Subject: The 4% rule inventor makes some revisions
William Bengen is talking up his new book that both explains the 4% rule and revises it upward to 4.7%.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news...

Did you ever expect when you came up with a 4% rule that this was going to become the gold standard?

Not a clue. I was doing it for my clients at that time. It’s an amazing thing.

One big problem I have found is that retirees don’t spend enough. Most people are so conservative. They’ll take only their dividends and their interest and try not to tap the principal.

That runs counter to the approach that I use. In most cases, people will be able to take considerably more than that safe withdrawal rate. You worked your whole life to accumulate all this wealth. Why not get the most out of it while you’re retired?