Quote:
Originally Posted by jdw_fire
how bout the buy a COLAd SPIA to cover "needs" and use the rest of your portfolio for wants strategy?
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To me, this should be the "base strategy" for most people. The neat thing is that once you've covered your needs, you can spend the rest of your money in whatever pattern you like -- spend half of it on an around-the-world cruise in the first year if that strikes your fancy. Certainly, you don't need to go with the very conservative 4% withdrawals on the rest, 8% makes more sense.
By "base strategy" I mean that you do the calculation even if you don't think this is where you're going to end up. It helps clarify your goals and it provides realistic numbers. One problem is that private COLA'd SPIAs aren't very common today, but anybody can defer SS and get the same result.
Most people don't do this. I'd guess the big problems are that people don't like to "lose control" of their money, and they have trouble identifying "wants" that they are willing to put at risk.