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Math for investing.

Savings rate to 25X expenses:

Savings Rate(%) Time in years
5 66
10 51
15 43
20 37
25 32
30 28
35 25
40 22
45 19
50 17
55 14.5
60 12.5
65 10.5
70 8.5
75 7
80 5.5
85 4
90 3
95 2
100 0

source Assumptions: 5% real CAGR, 25X expenses

In Reddit format:

Savings Rate: Time in years

Expenses by withdrawal rate(WR):

The math: 1 / %WR * 100

4% WR: 1/4*100 = 25

Example in the table below is for $30,000/yr in retirement expenses

Withdrawal Rate(%) Expense Multiple Example($30k)
2% 50 $1,500,000
2.5% 40 $1,200,000
3% 33.4 $1,002,000
3.5% 28.6 $858,000
4% 25 $750,000

4%WR has historically been fine for US based retirements w/ a 60/40 AA for a 30 year long retirement, see Trinity Study & William Bengen's work.

Equities vs Bonds

Since 1794 to today over various time periods, equities have a X% chance of beating bonds[0]:

source: McQuarrie, Edward F., Stocks for the Long Run? Sometimes Yes. Sometimes No. (July 23, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3805927 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3805927

Calculating rate of return

use Modified Dietz

Expected Returns

A "normal" view, not including countries that lost a major world war, etc:

A quick look at one of the Credit Suisse Yearbooks yielded the list of ten countries below — showing real (inflation-adjusted), geometric average returns from 1900 to 2016:

Stocks Bonds
Australia 6.8% 1.7%
Canada 5.7% 2.2%
Ireland 4.4% 1.6%
New Zealand 6.2% 2.1%
Norway 4.3% 1.8%
Spain 3.6% 1.8%
Sweden 5.9% 2.7%
Switzerland 4.4% 2.3%
United Kingdom 5.5% 1.8%
United States 6.4% 2.0%
AVERAGE 5.3% 2.0%

So expecting 4-5%/yr real in equities and about half that in bonds seems reasonable. Or they way I say it, expect a touch above inflation for bonds and about 2X more in equities.

Personal Inflation Rate

I think calculating a PIR is interesting and can be useful for planning purposes in retirement.

Here is how I do it:

taxable account optimization

Arguably not worth the effort. https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=7483189#p7483189