Midpack
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Inspired by this thread http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/wade-pfau-looks-at-4-wr-finds-it-unsafe-61573-3.html, I wrote to Wade Pfau never expecting a response. But here it is, I'm truly grateful and honored he took the time. I'm looking forward to the subject post, thought others might be interested...
Like many others on ER.org, I'm an avid follower of your blog and the Early Retirement forum where I post as Midpack. Retired last summer at age 57, so I may have a long retirement window if I don't go back to work. I often see references on your blog to securing floor income seemingly as a top priority, what I'd call Plan A. I don't have a pension, just a modest Soc Sec income years from now but I've always viewed buying a SPIA as part of my plan B, especially with annuities relatively expensive given current interest rates/bond yields. This is the template that I plan to follow, you may have seen it
http://www.schulmerichandassoc.com/Modern_Portfolio_Decumulation.pdf.
I am looking forward to seeing your summary article on floor income, unless you've already published it and we missed it (others on ER.org say they haven't seen it either).
Thanks for all the great work you do, your blog is frequently discussed on ER.org as you may know.
"Midpack"
Dear [Midpack]
Thanks for the message, it's good to hear from you. I think I confused you as female once based on your past avatar picture. Sorry about that.
I met Richard Fullmer earlier this month, he is the author of that article. Yes, I think that sort of approach is quite valid. Be ready to annuitize to lock in basic needs if markets start dropping.
About research on income floors, I'm trying to get an article finished by Friday. I don't think it is going to be much of a masterpiece as the way I've designed the figures it is hard to see the precise differences, but at least it will be a start. I will consider 6 outcome measures to evaluate 8 different retirement income strategies, one of which involves building a floor to meet essential needs. It will be my first article which includes variable withdrawal strategies and income floors. Actually, I haven't finished any new articles since December.
Have you been thinking about the optimal age to start Social Security?
Thanks for writing and Best wishes, Wade