arch57
Recycles dryer sheets
- Joined
- Dec 14, 2013
- Messages
- 110
Been retired since 6/30/15 at age 56 1/2 and can't believe it is going on 4 years. Wow it's been nice. Started revisiting this board after the market tanked at the end of last year just to see how folks are reacting. Lot of talk about SWR so did some digging into ours.
I have a moderate pension which covers about 60% of our required spending at this point. SS for both of us and wife's pension in 5 years will then cover 100% so leaving withdrawals for truly discretionary spending.
As planned we tackled several large home improvement projects on our primary house and a second home we have in Maine over the past couple of years and we did 30-40% of the work ourselves, taking advantage of our younger years to have the energy for this kind of work!
This plus several nice vacations a year, helping our kids here and there and creating an in-law apartment for my 95 year old mother-in-law required WR of 2.7%, 4.9%, 7.5% and 12.3%* over the past 4 years. (* indicates we withdrew extra in 2018 to have 0% WR in 2019 to stay under ACA MAGI limit to finally get a $14K subsidy.)
Overall I was a bit nervous at end of 2018 but knew that a bit of belt tightening (convinced DW to postpone bathroom remodel to 2020) and future SS income would really help out.
One other way I "sleep at night" is to look at my total portfolio compared to where it was when I retired. Thanks to nice rebound in the market we still have a bit more then when we retired. See graph below. (X-axis is non-linear because I have random dates that I snapshot my portfolios)
So wondering how many others are adjusting their WR to really just try and maintain the portfolio at the starting place? I realize that eventually lowering our WR should then provide a boost to the portfolio over the years to account for inflationary pressures and unforeseen expenses.
I have a moderate pension which covers about 60% of our required spending at this point. SS for both of us and wife's pension in 5 years will then cover 100% so leaving withdrawals for truly discretionary spending.
As planned we tackled several large home improvement projects on our primary house and a second home we have in Maine over the past couple of years and we did 30-40% of the work ourselves, taking advantage of our younger years to have the energy for this kind of work!
This plus several nice vacations a year, helping our kids here and there and creating an in-law apartment for my 95 year old mother-in-law required WR of 2.7%, 4.9%, 7.5% and 12.3%* over the past 4 years. (* indicates we withdrew extra in 2018 to have 0% WR in 2019 to stay under ACA MAGI limit to finally get a $14K subsidy.)
Overall I was a bit nervous at end of 2018 but knew that a bit of belt tightening (convinced DW to postpone bathroom remodel to 2020) and future SS income would really help out.
One other way I "sleep at night" is to look at my total portfolio compared to where it was when I retired. Thanks to nice rebound in the market we still have a bit more then when we retired. See graph below. (X-axis is non-linear because I have random dates that I snapshot my portfolios)
So wondering how many others are adjusting their WR to really just try and maintain the portfolio at the starting place? I realize that eventually lowering our WR should then provide a boost to the portfolio over the years to account for inflationary pressures and unforeseen expenses.
