The problem with that all-equity portfolio is that if you hit it exactly wrong, and you picked a terrible time to retire with that equity-only portfolio, the safe withdrawal amount would have been meaningfully lower. In fact, it would be fully half of the highest safe withdrawal amount. So, this research that looks at historical data and was compiled by my colleague John Rekenthaler very much points to the value of having a balanced allocation. So, you can see that the portfolios that have at least some fixed-income assets in them tended to deliver a pleasing safe withdrawal amount, neither terribly low nor terribly high. And of course, high is good, but the idea is that you would like to try to improve the odds and to ensure that you can take out the most from your portfolio as is possible. The historical research points to the value of balance.
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