Withdrawal rate performance

[Asgard01]

Hi all,

I was wondering. For those of you that are FI already, how has it been using your chosen safe withdrawal rate, whether that's 2% or 6%? I know it might be hard to say exactly but at least for those who have been FI for a fairly long time. How have things been? Were you conservative and perhaps pleasantly surprised? Are you finding we really do need to switch from 4 to 3% to be safe. I ask because I could be barebones FI right now were I to take a 5% withdrawal rate which feels great but then I think 5% is just too high. It depends what I read, sometimes I read that 3% is too conservative etc.

It's worth bearing in mind that I plan on carrying on working, it's just I love the feeling that I could stop and still be completely secure at a bare bones level for life. So is 5% financial independence suicide or like some, do you think interest rates could rise rather than the doom and gloom predictions of it being less and less that would make 5% mostly safe.

Chris

[arebelspy]

You'll have a larger response on the e-r.org forums than here, due to more being FI over there and for longer.

5% is too high if you never plan to earn money again and never plan to reduce your spending (but just increase it with inflation every year).  If you'll be flexible with spending and/or earn some money, it can be quite doable.

[taekvideo]

My living expenses are extraordinarily low, even by Mustachian standards... so I'm aiming for a lower SWR (2% or so?) because it's not that hard to do, and because there's very little more I can do to "cut back" if things go wrong while I'm retired.