Mark Bergman

Comments

• Me too. I’ll meet you half way….

  Post: When Your Pastime Takes Ownership

  Link to comment from March 8, 2026

• When I can find someone willing to play singles, we play full court. You can do it - you're still young ! In fact, I think I am older (63 yo) than you ?

  Post: When Your Pastime Takes Ownership

  Link to comment from March 8, 2026

• I’ll have to make my way to the Dublin area so we can play pickleball !

  Post: When Your Pastime Takes Ownership

  Link to comment from March 7, 2026

• Dan, I only listened to the first one minute of this 50 minute video. He says it perfectly in that one minute ! My impression is that people are WAY WAY over concerned about running out of money. Unless you are foolish, stupid, or have the worst luck imaginable, it seems like it’s a very hard thing to do ! There are no gold medals, not even a participation award (we are in 2026 after all ! ), for being the richest person in the graveyard.

  Post: Actually, Lets NOT Forget the 4% Rule – as Posted Yesterday 3/6/26

  Link to comment from March 7, 2026

• How can weather be too good to waste on pickleball - play outdoors ! It was 21 C / 71F here in the upper midwest yesterday, so i played my first outdoor games of the year.

  Post: When Your Pastime Takes Ownership

  Link to comment from March 7, 2026

• Thought experiment: excluding those who entered retirement with little to no assets, does anyone know, or heard about indirectly, someone who spent down all of their assets in retirement, such that they were forced to change their lifestyle dramatically, or literally spent or lost it all, and became destitute? “IF” the answer is a collective no, then that would support the idea that retirees fear of running out of money is overblown and that they are spending too little.

  Post: Forget the 4% rule.

  Link to comment from March 6, 2026

• I disagree David. Forward looking projections are basically guesses. To paraphrase the White Coat Investor, “everybody’s crystal ball is cloudy”. Morningstar’s SWR has changed from 3.3 to 3.9 % over the past 3-4 years. That’s a HUGE range, and renders their proclamations near useless. BTW, where is that recession we have been hearing about, every year, since the pandemic ! While imperfect, I have more confidence in Bengen’s SWR analyses, based on the historical data available from the past 90ish years. Again, highly imperfect, but useful for a reasonable estimate.

  Post: A Rule of Thumb Is Not a Plan

  Link to comment from February 26, 2026

• r.e,; According to an early slide in his presentation, and his (very) personal experience, ground ambulances can run upwards of $5,000 -My 5 year anniversary of taking an ambulance ride is in 3 days —> it cost just a wee bit less than above, ie $ 600 !

  Post: Ambulatory Ambivalence

  Link to comment from February 22, 2026

• Thank you for the clarification. I agree - I like her work as well. How do you and others feel about them prognosticating what the markets are going to do, to come up with their safe withdrawal member ? Especially since the swr / number they put forth is supposed to be for people‘s 30 year retirement. I find this quite problematic.

  Post: RMDs, account withdrawals, 4% simplified- MAYBE?

  Link to comment from January 13, 2026

• Your last paragraph is correct, and makes me wonder why Christine Benz and colleagues come out with a new SWR each year ? Is this only for the newly retired ? Or all retired, which would be wrong, as you described. Also, I just listened to Christine on a podcast. She stated that their annual SWR is based on their FUTURE projections about the market. That seems rather disappointing as no one can predict what will happen in the market , e.g. The stock market has predicted 9 of the last 5 recessions - Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Samuelson. By contrast, Bill Bengen’s SWR is based on the historical record, such as it is.

  Post: RMDs, account withdrawals, 4% simplified- MAYBE?

  Link to comment from January 13, 2026