And Merry Christmas to you and Rachel, Dennis. Always enjoy your posts, as they reinforce much of how my wife and I have lived until retirement 8 years ago. Lived well below our means, but maybe not quite as frugally as what you describe. The decumulation years have been very enjoyable, and like you have adjusted to the comforts of added spending.
Interesting that I watched a Jack Bogle Q&A session (a week after we adjusted our allocation) from 2018 where he talked about doing an adjustment to his AA in his personal portfolio by about 10% due to his thoughts of the market being overvalued at the time. He thought the markets would correct at some point, but said it could take up to around 5 years (it did 4 years later). He advocated for folks to perhaps tweak an AA based on one's personal situation, but never to entirely exit the market which would be very foolish.
Mark, not necessarily a bad plan for a retiree. I also contemplated something similar but ended up simply reducing my allocation to equities (by 10%) until the age I start Social Security in 3 years. I simply reduced exposure differently. I also was able to make this tweak within a tax sheltered account so no capital gain issue.
Congrats Dick!- they say bad weather on your wedding day is good luck for your future life together! Seems like that saying has proved true in your case!
Retired 8 years ago at 58, with no pension, and delaying SS til 70. We’ve been living from distributions from the taxable account, IRA, and my wife’s SS. Our withdrawal rate is less than 3% yearly, and we’ve gotten used to taking withdrawals for day to day living, as well as 2-3 luxury trips a year along with destination type travel with friends or family during the year. We notice the inflated rates of goods and services, but our portfolio has more than doubled in 8 years, so our annual spending has gone up comfortably during that 8 years as well, and is still within the 5% guardrail we’ve set for withdrawals. We’ve also tweaked our AA from 60/40 to 50/50 a few months ago. We feel this isn’t market timing, but more a reflection of having won the game and taking some risk off the table until taking SS in 3 years (we plan to glide the AA back to 60/40). Reducing some of our equity risk will help us to maintain a certain level of portfolio withdrawals should a market correction occur before my SS kicks in.
Ah, I think I misunderstood your post- thought that 's what you were looking for. If you're looking to appoint a family member or friend as guardian, I would think a durable POA as someone else mentioned may work, in lieu of a guardian appointment. The main issue may be that if the POA was not in place before the Alzheimer's diagnosis, you may have to seek guardianship. An Elder Care lawyer should be able to guide you on this.
Indeed. Always good to have a Plan B. In retrospect, all would have worked out, even if we had to draw the 529 down in a falling market, but the HELOC added flexibility to our options.
I'm sorry you're going thru this with your mother-in-law- it's an extremely difficult decision to make, and each situation is very different. I went thru a similar thought process a few years ago for a relative that was in a facility, but I was POA (and getting multiple calls a day from the facility and relative), as well as day to day care giver from an out of state standpoint (the relative refused to move closer to family). As the relative started getting somewhat abusive verbally, I had started researching agencies (state certified guardians) that provided guardian services that were recommended by our family's Elder Law attorney, as well as the facility case manager. In my situation the guardian would have been a buffer for me to some extent from the relatives calls, though it was somewhat murky how that may have played out. We never ended up engaging a guardian, as the relative passed before engaging the guardian. Good luck with your decision.
Mark, I experienced a variation of this during the 2008-2009 financial crisis. My daughter started at a private university in the fall of 2008. We had saved to fully cover the cost- mostly in a 529 education account (which was invested conservatively (in a target date fund) but still dropped in value significantly I’m guessing because I wasn’t paying some of the education for 4 more years. Fortunately, we had a home equity line of credit which I tapped for about 12-18 months to give the 529 account time to recover at which time I paid off the HELOC. At the time, no one knew the future, and I didn’t know if I would end up paying off the HELOC with the depressed 529 account, and taking on some student loans to cover the gap that was created by the financial crisis. At the time I didn’t think the market meltdown could go beyond 2-3 years, but that was unknown at the time. So I guess it’s always good to have a plan B!
Comments
And Merry Christmas to you and Rachel, Dennis. Always enjoy your posts, as they reinforce much of how my wife and I have lived until retirement 8 years ago. Lived well below our means, but maybe not quite as frugally as what you describe. The decumulation years have been very enjoyable, and like you have adjusted to the comforts of added spending.
Post: Someday Is Here
Link to comment from December 24, 2025
Interesting that I watched a Jack Bogle Q&A session (a week after we adjusted our allocation) from 2018 where he talked about doing an adjustment to his AA in his personal portfolio by about 10% due to his thoughts of the market being overvalued at the time. He thought the markets would correct at some point, but said it could take up to around 5 years (it did 4 years later). He advocated for folks to perhaps tweak an AA based on one's personal situation, but never to entirely exit the market which would be very foolish.
Post: Becoming A “Bad Investor”
Link to comment from December 17, 2025
Mark, not necessarily a bad plan for a retiree. I also contemplated something similar but ended up simply reducing my allocation to equities (by 10%) until the age I start Social Security in 3 years. I simply reduced exposure differently. I also was able to make this tweak within a tax sheltered account so no capital gain issue.
Post: Becoming A “Bad Investor”
Link to comment from December 17, 2025
Congrats Dick!- they say bad weather on your wedding day is good luck for your future life together! Seems like that saying has proved true in your case!
Post: Fifty-seven years and counting and it’s snowing…again.
Link to comment from December 14, 2025
Retired 8 years ago at 58, with no pension, and delaying SS til 70. We’ve been living from distributions from the taxable account, IRA, and my wife’s SS. Our withdrawal rate is less than 3% yearly, and we’ve gotten used to taking withdrawals for day to day living, as well as 2-3 luxury trips a year along with destination type travel with friends or family during the year. We notice the inflated rates of goods and services, but our portfolio has more than doubled in 8 years, so our annual spending has gone up comfortably during that 8 years as well, and is still within the 5% guardrail we’ve set for withdrawals. We’ve also tweaked our AA from 60/40 to 50/50 a few months ago. We feel this isn’t market timing, but more a reflection of having won the game and taking some risk off the table until taking SS in 3 years (we plan to glide the AA back to 60/40). Reducing some of our equity risk will help us to maintain a certain level of portfolio withdrawals should a market correction occur before my SS kicks in.
Post: 27 Months
Link to comment from December 12, 2025
Ah, I think I misunderstood your post- thought that 's what you were looking for. If you're looking to appoint a family member or friend as guardian, I would think a durable POA as someone else mentioned may work, in lieu of a guardian appointment. The main issue may be that if the POA was not in place before the Alzheimer's diagnosis, you may have to seek guardianship. An Elder Care lawyer should be able to guide you on this.
Post: Guardianship
Link to comment from December 8, 2025
Indeed. Always good to have a Plan B. In retrospect, all would have worked out, even if we had to draw the 529 down in a falling market, but the HELOC added flexibility to our options.
Post: Would You Raid the Piggy Bank or Mortgage the House?
Link to comment from December 8, 2025
Agree with the Durable POA. More or less opens all doors when needed with service providers of different types.
Post: Guardianship
Link to comment from December 8, 2025
I'm sorry you're going thru this with your mother-in-law- it's an extremely difficult decision to make, and each situation is very different. I went thru a similar thought process a few years ago for a relative that was in a facility, but I was POA (and getting multiple calls a day from the facility and relative), as well as day to day care giver from an out of state standpoint (the relative refused to move closer to family). As the relative started getting somewhat abusive verbally, I had started researching agencies (state certified guardians) that provided guardian services that were recommended by our family's Elder Law attorney, as well as the facility case manager. In my situation the guardian would have been a buffer for me to some extent from the relatives calls, though it was somewhat murky how that may have played out. We never ended up engaging a guardian, as the relative passed before engaging the guardian. Good luck with your decision.
Post: Guardianship
Link to comment from December 8, 2025
Mark, I experienced a variation of this during the 2008-2009 financial crisis. My daughter started at a private university in the fall of 2008. We had saved to fully cover the cost- mostly in a 529 education account (which was invested conservatively (in a target date fund) but still dropped in value significantly I’m guessing because I wasn’t paying some of the education for 4 more years. Fortunately, we had a home equity line of credit which I tapped for about 12-18 months to give the 529 account time to recover at which time I paid off the HELOC. At the time, no one knew the future, and I didn’t know if I would end up paying off the HELOC with the depressed 529 account, and taking on some student loans to cover the gap that was created by the financial crisis. At the time I didn’t think the market meltdown could go beyond 2-3 years, but that was unknown at the time. So I guess it’s always good to have a plan B!
Post: Would You Raid the Piggy Bank or Mortgage the House?
Link to comment from December 8, 2025