Retirement spending strategies

Life doesn’t stand still.
Neither must your spending.

Explore retirement spending that responds to your portfolio. Compare flexible rules and see the trade-off between enjoying today and funding tomorrow.

Build your forecast Explore an example

MoneyWhatIf spending-rule picker with Guardrails selected alongside four alternative retirement spending rules. — Explore how a spending rule responds as your portfolio changes.Illustrative example

See what’s possible

How flexible could your retirement budget be?

Set the spending boundaries you’re comfortable exploring, choose a rule, and see the effects across retired years.

Read the detailed guide

Explore five approaches

Try Guyton–Klinger guardrails, portfolio percentage, variable percentage withdrawals, Clyatt’s 95% rule, or the Kitces ratchet.

Put boundaries around flexibility

Use a spending floor and ceiling to explore a range that makes sense for the lifestyle you’re modeling.

See spending and savings together

Follow changes in annual spending, withdrawals, and the portfolio through the same projection.

Explore the details

Know which costs you are asking to change

Housing, family costs, healthcare, and everyday living do not all follow the same path. The spending chart separates those commitments before you decide which expenses should respond to a retirement rule. Reviewing the composition helps you distinguish an adjustable budget from costs that remain in the plan.

See when education, debt, or housing costs end.
Choose flexible expenses with the rest of the budget in view.

Lifetime spending chart with housing, family, debt, and health costs shown as separate bands. — The annual budget changes as one chapter gives way to the next.Illustrative example

From a question to a clearer picture

Choose what can flex, then test the response

The Spending Simulator changes selected spending cards during retirement. Its effect is visible in the same cash flow, withdrawal, and portfolio projections as the rest of the plan.

Start with the spending you have described
Enter the ordinary expenses and their timing first. The simulator can leave spending as written, or allow chosen cards to respond to the portfolio.
Choose a rule and its boundaries
Select one of the five approaches, tune its available controls, and set minimum and maximum spending. Choose which cards it may adjust and narrow the retirement years in which it operates.
Examine the lifestyle as well as the balance
After applying the settings, inspect annual spending and withdrawals alongside the portfolio. Look for years with reductions or increases, then explore a historical market sequence to see a different response.

Connect the whole plan

Connect the spending rule to its funding

A spending rule determines what the household plans to spend; the withdrawal order determines where a shortfall is funded. These choices work together. Reviewing the order helps explain why a reduction in spending may preserve one account while another source still supplies the year’s remaining needs.

Set the order in which available resources are used.
Check withdrawals and their tax effects after changing spending.

Ordered withdrawal sources: savings, brokerage, pre-tax retirement accounts, and property. — The funding order connects a shortfall to the resources the plan uses.Illustrative example

One way to use it · illustrative scenario

Allowing travel spending to change

Imagine a retired couple who wants to explore flexible travel spending while keeping their other spending cards outside the adjustment rule.

Try an example plan

The choice to explore

They select the travel card, choose Guardrails, and set the adjustment size and spending boundaries they want to model.

Where to look

They compare the amounts assigned to travel each year, any guardrail crossings, and the resulting withdrawals. A historical downturn gives them another sequence in which to inspect those same choices.

What you could learn

This hypothetical exercise reveals what following the rule would ask of the modeled budget. A larger ending portfolio is only part of that story; the path of spending matters too.

Make sense of what you see

Understand what changes when you pick a rule

The alternatives have different responses

Guardrails can raise or lower spending after thresholds are crossed. A portfolio-share rule follows the available balance; VPW changes the percentage with the remaining horizon. The 95% rule smooths cuts, while the ratchet raises spending without cutting it.

The floor and ceiling refer to selected cards

Minimum and maximum spending are percentages of the selected card amounts. They bound the adjustment; they are not a promised income level or a guarantee that the plan can fund it.

Choosing a window changes the starting point

The default covers retirement. A narrower window starts the rule where that window opens, so a policy beginning after a pension starts can behave differently from one beginning at retirement.

A little more detail

Good questions to start with.

Will a rule automatically change every household expense?

You choose its spending cards. Unselected cards stay outside the adjustment, and the rule accounts for those commitments when determining what the selected spending can do. The selection must include at least one enabled card.

Can it reduce spending while I am still working?

No. These rules operate in retired years only, even if a chosen date range begins earlier. Working-year expenses continue to follow their ordinary card settings.

Does selecting a rule rewrite my spending cards?

The cards remain the underlying spending plan; the saved strategy determines their adjustment during applicable years. Switching back to spending as planned stops the rule while retaining its configured settings for another comparison.