ok, here are my credentials:
retired in 2009, aged 45. both wife and I had careers and savings over time. she gets a fixed pension and SS and has a Roth. i'll have an IRA and SS in a few years. we also have savings outside of retirement accounts.
for the last many years, our withdrawal from our accounts has been under 4% consistently.
the easiest thing to do is to adjust your spending to what you have available.
if you put it all in cash, and did not depend on investment gains, then taking 4% per year would last 25 years. 3% would last about 33 years.
if you can manage to get some investment gains, those time periods will be longer.
we try to keep about 12 months of cash in cash, so we are not panic selling when the checkbook runs low.
so your homework is this: total up your assets, see what 4% is, compare that to your average monthly or yearly spending, and see where you are at presently.
we all like nice things, but if the account says otherwise, it's time to scale back a bit.
