How I used the 4% rule over the past 29 years

[aj485]

@bjurasz

One thing firecalc did not make clear (nor do most calculators) is when you enter a value for “spending”, is that the pre-tax value you want to extract from your portfolio?

I always assume that spending is the total amount of money that will need to be extracted from the portfolio, including any taxes that you will need to pay on that extraction. Taxes are an expense that you still need to pay in retirement, and you need to account for them as a part of your spending.

AJ