Retirement Planning Guides
Plain-language explanations of the concepts behind the simulator: withdrawal rates, sequence-of-returns risk, Monte Carlo methods, and dynamic spending strategies — each grounded in 150+ years of market history and linked to a tool where you can test it.
Safe Withdrawal Rate: What 150 Years of Data Says
What a safe withdrawal rate is, where the 4% rule comes from, and how horizon, fees, and international data change the answer.
Guardrail Strategies: Guyton-Klinger vs Risk-Based
How guardrail (dynamic spending) strategies work in retirement: Guyton-Klinger's four decision rules with a worked example, how risk-based guardrails differ, and what spending cuts actually buy you.
Monte Carlo Retirement Planning: How It Works
How Monte Carlo retirement simulation works, why it beats simple historical backtesting, and why block bootstrap sampling matters for sequence risk.
Sequence of Returns Risk: Why Order Beats Average
Why two retirees with identical average returns can end up rich or broke depending on the order of returns — and what actually protects against it.
Your FIRE Number: How Much You Need to Retire
How to calculate your FIRE number, why 25x spending is only a starting point, and how horizon, flexibility, and data assumptions move the target.
Asset Allocation for Retirement: What History Says
How to split stocks and bonds in retirement: what 150 years of multi-country data says about 100/0 vs 60/40 vs 30/70, and why the withdrawal phase changes the answer.
Coast FIRE: The Math, the Risks, How to Test It
What Coast FIRE means, how to calculate your coast number, why the return assumption dominates the answer, and how to turn the formula into a probability.