Withdrawal rates between retirement and social security start

[camfused]

@corn18, my approach is to break down my estimated spending budget into decades. For initial decades, I have higher travel costs than later ones, and I have higher long term care costs in later decades than earlier ones, etc.

My spreadsheet then estimates, for each year, all my incomes (investments, SS, small pension etc), these expenses, RMDs, taxes, and determines an ending balance for cash and investment amounts for each year, all adjusted for inflation. I assume making 4.25% on investments, which I guess is an ok conservative average.

All this allows me to play with various scenarios (lie different SS starts) for how to maximize my net worth at 90, my reference age.

I prefer this approach over a 3%, 4%, whatever, withdrawal rate that some people seem to rely on. I don't know or care what my withdrawal rate is. I will just pull out what I need each year, and invest via the buckets approach.

 

[DireWolf]

IMO using something like FireCalc that models against historical numbers is a must, just to check against the SORRs. This is especially important when using a high WR for the years pre-SS. With enough years before SS is taken and a high enough WR, you start to run the risk of running out before the SS comes along.

 

[KarenF]

Same situation here - 5 years (60-65) at 5.3% (or a little less if I consult some), then 3.7% once pensions kick in, and 1.3% once pensions and social security kick in. I have modeled it in many models, and so has our financial guy. All models say we are good.