I have just about finished reading "How to Think About Money" by Jonathan Clements. This is a "lightweight" book about personal finance and actually lays out pretty well how most people should conservatively handle things - culminating in a "proper" retirement. (It is made even more poignant by his announcement that he currently is in the final stages of a sudden onset of middle-aged cancer).

So it got me to engage in a bit of introspection when I reached his calculations regarding how much one should spend each year during retirement.

I have been keeping a spreadsheet for decades with a separate tab for what amounts to a balance sheet for each year of our personal finances. I figured I would see how I had fared over the span since I retired in 2011.

With the single exception of 2022-2023 (an outlier which fared poorly for some reason - I suspect paying for two 6-month cruises in the same year didn't help) each year is pretty close to the following:

(Beginning of year balance - (expenses + taxes) + income) = End of year balance

Which nets to (Beginning of year balance) * 1.05 = End of year balance

So while not a home run in some opinions, our assets are pretty much staying constant (once inflation is taken into account) despite our burn rate; which I'm interpreting as a win compared to advice of what percentage of one's assets was safe to spend in each year of retirement.

Jeff

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