After years of building financial assets, the time will come
when you begin drawing on them to pay expenses during retirement.
Before that major turning point arrives, be sure to give careful
thought to how much money you will take out of your personal
savings and investment portfolio each year. The rate at which you
withdraw money from your assets is one of the most important
factors affecting how long they will last. In other words, it's not
only the amount of money you have saved but how quickly you spend
it that will help determine whether you can still live comfortably
in your later years.
What to Consider
A number of factors will influence your choice of an appropriate
withdrawal rate. These include your age and health, the potential
impact of inflation on your assets and cost of living, and the
variability of investment returns you earn on your savings. If you
plan to leave a legacy to your heirs, you should allow for this in
determining how much to withdraw from your portfolio as well.
As you think about what your withdrawal rate should be, begin by
considering your age and health. Although you can't predict for
certain how long you will live, you can make an estimate. However,
it may not be wise to base your estimate on average life expectancy
for your age and sex. Particularly if you are healthy, you should
take into account your risk of living longer than a life expectancy
table would indicate. While average life expectancy is 78.6 years
in the United States, the average 65-year-old can look forward to a
life expectancy of 19.5 more years.1
Dealing With Economic Realities
Once you've estimated your likely longevity, think next about
inflation, which is the tendency for prices to increase over time.
Keep in mind that inflation not only raises the future cost of
goods and services but also affects the value of assets set aside
to meet those costs. The real return on assets is their value after
subtracting for inflation. To account for the impact of inflation,
include an annual percentage increase for inflation in your
retirement income plan.
How much inflation should you plan for? Although the rate varies
from year to year, U.S. consumer price inflation has averaged about
3% since 1926.2 Therefore, for long-term planning
purposes, you might choose to assume that inflation would average
4% a year. However, if inflation flares up above the level you
assume after you have retired, you may need to adjust your
withdrawal rate to reflect the impact of higher inflation on both
your expenses and investment returns. Keep in mind as well that you
should periodically assess the potential of your investment
portfolio to generate income that will at least keep pace with
inflation.
Fluctuating Returns
When considering how much your investments may return over the
course of your retirement, you might think you could base them on
historical averages, as you may have done when projecting how many
years you needed to reach your retirement savings goal. But once
you start taking income from your portfolio, you no longer have the
luxury of time to recover from possible market losses.
Just imagine how long it would take to restore the value of a
portfolio if it suffered a large loss due to a market downturn. For
example, if a portfolio worth $250,000 incurred successive annual
declines of 12% and 7%, its value would be reduced to $204,600, and
it would require a gain of nearly 23% the next year to restore its
value to $250,000.3 When a retiree's need for annual
withdrawals is added to poor performance, the result can be a much
earlier depletion of assets than would have occurred if portfolio
returns had increased steadily.
Coming to a Decision
Although past performance cannot predict future results, the ups
and downs registered by the financial markets and inflation can be
instructive when choosing an annual withdrawal rate. To provide an
idea of how much might be withdrawn annually from a balanced
portfolio so that it would be likely to last 30 years or more, DST
Systems, Inc. looked back at the actual record for stocks, bonds,
and inflation and analyzed all possible 30-calendar-year holding
periods since 1926. It determined that the average sustainable
withdrawal rate for a portfolio composed of 60% U.S. stocks and 40%
investment-grade bonds was about 6.4% per year when adjusted for
inflation (see chart).4
| How Long Will the Money
Last? |
| The ups and downs of the financial markets and inflation
largely determine the income-producing potential of an investment
portfolio. This chart depicts the average rate of annual
withdrawals that a hypothetical portfolio of U.S. stocks and
Treasury bonds was able to sustain during a series of 30-year
holding periods since 1926. The average sustainable rate for all
30-year rolling periods from 1926 to 2019 was 6.50% when adjusted
for actual consumer price inflation. |
 |
| Source: ChartSource®, DST Retirement Solutions,
LLC, an SS&C company. Assumes investment in a portfolio
composed of 60% stocks (represented by the S&P 500, an
unmanaged index that is generally considered representative of the
U.S. stock market) and 40% bonds (represented by a composite of the
total returns of long-term U.S. government bonds, calculated from
yields published by the Federal Reserve, and the Bloomberg Barclays
U.S. Aggregate Bond index), rebalanced annually. Also assumes that
withdrawals are adjusted for inflation, represented by the Consumer
Price Index. It is not possible to invest directly in an index.
Index performance does not reflect the effects of investing costs
and taxes. Actual results would vary from benchmarks and would
likely have been lower. Past performance is not a guarantee of
future results. © 2020 SS&C. Reproduction in whole or in
part prohibited, except by permission. All rights reserved. Not
responsible for any errors or omissions. (CS000225) |
In view of the variability of inflation and investment returns,
as well as the risk of living beyond your average life expectancy,
you may want to err on the side of caution and choose an annual
withdrawal rate somewhat below 6.37%. The goal, after all, is to
crack your nest egg in such a way that it will provide a reliable
stream of income for as long as you live. That may mean taking out
less in the early years of retirement with the hope of having
sufficient income for your later years.
This example is not intended as investment advice. Be sure to
consult a financial professional about choosing a withdrawal rate
and how these issues and examples relate to your own financial
situation.
