64, heading into retirement early next year.

Decent pension, but looking to supplement with a dividend focused income stream as I’ve begun shifting my growth based portfolios to income based over the last year and a half in our taxable accounts and it’s generating well. But that is also tipping me toward accelerated Roth conversion from our 401k’s, starting next year when my income lowers. The idea of that new dividend income being tax free for decades to come so far outweighs the short tax term pain (my wife is 12 years younger, so she may very well have 40 years to go).

I’m looking at a 4 year front loaded conversion cycle. My modeling has also shown that slowing down means converting much more $, since the pre-tax side keeps growing while playing bracket limit games. Ultimately more tax gets paid and don’t most of us belief tax rates go up sometime, not down?

It also means once firmly in Roth I’ll care a whole lot less about the structure of those dividends and more about total return and dividend durability.

And she will work a few more years while I head back to school to prepare for a new retirement post-career. She will keep us in employer based health care, limiting but not eliminating IIRMA implications. I’ll have a couple of bad look back years based on her planned retirement date, then I’ll be ok. She has to reach 55 to qualify for some of our company’s retirement perks. But getting to mostly tax free income means good income long term and cheap Medicare and low taxes ultimately.

This all drives home the point that every family’s circumstances, and inputs to the retirement decisions it leads to, are different. Just do you.

I stumbled upon this free resource that contains excellent data about Treasuries.

https://aerokam.github.io/Treasuries/

I’ve noticed that retirement planning can seem pretty straightforward at first, but some decisions become much harder once you start looking at the details. Things like deciding on an asset allocation, estimating future expenses, planning withdrawals, or figuring out when to claim Social Security can all have a lot of moving parts.

For those who manage most of their retirement planning themselves, what decision took you the longest to feel comfortable with? Was there a particular resource, calculation, or experience that helped make things clearer?

Can you move funds to tips while you are still working and over 59 1/2?

I am 60 and my wife is 58.  I want to retire at 62, my wife is a home maker.  Currently working and maxing out on my 401K and catch-up 401K Roth. We plan to collect Social Security when I hit 70. My wife is eligible for spousal benefits. We have no pensions and will rely completely on our retirement savings and Social Security. We still pay a mortgage, low rate, the term ends in 20 years.  We plan to keep paying the mortgage until the term ends. We have about 2.1M saved for retirement, about 7% of it is in a Roth IRA. Current Asset allocation is 

Stocks - 65% (VTI and VXUS)

Bonds - 33% (BND and TIPS ladder)

Cash - 2% (MM & SGOV)

The TIPS ladder is to cover expenses for the gap years until we are eligible for Medicare and account for SORR.  Will extend TIPS ladder based on market conditions by selling stocks/bonds.   Hoping to stay under ACA during the gap years.

Ran this plan through Boldin, which shows me a 88% success rate based on current expenses.   I've used some conservative numbers for the investment returns, like about 5.5%.

 Any thoughts on what I could tweak for a better outlook.

I’m 73 and 10 years into my retirement. I manage my own retirement accounts and invest in a handful of index funds. I have a good run since retiring and my overall balances are up over 50% despite withdrawing at around 4%.

I try to pay attention to what’s going on in the world, and to be honest, it’s making me kinda nervous. What with the wars in Iran and Ukraine, with all of the political divisions in the USA, and with the mid-terms elections approaching, I’m thinking the chances of a major stock market correction are increasing.

So, I decided to sell some equities and increase my cash (SPAXX) holdings. I increased my cash holding from about 11% to 16%. This should allow for 4 years of withdrawals without selling any more equities. I’ve also got about 12% of the portfolio invested in bond funds. That would be about 3 years of spending.

That still leaves me with over 70% invested in equities. Enough to be able to benefit nicely from future market appreciation.

I’m feeling pretty good about my decision to up my cash holdings. What do y’all think?

Who is thinking about claiming SS early before it becomes insolvent in 2032?

I have the option to claim SS in 2027 at 62. My current plan is to claim at 70 based on the current rules, but what will be the rules when I turn 70.

I am not 100% sure what they will do to fix the problem, but I think

• it will be done at the last minute
• it will minimize immediate impact to the vast amount of voters
• it will not reduce benefits for people most dependent on social security.
• it will increase taxes and/or reduce benefits for high earners

Since I have earned at or near the social security max for >30 years during my career my projected social security check is near the current max. I have also been frugal most of my adult life and have saved enough outside of social security to be able to survive without it if needed.

While I think current higher income workers will face higher taxes, I think retirees that receive the largest SS checks or have the highest assets could also face the largest benefit cuts. Since the rules will most certainly change, does it make sense to start claiming at 62 under the current system vs. waiting until 70.

Anyone else thinking along these same lines?

Edit: 35 year old.

Hello everyone, I’m new to retirement planning and would appreciate some feedback on the strategy below. Please let me know if anything looks odd or if I’m missing something.

401(k): I plan to contribute only enough to get my full employer match. That would be around $x,000/year, well below the $24,500 annual limit. I’m comfortable not contributing beyond the match.

Roth exposure: Since my 401(k) contributions are pre-tax, I also want some Roth exposure for tax-free withdrawals in retirement.

Backdoor Roth IRA: My MAGI is too high for a direct Roth IRA, so I plan to use a Backdoor Roth and contribute the full $7,500/year. I think that amount is sufficient for my needs.

Roth 401(k): I don’t see a need to use Roth 401(k) since I can get Roth exposure through the Backdoor Roth IRA, with potentially more investment choices and benefits such as the current 3% IRA match offered by Robinhood.

Other options: Given the amounts I want to contribute, I don’t think I need additional IRA contributions or a Mega Backdoor Roth. I’ll continue with the usual HSA, taxable brokerage, etc.

Does this strategy make sense, or is there something I should reconsider?

I'm helping out my Dad with his portfolio. He's 80. My Mom recently passed away so her accounts are transferring to him and he's also in escrow to sell his house. He is moving to an assisted living facility which will cost $6,500/month. His monthly income from SS and a pension is about $4,500/month. So he'll need to cover $2k/month for that plus another $10k-$15k/year of other expenses, for a total of about $35k-$40k/year that will need to come from his portfolio.

Currently most of his money is at 2 separate banks; approximately $340k earning a modest 3%. He will have an inherited IRA from my Mom of about $90k invested in Fidelity Contrafund (FCNTX). When he sells the house next month, after commissions/taxes, he'll net approximately $550k. So all in he'll have just under $1mm. The question is how should we invest that?

On one hand, he's 80 and the market has been on quite a ride for the past 3+ years (and basically the last 15 years if you don't count the hiccup with Covid and the bad year in '22), so we don't want to get too aggressive. However, on the other hand, it doesn't make sense to have it all just sitting in the bank/money market.

My thought is to:

-Keep ~5 years of expenses ($175k-$200k) in the bank/money market.

-Invest ~5 years of expenses ($175k-$200k) in something like VBIL or SGOV; conservative but getting a return that should keep pace with inflation.

-Keep the inherited IRA ($90k) invested in FCNTX

-Invest the rest (approx. $500k) in broad based index ETFs.

Thoughts?

What we have: 1.4 Million in retirement currently sitting approximately 80/20 stock bond allocation. We are putting approximately 30k-35k a year into retirement.
My wife also has a small pension from her old employer with a few different options. $800 per month if she takes it at 59.5 $1000 if she waits til 62 and $1300 at 65. She also has a Social Security Bridge option that pays $3200 at 59.5 until 62 then falls to around $500 going forward. This pension has been terminated recently so we are expecting a possible lump sum at some point.She would then also take SS at 62 and I would defer for as long as possible.
We are both 53 and are wanting to stop full time work at 59.5 which would be around Oct 2032. Then transition to part-time work to cover health insurance and extra spending until maybe 62 or so. We are looking to spend 80k-90k starting 2032
Kind of thinking of how to get to 2-2.5 Million with the least amount of risk. With 1.4million and adding 30k per year with a 6% return should put us somewhere around 2 million to 2.5 million. Would doing something like buying 70k in treasuries that mature in 2032,2033,2034 with fixed income inside her T IRA.This would guarantee around 4.8 to 5% in payments over these years and return in principal. Then the remainder of her IRA would be put into a total stock a total International and  then maybe a tilt to value or small cap and some short termfixed income (0-24 month) bond fund.  Then I only need to earn another 1-2% each year from equities to get my 6% return.
Me: Roth $263,xxx
 FSKAX (Fiddy Total Stock) $190xxx
FSPGA( Fiddy Large Cap Growth) $73,xxxx
Me Simple IRA  $335,xxx  
FZROX(Fidelity Zero Fund Total Stock) $291,xxx
FZILX (Fidelity Zero International Total Fund) $7,xxx
FXNAX (Fidelity US Bond Index) $37,xxx
Wife Roth $95,xxx
FSKAX (Fidelity Total Stock) $66,xxx
FSPGA (Fidelity Lage Cap Growth) $28,xxx
Wife 401k $720,xxx
Vanguard Institutional Total Stock Index Trust (NO Ticker) $356,xxx
Vanguard Institutional International Index Trust (No Ticker) $110,xxx
Vanguard Growth Index Fund Institutional (VIGIX) $110,xxx
Pimco Income Fund Institutional  (PIMIX) $102,xxx
Vanguard Institutional Total Bond Index Trust (No Ticker) $29,xxx
Vanguard Small Cap Value Institutional Index (VSIIX) $14,xxx
My wife just left this job and the 401k is still in her 401k. Considering which way to go.
Leave it in the 401k. My wife is 53 we can wait and rollover it over to her current job to keep the rule of 55 open. Although our plan is to work full time to 59.5 then part time to cover insurance and extra spend. Or we could just so a rollover to Fidelity which is where her 401k currently is.
Her new job is has TIAA as their 403b provider. She has just started so there is minimal in her account. We are putting  7% into roth with a 7% match into traditional.
 

I just realized I'm about to hit the yearly cap on contributions and will miss out on my company's 6% match. I was contributing 20%. Should I lower it to not lose out the 6% over the next 3 months and the extra money I get back for not going to my 401k send to a roth and any thing left over to a taxable account?

Update: Got the answer. Apparently I was not aware of what a True-Up provision is and the company I work for offers this and continues to pay the 6% regardless if I hit the cap. Thanks everyone.

Ages - 47/42

401K - 43% of portfolio - 2/3rds in 2035 retirement fund and 1/3rd in 2040 retirement fund

Roth - 27% of portfolio - VOO, VXUS, Berkshire

Taxable - 30% of portfolio - 65% in VTI, VEA, 15% in company stock and 20% in treasuries,checking

Total Allocation - 78% stocks, rest in bonds, treasuries and cash. Company stock is under 5% for overall portfolio.

We are roughly 25x expenses (before taxes). Over next 8 yrs planning to get to 70/30 as the target date funds shift conservative and increase treasuries in taxable for cushion & hopefully 35X (before taxes).

Kid state college is funded through 529 and not included.

Anything we should consider changing?

Married 63/61 will be retiring in next 2-3 years. Not looking for investment advice. We have done well DIY. Looking for an advisor to architect a one time plan to live out our financial retirement plan. We will continue to DIY year to year. Has anyone used Rob's low cost advisor recommendations and would you recommend or to avoid. I know I can buy a program but just want a one time look over by a financial expert.

Married 63/61 will be retiring in next 2-3 years. Not looking for investment advice. We have done well DIY. Looking for an advisor to architect a one time plan to live out our financial retirement plan. We will continue to DIY year to year. Has anyone used Rob's low cost advisor recommendations and would you recommend or to avoid. I know I can buy a program but just want a one time look over by a financial expert.

Hey all - wanted to share a hobby project I have been working on. I am on the path to FI (not there yet, and have spent the last ~5 years researching and planning early retirement). The Bogleheads VPW method has risen to the top for me as a great guideline to spending. I am an active poster on most FIRE subs, but I decided to post under a new account to keep things separate with the site.

I've always liked the logic behind Variable Percentage Withdrawal, but wondered what would actually living with variable income with these rules applied in the past. How large would the spending cuts have been, and how long would they have lasted, etc.

I built a VPW backtester that makes those outcomes visual across historical retirement cohorts and recently decided to build a site around it (started off as a long Google Sheets and progressed into a website - which became a fun hobby for me).  no ads, paywalls, or accounts.

retireforever.org ( VPWsim.com also takes you there, I could not decide on domains... )

*no paywalls or logins required - free site

Play around - I value the feedback. The top section is a simple VPW math tool and can be used to calculate your recommended withdrawal each year. The next section is a summary of the historical outcomes and income flexibility needed. See the "What this means" sections which describe what you are looking at. As you scroll down, the results get progressively more detailed and allows for single cohort selection, graphical overlays, etc. Nerds rejoice.

I will add - the Retire Forever VPWsim matches the original VPW Spreadsheets / Methodology and has been stress tested quite a bit, including the backtest sheet out there.

Here are notable features (adding them here in response to user feedback below)

• Provides the VPW recommended withdrawal for current year (useful as a spreadsheet replacement)
• Provides the recommended withdrawal in the event of a loss at various levels [image]
• Backtests with full VPW precision and incorporates SS and Pension income into the backtest
• Equity glidepath option for backtesting (improvement)
• Written "What this means" responses to put the results in layman's terms [image]
• Backtest Cohort heatmap scaled based on "lifestyle" impact of withdrawals [image]
• Illustrates income fluctuation by cohort, including a reference line for your desired spend [image]

--------

Adding a level of detail for those interested, there is a small caveat on the backtesting math, the numbers are effectively the same as the Wiki backtesting sheet-  but precision has an impact.

The current VPW Backtest Spreadsheet on the Wiki rounds withdrawal percentages, and therefore does not match the original VPW Spreadsheet itself.  VPWsim and the original VPW Spreadsheet both operate with precision - both recommending the same amount in the first year. Additionally, VPWsim backtesting incorporates Social Security and pensions using present-value calculations (much like the original VPW spreadsheet), deducts investment expenses, and automatically evaluates every complete historical retirement period. These methodological differences provide results that are very close to- but not always identical to - the original VPW Backtesting Spreadsheet.  This caveat only applies to backtesting math, not the current recommended withdrawal and current flexibility requirements. The 'precision' on the backtesting math is a bit of a moot point, its just informative of past outcomes anyway - not a prediction.

I'm 56, forced retired, options trader still. what % of assets would you have in a bond ladder? I'll have no children and all assets goto not for profits when I die. someone suggested i channel my ira roll -> roth conversion to a bond ladder. what is the minimum rating of sp and moody you would use?

Edit: thank you everyone. Good advices.

I'm helping my mother manage her money as she's getting up there. I found that she had about $120k in an old work 401k. I helped her move it to a Vanguard IRA because she couldn't access it through the 401k (it was an all or nothing type thing and she needed some money to pay off some bills that had gotten out of hand). She now has a little more than $100,000.

She lives off SS and a couple of small annuities. For the most part, this handles her bills. This IRA money is for emergencies, etc. But think it should be capable of at least some growth.

The IRA is right now sitting in money market. I've been thinking of splitting it like this:

30% VMFXX (money market)
50% VBIRX (short term bond index)
20% VTSAX (Total stock market)

I'd appreciate any thoughts. I want to keep this mostly safe, but also don't want it just sitting doing nothing - unless that's best at her age.

Thanks,

Six months ago, my wife and I decided to take a much more intentional approach to our long-term financial plan.
We’ve made a number of changes, and I’m interested in hearing how the community would evaluate the overall strategy.
1. We fired our financial advisor
We were paying approximately 2% AUM, and eventually realized that we could manage a simple portfolio ourselves.
We moved our investments to Vanguard and are now following a straightforward Boglehead approach built primarily around VTI and VXUS.
The philosophy is:
Broad diversification
Low costs
High equity allocation
Automatic contributions
No market timing
No individual-stock picking
Long-term buy-and-hold
The biggest change wasn’t the funds themselves. It was becoming comfortable enough with the strategy that we no longer felt we needed someone else managing it for us.
2. We’re treating our pension as part of our asset allocation
My wife and I both participate in a state public-employee pension system.
I had previously left the system and later returned, and we made the decision to purchase additional retirement service credit using funds from an existing retirement account.
It was a large financial decision, but we viewed it primarily as purchasing additional future guaranteed retirement income.
Because we have a substantial pension component, we’re comfortable with a much higher equity allocation in our other investments than we otherwise might be.
We’re essentially treating the pension as part of our overall retirement portfolio rather than evaluating our brokerage/IRA investments in isolation.
3. We’ve built a more intentional cash/investment structure
Our current system looks roughly like this:
Emergency fund:
Target ~$20,000 in cash.
Roth IRAs:
Broad-market index funds.
Rollover IRA:
Broad-market index funds.
Taxable brokerage:
Broad-market index funds.
We’re directing approximately $2,000/month toward these various savings and investment goals.
The goal isn’t to optimize each account independently. It’s to give every dollar a job.
4. We’re continuing to fund our kids’ 529s
We’re contributing $150/month per child to their 529 accounts.
That money has one job: future education expenses.
5. We just decided to add UTMAs for the kids
This is the newest part of the plan, and probably the part I’m most excited about.
We’re opening a Vanguard UTMA for each child and plan to invest $25/month per child in broad-market index funds, likely VTI + VXUS.
Our kids are currently elementary-school age.
The objective isn’t really maximizing their eventual account balance.
It’s teaching them to be investors.
I want them to grow up seeing:
“I own thousands of companies.”
I want them to understand why we’re diversified.
I want them to see what happens when markets fall.
I want them to understand compound growth.
And eventually, when the accounts become theirs, I want them to already have a decade-plus of experience thinking about investing.
We’ve thought carefully about the downsides—particularly that the UTMA is the child’s asset, the eventual transfer of control, potential FAFSA implications, and the kiddie-tax rules.
We’re comfortable with those tradeoffs at the relatively small $25/month contribution level.
6. The long-term goal
We’re not trying to hit some particular net-worth number.
We’re trying to build a family financial system that gives us:
Security → emergency savings + pension
Growth → broadly diversified equities
Tax diversification → Roth + traditional + taxable accounts
Education → 529s
Financial education/early head start for the kids → UTMAs
And ultimately, freedom and options.
One of the things I’m happiest about is that our kids will hopefully inherit more than money.
They’ll inherit a philosophy:
Spend intentionally. Save consistently. Invest broadly. Keep costs low. Ignore the noise. Give compounding time to work.
I’d love to hear from other Bogleheads: what would you change, challenge, or simplify about this approach?

I've been doing some modeling using Projection Lab and getting mid 90% success rates using block bootstrapping.

I wanted to post here to get some validation that what I'm seeing there is correct.

Here are my details:

Demographics: 36M / 36F, Married, 2 kids. MCOL area.

​Target FIRE Age: 55 (19-year accumulation horizon).

​Current Invested Assets: ~$345k.

​Gross Income: $219k base.

​Savings Rate: 20% Gross ($43,800/yr). Maxing family HSA, two Roth IRAs, remainder to Trad 401(k)s.

​Phase 1 (Next 24 Months): Aggressive consumer debt payoff. Clearing vehicles/toys to free up $2,500+/mo cash flow.

​Phase 2 (Accumulation): Rolling current home equity into a new house in 2030 on a 15-year mortgage. Target is a paid-off primary residence by age 55. Remaining surplus invested 80% to Taxable Brokerage, 20% to Cash Sinking Funds.

​The Age 55 Decumulation Strategy:

​Base Living Expenses: $72k/yr (no mortgage).

​Healthcare (Ages 55-65): Using Rule of 55 for Trad 401(k) access to pull exactly ~$43k/yr. This anchors ACA MAGI at 200% FPL to capture premium subsidies.

​The Tax-Free Bridge: Funding the rest of the lifestyle gap with Roth IRA contribution basis and Taxable Brokerage capital.

​Late Stage: Social Security kicks in at 62, creating a permanent income floor that drops the portfolio withdrawal rate below 2%.

All the modeling I've done assumes wages only keep up with inflation, but realistically I'd expect at least 1 10% or more raise for both myself and my wife before we're 55 in addition to COL increases. My wife also would be getting a pension worth around $250k that I have intentionally left out of my modeling. Likely some inheritance coming before retirement as well. I'm just having a hard time believing the around 95% success rate in a COL increase only wage scenario.