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Thanks for your reply, sanclem. In your example 2): In your opinion, would it be correct to say that Bundle B produced returns averaging 6% higher than the returns of Bundle A? If this is not right, what would be the correct way to state a quantitative comparison of Bundle B's superior...

sanclem asks: The multiple of such outperformance would be 3. 3X the performance of the S&P, right? If this is not the case, please explain. Thanks.

Hypothetcal Questions: Using Firecalc for a 30 year time period, if the 55% equity portion of the portfolio outperforms the Total Market (S&P 500) by double or triple, by how much would that increase the 95% "safe" withdrawal rate? For example, if the equities outperform by double the S&P...

I have a question about using the Firecalc calculator. If I'm receiving, say, 10K of income from a source wholly outside of my portfolio (not a pension) for the first, say, 10 years of my retirement and then this income stops entirely after the first 10 years, how do i enter this into the...

Hi I use Firecalc to determine an initial spending amount (to be inflation-adjusted going forward) that will result in a 95% success rate for 30 years. My question is: Does this initial 95%-successful spending amount already have the investing fees (or expense ratio) factored in? In other...

Hi I use Firecalc to determine an initial spending amount (to be inflation-adjusted going forward) that will result in a 95% success rate for 30 years. My question is: Does this initial 95%-successful spending amount already have the investing fees (or expense ratio) factored in? In other...

Hi everyone - Supposing you retired in 2004 and enjoyed a return on your 65% stock allocation that was a little more than double that of the Total Market until last month. And then the recent downturn occurs. In it's aftermath, I'm sort of trying to "re-firecalc" my retirement going forward...

When I check the "consistent annual market growth" option on the "Your Portfolio" page, and try different percentage rates of growth and submit them, none of them seem to have an effect on the results. The initial result from the 10% preset amount of annual growth stays the same every time...

Hi Kat No graph problems here too using Mac OS 10.4.11, using Safari 3.0.4 on a Powerbook. I just get the line graphs, though. Dory eliminated the bar graphs in this new version of Firecalc, correct? Or not? Should there be bar graphs on any of the possible results pages? Halo

Clarification I guess I meant to say that if you could enter a year in the past when you've already retired, then you could know if your current SPENDING is on track. This is how I use firecalc: I enter my data and start my retirement in the current year (2007) and use the CPI inflation...

Dory - Suggestion Dory Re: the upcoming new Firecalc: On the Options Page, where it asks "What Year Will You Retire?" is it possible to add the option to answer a different question instead, namely "What Year DID You Retire?" This way you could run Firecalc to make sure your retirement is...

Thanks for your reply, Keith I was just wondering what you think of the question I asked on my original post: Whether there is anything inherently wrong with using Advanced Firecalc as follows: 1) I retired in 2004, and I input Advanced Firecalc with data that applied to my 2004 situation...

Advanced Firecalc CPI Inflation The 3.5% per year "inflation assumption" is only for the Basic Firecalc, right? I'm using the Advanced Firecalc (hence my inclusion of Social Security). I've selected the CPI option in it. The "actual inflation" amounts listed in my original post are the...

Hi everyone - I just want to make sure that I am not making a fundamental mistake that I cannot see in the way I use the Firecalc calculator. So I wanted to run it by this forum so someone can tell me if I'm doing something wrong. Let's say, for example, that I retired on January 1, 2004...

Thanks for the thoughtful reply, ESRBob - I have three broad followup questions: #1 - Under the way you do things, what happens when the time comes at age 70 1/2 that the gummint forces you to start taking MRD's from your TIRA year after year? Would you treat the tax payments on these MRD's...

Please Check out the "Roth Conversion Tax" thread in the "Fire and Money" Board for the background to this post: Hi ESR Bob Thanks you for your reply and for sharing your opinions - they really do address my concerns. One thing you say that is a bit unclear to me is: "simply leave the taxes...

Hi ESR Bob Thanks you for your reply and for sharing your opinions - they really do address my concerns. One thing you say that is a bit unclear to me is: "simply leave the taxes your pay out of your budget, SWR calcs etc. as a one-time transaction" Do mean to not count the yearly conversion...

Bob Thanks for your reply. The reminder not to measure with a micrometer when you're going to be cutting with an axe is well taken - it's always good to remember that. Firecalc is good for ballparking at best. However, is it really pushing the limits of Firecalc to ask it to factor in a...

I think maybe I found a way to use Firecalc to calculate the longer-term effect on my safe withdrawal spending caused by the shorter-term tax payments from my TIRA-to-Roth conversion program (I'm 60 years old now and I'd be paying annual conversion taxes up to the top of the 15% tax bracket for...

I think maybe I found a way to use Firecalc to calculate the tax effect of my 10-year Roth conversion program at the top of the 15% tax bracket: On the first page ("How Much Will You Spend?"), I entered the target amount of my conversion tax payments as an "increase" of my withdrawal starting...

I think maybe I found a way to use Firecalc to calculate the tax effect of my 10-year Roth conversion program at the top of the 15% tax bracket: On the first page ("How Much Will You Spend?"), I entered the target amount of my conversion tax payments as an "increase" of my withdrawal starting...

Hi We all know that Firecalc is a tax-neutral tool, and that any taxes you pay must be paid out of the safe withdrawal you choose, be it 95% safe or 100% safe or whatever. But if you convert from your TIRA to your Roth IRA, the tax you pay on such a conversion is not the same as regular taxes...

dory, could you give us a link to the old firecalc site so we can do an A/B check of these variances? That would really be helpful to be able to do some direct comparisons between old and new firecalcs before the rent runs out on the old firecalc site. Thanks!

To be more specific: The old firecalc gave me a "100% safe" withdrawal of $162K annually, and, when I enter exactly the same parameter values into the new firecalc, it says that only $142K annually is a "100% safe" annual withdrawal.  That's a difference of $20K per year, or around 14% more or...

Using the new firecalc, I am getting results that are consistently different (much less encouraging) than those from the old calculator. The same exact scenario that was "100% safe" with the old firecalc calculator is now only "92.5% safe" in this new firecalc calculator. Is the new...