Consolidation: Vanguard vs Fidelity

In this episode we answer emails from Camille and Jeff.  We discuss how 72(t) and asset swaps enable early IRA access, where to place managed futures and treasuries for taxes, practical cash options at IBKR and ultra-short term ETFs, designing a mix for higher safe withdrawal rates, when to ratchet spending and when to hold flat, and tracking mandatory versus discretionary spending, among other things.

And THEN we our go through our weekly portfolio reviews of the eight sample portfolios you can find at Portfolios | Risk Parity Radio.

Additional Links:

Father McKenna Center Donation Page:  Donate - Father McKenna Center

How To Do An Asset Swap Video from Risk Parity Chronicles:  How to Do an Asset Swap

FI Tax Guy Post on 72(t):  Retire on 72(t) Payments – The FI Tax Guy

White Coat Investor Podcast with Sean Mullaney:  Managing Taxes in Retirement with Sean Mullaney | White Coat Investor

Tax Planning Book:  Amazon.com: Tax Planning To and Through Early Retirement: 9798999841599: Garrett, Cody, Mullaney, Sean: Books

Ultra-short ETFs for Parking Excess Cash:  Ultra Short-Term ETF List

Portfolio Charts Descriptions of Variable Withdrawal Strategies:  Retirement Spending – Portfolio Charts

Breathless Unedited AI-Bot Summary:

What if your IRA isn’t a locked box until 59½? We dig into the real-world playbook for early access and smarter withdrawals, showing how 72(t) and asset swaps let you fund life now without wrecking your allocation or triggering penalties. Along the way, we answer donor questions on where to park managed futures when tax-advantaged space is tight, how to rebalance when bonds live behind the IRA wall, and the cleanest ways to earn yield on cash at Interactive Brokers with short-term ETFs like SGOV, BIL, and JPST. We also touch on BOXX for high earners and ask our Canadian friends to weigh in on legacy RRSP headaches.

From there, we map a durable withdrawal framework: blend growth and value equities, hold intermediate and long treasuries for ballast, and add diversifiers like gold and trend to raise your safe withdrawal rate. If pensions and Social Security cover the essentials, a 5% withdrawal from a risk-balanced mix can still thrive over 30 years, especially when you limit spending increases to 1% instead of full CPI. For raises, we compare floor-and-ceiling rules to ratchets so you can lock in gains after meaningful portfolio advances, yet stay flexible when markets wobble.

To ground it all, we run through market movers—growth stocks buzzing, gold shining, bonds steadying—and share performance across our sample portfolios, from classic Golden Butterfly to leveraged variants. Takeaways are simple and usable: your access is wider than you think, tax location is a spectrum not a slogan, and the best spending rule is the one that fits your life. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us: which withdrawal rule would you follow this year, floor and ceiling or a ratchet?

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