Hi guys : I am new here, so pardon my youth and naivete. If the long term average annual return from stocks is 10%, then why can we only withdraw 4-5% per year in retirement? There has to be a better way to invest. What if you shifted your paradigm from buying to sell a stock (hoping it went up), to buying to live off a rising stream of dividends without ever planning to sell? Wouldn't this free us from worrying about volatility of share prices going up or down? What would it matter if the market or your particular stocks or funds were down if you aren't going to sell but just cash your 8-12% dividend checks? Volatility should not matter then, the sustainability of the dividend and it's growing at least at the rate of inflation should be what we would watch for. A diversified portfolio of high yield stocks with a history of high yield with dividend growth should enable safe 8-12% withdrawal. What do you guys think? By the way what's a dryer sheet? Hank