How much money can you take from your investments in retirement? Planning for this “distribution" involves the biggest series of investment decisions of your lifetime. How much do you need to accumulate in order to retire without fear of running out of money before you run out of life? How much can you take out? How much should you have in equities and how much in bonds? Do you need to own any equities in order for your money to last a lifetime? How much can you take out to maximize your goals of enjoying retirement and helping others, while making sure you are not a financial burden to others?

This focus of this podcast is on helping those who plan to retire with “enough” money to meet their basic needs, without goals of spending large amounts beyond the basics. These are often people who would like to retire A.S.A. P. (In the next podcast Paul addresses those who intentionally save more than “needed” so they can spend more in retirement.)

Paul recommends you review several Fine Tuning Tables, including Table 3 using the S&P 500, Table 4a using the 10-fund Ultimate Buy & Hold Portfolio, 6a using the Worldwide 4-Fund Portfolio and Table 7a All-Worldwide-Value Portfolio.

These combinations of asset classes form the basis of the Fixed Distribution Tables: Table 10 uses a 3% initial distribution with combination of the S&P 500/bonds, Table 11 uses a 4% initial distribution with the S&P 500/bonds, Table 12 uses a 5% initial distribution with the S&P 500/bonds and Table 13 uses a 6% initial distribution with the S&P 500/bonds. Table 15a uses a 4% initial distribution with the 10-fund Ultimate Buy and Hold Portfolio, Table 23a does the same using the Worldwide 4-Fund Portfolio and Table 27a does the same thing using a Worldwide All-Value Portfolio.

Q&A with CIO Reid Stephan, Part 2: “There has to be an inexhaustible supply of curiosity.”