Jacob and Rachel, 53 and 52 respectively, are married with four children. Two of the children are currently in college, and two are in high school. They expect the other two children to attend college. The couple has done relatively well for themselves and earn roughly $275,000 before tax between the two of them, which equates to $190,000 after taxes. They live well below their means, and this should allow them to cover all of their children’s college expenses out of pocket, but it will not leave much for them to save over the next six to eight years. Through savings and portfolio growth, they have managed to accumulate $900,000. To this point, they have been moderately aggressive (70–75% equities) with their portfolio, but they feel that they need to begin preparing the portfolio for partial retirement in eight years, and full retirement in 13 years.
- “I know we still need to be somewhat aggressive—we could live until we’re 90—so we need to plan for some growth even in retirement.”
- “We definitely can’t afford to take a big hit in our portfolio. We don’t have enough time to recover.”
- “Our jobs allow us to work part-time in retirement, and we will probably do so as long as we are able.”
- “What do bond yields look like today?”
“I think we’ll need to draw on 3–5% of our portfolio in retirement. We’d like to earn enough income from the portfolio to cover that.”