Subject: Re: Thoughts on Berkshire withdrawal strategy
I think the best withdrawal strategy is the RMD as required from retirement accounts by the IRS. Each year you withdraw a percentage of your account's latest balance, calculated based on your life expectancy. So you'd withdraw about 3.6% at age 70, gradually rising to 10% at age 92, and 20% at 104 if you should live so long.

Note that the IRS tables are more conservative than people's true life expectancy. Actuarial tables show a life expectancy of 17 years at age 65 for men and 20 years for women. So you'd be starting with 5%+ withdrawals at age 65. The IRS mandated RMD is only about half of the true life expectancy.

Elan