From Bob Clyatt to Portfolio Charts

[kevink]

Many other long-time readers of this forum know of forum member Bob Clyatt and his pioneering book "Work Less, Live More: The Way to Semi-Retirement," his invention of the super-useful 95% rule and of course his many helpful posts here over the years.

Bob continues to update returns from his recommended portfolios and share other news on his web site - including a link to a really fine recnet podcast interview with him looking back on 20 years of semi-retirement that can be found via a link here:

Work Less, LIve More: The Way to Semi-Retirementby BOB CLYATT

Little did I know until very recently that Bob's book was also a major source of inspiration for the incredible "Portfolio Charts" site, which takes the work Bob did in constructing robust, sophisticated portfolios for lengthy retirements and launches it into hyperspace with innovative new portfolios (e.g. Golden Butterfly, Pinwheel) and intuitive tools and charts that allow one to literally see what it would be like to live with various allocations in both the best and worst of times, with a special emphasis on safe withdrawal rates. Here's a brand new post from the site which beautifully celebrate what I think of as a generational hand-off from one brilliant pioneer to another.

https://portfoliocharts.com/2019/01/05/a-meeting-a-book-a-portfolio-and-a-better-life/

 

[walkinwood]

Thanks for posting. Bob Clyatt's book helped me a lot in my planning for ER. He used to contribute to this forum too and gave me some good advice in a post early on (not to use the 95% rule in the second year of ER which was 2009 for me).


He also wrote this guest post when he finished 15 years of semi-ER
https://www.getrichslowly.org/fifteen-years-of-semi-retirement/


My ex-colleagues also went on to accomplish great things in the corporate world over the last 10 years and have done very well financially. That has never bothered me though and it also has not affected our relationships. I love hearing of their accomplishments and challenges.

 

[kevink]

Great article walkinwood! It covers a lot of the same ground as his more recent podcast but has the advantage of including some nice photos.

I still think Bob's concise and clear finance and investing chapters are the best introduction to Modern Portfolio Theory for the jargon-averse I've seen, but the deeper value of his writing for me has been the reminder to prioritize lifestyle richness rather than getting obsessed with the numbers. A really great guy - and a pretty phenomenal artist!