investing-redeeming?page=3 This is a conservative (slightly misleading) chart because it assumes one withdraws money at the beginning of the year and it is therefore the remainder that grows at the stated percentage. This is most pronounced in the bottom right figures where the principle is depleted even though the 11% & 12% growth rates are matched with lesser withdrawal rates of 10% and 11% respectively. In the real world I think we all determine an expected growth rate long before we determine our withdrawal rate just as we withdraw against taxable earnings before we touch principle.

J from MA posted over 14 years ago:

Unfortunately here in the real world, on Planet Earth, real interest rates are negative (all the way out to the nominal 30-yr T-bond, less 3.8% YoY CPI). Table 1 has no such rate column. The article does give this current condition a nod ("Reducing interest assumptions will have the opposite effect"... Good luck!). Negative withdrawal rates, anyone? ;-}

Fred from CA posted over 14 years ago:

Any financial model is likely to smooth out real variability. What has not come up in the discussions so far is the variability of individual life duration. Let's say your personal life-limiting medical problem is a family history of stroke. What may be important for your financial planning may well be the development of a clot-free artificial blood replacement. We all do not die of the same thing, so significant variance from an average accuarial table of life span is going to have a greater influence on how much you can spend. You can track such future developments through articles in the magazine Futurist.

Joshua from HI posted over 14 years ago:

I should have read the conclusion first -- before painstakingly trying to understand a useless academic exercise. In the end one would realize these professors can be easily mistaken as sophisticated annuity peddlers.

Richard from MD posted over 14 years ago:

The main problem with the chart in "http://www.aaii.com/classroom/article/fund-mechanics-investing-redeeming?page=3" is that my expectation of the future annual growth rate adjusted for inflation is low enough that lower withdrawal rates should have been included. My expectation is that conservative values inflation corrected growth rates are 0 to 1% for interest and 4 to 5% for stocks. Anyone intending to retire earlier than about 65 should probably consider withdrawal rates under 5%. An Excel spread sheet can easily be set up to extend the chart to lower withdrawal rates.

Donald Myers from AZ posted over 8 years ago:

This article (and others of similar ilk) are useful in prompting the reader to think about the problem but they don't and can't provide real guidance for a specific individual. The model necessarily applies to a whole class of people (although the class is only vaguely determined). The model only looks forward from age 65 and does not describe how to adjust it after 5 years (with its specific history_ nor after 10 years, etc. This is partly because those histories will vary significantly for different people and from one time period to another, the authors can't really take into account all the various possibilities (both economic, healthwise, familywise, etc). They have also not acknowledged the large number of current and future retirees that will be drawing according to IRS rules (IRAs, 401k's) and of course sudden abrupt changes in tax laws. My wife and I have been retired since 1998 (at age 67). Our health has remained good in spite of several heart surgeries but a son has had a significant and abrupt change. Most financial advice makes at least some allusion to late in life health problems (with big increases in expenses) but the authors say nothing about this and do not mention RMDs at all. The article is simply not relevant to a long time retiree.

Bob G from TENNESSEE posted over 7 years ago:

I retired 9 years ago at age 58. I use a dynamic projection model to determine what I can spend each year. The projection takes into consideration a lifetime of 95 years (I consider this conservative based on family longevity). I use a 5% pre-tax earned rate on investments and a 3.5% inflation rate (also considered conservative and could be adjusted if deemed necessary). I use my own average tax rate for taxable income and securities and account for Social Security and Pension income. This approach spreads out any fluctuation in annual market returns over the future lifetime of withdrawals. I project to have zero invested assets at age 95 but retain 100% of my real assets, such as my home, farm, rental property, etc. and do not include any depreciable assets such as cars, boats, furniture, etc. (also considered conservative assumptions).

RZ from MD posted over 7 years ago:

I have purchased the MaxiFi tool for $99. It will give you clear idea about your finances during retirement years with different scenarios including Monte Carlo simulation. You enter all your sources of income and run the reports comparing to the base. As for investment during retirement years, there is nothing better that dividends. No matter what the market is doing the dividends are flowing in. I have ~35 stocks, CEFs, BDCs, REITs, ETFs that generate on average 6.5% of dividends in addition to annuities and SS payments. Annuities is the most hated investment (for good reason) but it can be useful if you are close to retirement and thinking about stable income. Read more here: https://mansmanclub.com/what-ive-learned-about-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-annuities/ (in 2 parts).

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Retirement Spending on Planet Vulcan: Longevity Risk and Withdrawal Rates

Literature on Retirement Spending Rates

Numerical Examples and Cases

Including Pension Annuities

Reacting to Financial Shocks

Summary

Conclusion: Back to Planet Earth

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Discussion

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