[cute fuzzy bunny]

Nords -

Your strategies and backups ARE a little different from the way most folks would go about it...

A 100% or nearly 100% allocation to equities, a cola adjusted income, and the professed set of brass ones to ride that out through a multiyear bear market can definitely produce a larger, more survivable portfolio and a higher income level.

With the knobs turned to 11, the more you put in one side, the more comes out the other.

Where it gets dicey is when its done the way almost everyone else does it. Carry a higher spending load from the mortgage. Set the asset allocation around 60/40 so the equity volatility doesnt scare the pants of you when its time to make the monthly bill payments. Then set aside 3, 5 or 7 years of cash "just in case".

Once you factor in the return drawdown of the higher bond load and the cash thats losing value to inflation, the arb upside is pretty limited.

In fact, the Firecalc runs I did showed that someone with a paid off mortgage, the smaller portfolio, and an 80/20 allocation would easily run down someone with a mortgage, the commensurately larger portfolio and a 60/35/5 portfolio.

Much better survivability, far fewer "near deaths" due to low balances that came back at the last minute, and much higher terminal portfolio sizes on the no debt version.

So sure, you take a high equity load, get a rate around 5%, and can stare down a long bear with a vulcanlike steely eyed gaze...then you can arb a gain out of the equation. No brainer.

Spending risk, portfolio risk, rates of return, success rates, terminal portfolio sizes...seems to me that the best bet is to find out how to minimize as many of them as possible and still have a certain good outcome.