Lsbcal
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
I really like the new FIRECalc version! The availability of a spreadsheet is great. It would be nice to add TIPS and intermediate term bonds as asset classes in the "mixed portfolio". From my understanding of fixed income, intermediate term (2 - 3 yrs) have done better then LT bonds. The TIPS (this covers Ibonds too) option should be easy since it is just a fixed real rate number. For intermediate bonds I would settle for the 5yr Treasury since FIRECalc already has this though not in the "mixed portfolio" option.
I also have an observation to share. To get an idea of just how some asset classes were working I ran the following on advanced FIRECalc:
no withdrawals
mixed portfolio of 100% 1 month Treasury
plan end = 20 years
start portfolio value = 100000
The result shows that in 1929 it starts out at 104700 and by 1932 it became 145119. Yikes, didn't appreciate that the deflation was that bad but I checked the CPI numbers and indeed this looks roughly correct. Perhaps this is a good argument for being flexible in your TIPS holdings (see Swedroe's bond book, Appendix B) i.e. be willing to sell your TIPS when rates decline sufficiently.
Les
I also have an observation to share. To get an idea of just how some asset classes were working I ran the following on advanced FIRECalc:
no withdrawals
mixed portfolio of 100% 1 month Treasury
plan end = 20 years
start portfolio value = 100000
The result shows that in 1929 it starts out at 104700 and by 1932 it became 145119. Yikes, didn't appreciate that the deflation was that bad but I checked the CPI numbers and indeed this looks roughly correct. Perhaps this is a good argument for being flexible in your TIPS holdings (see Swedroe's bond book, Appendix B) i.e. be willing to sell your TIPS when rates decline sufficiently.
Les
