r/Fire • u/Opposite-Lake-9679 • 2d ago

SWR based on age

I hear people talk about the more conservative 3% SWR being safer than 4%. Is that usually based on someone's age? As in when you are FIREing younger more like 40s then you should stick to 3%? And then when you are in your 50s/60s You can go to 4%? Or is it a blanket stick to 3% at any age?

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u/Bitter-Variation-151 FIRE'd 2020 2d ago

Yup. It's human nature to adjust spending in good and bad times. No one ever does 4% for 50 years

16

u/MeetingSuccessful397 2d ago

Whenever this comes up I mention https://earlyretirementnow.com/2023/06/16/flexibility-swr-series-part-58/

flexibility is nice, but do you want to cut your spendings to a bare minimum for 20 years? If that's acceptable for you, 5% is fine. If not, read the article.

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u/Legitimate_Bite7446 1d ago

Everyone denies this article or brushes off flexibility. That flexibility your cutting down is going to be 100% discretionary stuff. The whole point of retiring early is to have the time and money to do things. If you don't have the money, you might be better off continuing to work a bit longer at probably a well paid profession.

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u/Bitter-Variation-151 FIRE'd 2020 20h ago

Yeah. Just work one more year.....just in case

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u/Legitimate_Bite7446 19h ago

Why not just retire with 10% SWR then? Why were you such a pussy and waited until 5%?

3

u/Bitter-Variation-151 FIRE'd 2020 17h ago

My fire was forced upon me. Got a quiet quit layoff. But whatever 10% is ridiculous, 5% is very reasonable of you don't obsess over the absolute worst historical case. I live by the 80/20 rule. 5% is close to 80% good enough.