Bob missed a point right that went right over his head. I wanted to call him a troll after I read this because every once in a while he throws out aggressive tweets of which this is not really one. But nine times out of 10 I totally agree with what he's trying to say. My guess is that he has a point of view developed from working with people that need assertive wealth management help in the Midwest so the trollish-tweets are probably well earned and done in good faith. At least I'll assume that for now.
In this case the missed point is that sometimes it is not about "spend rates" at all. Spend rates could be all over the place depending on the individual context. But my guess is that Bob would spend 1M a year without blinking if that was a reasonable construct for a properly constructed age-appropriate decumulation portfolio. I'd maybe agree with that and maybe my own "dream" rate is 1M but my point above was something else entirely.
Let's try this again:
Young people of America. Listen up. Before you even get to the topic of your future retirement spend rates, make sure that when you complain about spending 150 grand a year, or you complain about having to buy your Porsche used rather than new, you do not do that complaining in front of a family of four that is making 50 or 60 grand a year. That is somewhere around the median income in this country. And we haven't even gotten to taxes yet. Your 150k (and I hate to use this next term since it is so loaded these days) is case of privilege. This has nothing whatsoever to do with whether 3% of 5 mil is "ideal" or a "dream" or not. I don't really care what your ideal dream spend rate is. This 150 vs 50 thing is a moral position and it is mine. It does not have to be yours. You should be able to make a decent life at 150 in absolute terms. My point still stands. Go find your "dream" but respect others while doing it.
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