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The week's question
In March 2025, in the thread "Re: OT, out", Umm asked the members: "Do you think it is because America is made up of magical soil that makes businesses based in America magically profitable?" This week it is put to everyone again. The button below opens the small thread re-asking it - read what others have said so far, then give your own answer as an ordinary reply.
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Personal Finance / Retirement Investing
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Author: mungofitch ✹✺🐝 SILVER
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Number: of 1355 
Subject: Re: Safe Retirement Withdrawal Rate for 2026
Date: 12/07/25 4:15 PM
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It's 4% for 30 years from a 60/40, stock/fixed income portfolio if you want to survive the 1929 stock market crash and Great Depression, or the high inflation of the 1970s and 80s.

Correction:
It WAS 4% for 30 years from a 60/40, stock/fixed income portfolio if you want to survive the 1929 stock market crash and Great Depression, or the high inflation of the 1970s and 80s.

It might be so in future as well, PROVIDED that real stock and bond yields on retirement date are comparable to the situation at the start of that historical period being examined. Which they aren't.

The sustainability of a portfolio and any withdrawal scheme is not a function of what was observed in the past, it's a function of the real future net earnings yields of the portfolio in question. Those can be approximated using the expected real bond yields and CAPE ratio at the start date. If real bond rates are low and CAPE high, success stories from the deep past should be of no comfort at all to those tempted to thing historical results are predictive.

You don't want to be in the position of a person who reasons thusly: "That guy bet on coin flips and won half the time, so I'll get the same win rate buying lottery tickets". Wagers with different odds get a different spread of outcomes.

Jim
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This community has written 1,284 posts about Retirement Investing. The article-length ones it recommended most:
The Case for Long-Term Buy and Hold Investing · 49 recs · 2025
Transferring assets to the next generation · 20 recs · 2025
Retirement Year 8 · 17 recs · 2025
(nearly) year one of retirement has been good · 11 recs · 2026
Buying Treasuries Via Vanguard · 10 recs · 2023
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