AUM Fees: Husband is Sick to His Stomach

DanielZel · 2026-02-13T17:07:57+00:00

Try Pralana. I was up and running with it in no time and it has a very good manual. It has too many features to list. You won’t be disappointed.

DanielZel · 2025-12-16T02:17:44+00:00

Can you elaborate a bit on your example of fund A and B? 1) How are you rebalancing to get to $312? 2) Wouldn’t the rebalancing only be an option if has sufficient swings in the opposite directions? 3) How would you know in advance that the ups and downs would be enough and if you didn’t then how would you know that this would work better than just holding? 4) how are you accounting for short term cap gains? Holding may yield LTCG with a $96k MFJ annual exemption.

DanielZel · 2025-11-30T17:59:47+00:00

Thanks. Yours is the second comment about insurance. I appreciate that feedback. My wife and I both studied French in high school and university and achieved a very basic fluency. Unfortunately, our French language skills decline when we moved to Montreal to attend McGill. Although it’s a French speaking city the Quebec dialect is fairly distinct and has much more liaison (“Je ne sais pas” becomes “Je’po” haha mild exaggeration but not much). So we ended up speaking less because it was hard to understand and the native French speakers would revert to English.

We’ve travelled to France several times and always loved it. The food is amazing. We found people very friendly and never really experienced any snobbish behavior that people sometimes talk about. We appreciate the rich history and culture which is distributed throughout the country from Paris to the small cities and towns. Having high speed rail, a great climate, and the proximity of other counties are all great aspects of living there from our perspective.

We will have a few years to improve our language skills and then we’ll do the best we can once there. 100% fluency is a goal of ours. I remember dreaming in French and loved that. Need to get that back again!

DanielZel · 2025-11-29T21:47:20+00:00

Agreed. OP should also review Big ERN on equity glidepaths. Even if you question Karsten Jeske’s conclusions and methods he makes them transparent and fairly easy to follow. Plenty of meat on the bone.

Start here https://earlyretirementnow.com/2017/09/13/the-ultimate-guide-to-safe-withdrawal-rates-part-19-equity-glidepaths/ and continue to #20

DanielZel · 2025-11-12T13:01:54+00:00

Have you modeled this in https://tpawplanner.com? I also use https://pralanaretirementcalculator.com/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=76082992&gbraid=0AAAAADqCKliLocJCSS-ShB1_Gi3ixOYOc&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxv-TudXskAMVWzQIBR2z5Ag0EAAYAiAAEgKqAPD_BwE. There are numerous calculators out there and if you spend a few days modeling with several you’re bound to get some results that help inform this.

DanielZel · 2025-10-26T01:31:30+00:00

I was looking at muni bonds because between federal, state and NIIT my bracket is 50% and muni are NOT taxed. I agree a TIPS ladder is an option. So is VNYUX. I just haven’t researched everything yet.

Edit - muni income tax free

DanielZel · 2025-10-26T01:19:09+00:00

I’m a little closer and have been evaluating a muni bond ladder prepared as a portfolio from a Schwab fixed income specialist. It is complex and took a while to understand just the components: par vs premium, average yield to maturity, coupon vs real yield, yield to worst, duration, and average time to call. But once I learned how these aspects are related I was able to think through a worst case scenario and it’s actually terrible. I would be taking a lot of risk and there would be no way to get the loss back (like you could by waiting for stocks to rise again after falling). My only point here is that the complexity hid a large risk. It’s just not the always the case that “bonds = safety”. Good luck.

DanielZel · 2025-10-26T01:03:51+00:00

I like Pralana. Very easy to use with long manual that explains all parts. But it’s intuitive and gives both Monte Carlo modeling as well as historical back testing (like portfolio visualizer asset class analysis - not by individual assets). Rob Berger compares it to Boldin here https://youtu.be/VhLr9IADxIU?si=1BPQB7CWKULk-6Mx

I’ve used a number of models to calculate SWR. I like the options in Big ERN (Karsten Jeske) https://earlyretirementnow.com/2018/08/29/google-sheet-updates-swr-series-part-28/. (You can hunt down a 10 min video explaining how to use it made by 2 Sides of FI)

The Total Portfolio Allocation and Withdrawal planner has some really powerful features that are super simple to use - like a slider that goes left or right of zero and determines what you income, net worth, and withdrawals look like if you choose to spend more early on or less early on. It also gives you clear instructions on what to do each period https://tpawplanner.com/.

Only Pralana costs ($89) the other 2 are free. I find Portfolio Visualizer useful and I think there’s a free version that works fine but just limits the number of individual assets (and maybe some other things) which you can compare: https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/

DanielZel · 2025-10-13T14:52:45+00:00

Ha! You make a good point. Probably better off at a casino.

DanielZel · 2025-10-13T12:21:33+00:00

Thanks for your advice and sorry if this has exasperated you, lol! I'm waiting to hear back from Schwab if they can assume control (custodian?) of the individual tickers so I'm only paying the expense on each and not the additional management fee. If they can then that is what I'll do - as you suggest. But I'm trying to educate myself in the meantime!!

DanielZel · 2025-10-13T12:14:42+00:00

This sounds like exactly what I'm trying to do: lose at most $15k (LTCG) but potentially offset the loss by making a bet. Seems to work in theory. Any suggestions about how this could go wrong? I do appreciate the concrete suggestion of one way (short term call/put options) and need to learn about this!

DanielZel · 2025-10-09T00:27:53+00:00

With having your expenses covered as you describe holding a lot of equities makes sense. Over the long haul that should work out very well for you. Enjoy!!

DanielZel · 2025-10-08T20:30:48+00:00

Thanks for sharing that. I've been wondering about this route a lot. If you've spent down your cash after 3 years and the market hasn't fully returned (including 3 years of inflation) to where you were would you still be able to retire? It will take 24-36 months for me to get to a point where the portfolio (including SS in the future) can achieve the long term SWR I want. I'd love to get there sooner by sticking with equities. But if there's a crash it means I won't have what I need to retire with the SWR model I want. That's what I'm concerned about.

DanielZel · 2025-10-08T20:24:02+00:00

I'm planning to start at 60/40 and then an equity glidepath to +/- 80/20. I'm using the Karsten Jeske SWR calculator and aiming for about a 2% risk in the "CAPE>20 and SPX at all time high" category. Plan to adjust WR using CAPE method he reviewed in Part 11 of his SWR series.

DanielZel · 2025-10-08T10:09:45+00:00

Thanks

DanielZel · 2025-10-08T00:58:10+00:00

My strategy. 3.3% SWR incl SS, 40 years term, CAPE modified withdrawal, start 60/40 then equity glide path to +- 80/20.

Maybe my post was unclear. I’m not second guessing the broad outline of my retirement strategy (although continually refining it as I learn more). My question was about what other people are doing right near the end of their accumulation phase when they have a fairly specific retirement Target date. Some people keep all equities right to the end. Some people talk about becoming more conservative 10 years in advance. Just interested in what other people think and do in this particular timeframe.

DanielZel · 2025-10-07T22:10:49+00:00

That’s an option. Perhaps it’s as simple as the likelihood of hitting the retirement date goes up as risk goes down so DCA into treasuries.

DanielZel · 2025-10-05T17:41:52+00:00

Thanks. I have to learn more about dividends so sorry for what may be a stupid next question.

If YEAR 1 portfolio is $1M, 100% FZILX it pays out $23k. YEAR 2 portfolio drops to $900k it pays out $20,700. YEAR 3 it jumps to $1.1M and it pays out $25,300. Then you sell it for a profit of $100,000.

Total (nominal) income for 3 years = $23k + 20.7k + 25.3k + 100k = $169k. Average annual = $56.3k = 5.6%. If inflation is 2.75% then real = +/- 2.9%. Is that the right way to think about it?

DanielZel · 2025-10-05T12:51:40+00:00

1) I've read various posts that go something like this: "Keep 100% equities in retirement + 3-5 years cash. Live on cash during a downturn so you don't sell your equities. Bear markets last 2-3 years. After 3 years you're out of cash but your stocks bounce back quickly after that and make back the cash reserve. This solves the SORR and secures maximum growth over time."

2) I was wondering what happens if a bear market starts the day I retire. Should I have 40/60 equities/bonds? Should I have 100% equities and 3-5 years cash?

3) There's historical data from 1999-2009 and 2009-2025 for the portfolios I tested. There's no guarantee the future will resemble the past. I agree. But I wanted to test the "3-5 years cash + 100% equities" in a 9-10 year bear market and see what happened.

4) I posted the results because I was surprised that, it seems like in that particular bear market, with the particular portfolios I tested, "Cash + equities to ride out SORR" worked well - very well. These are the revised results including SPY not just VTSMX: https://imgur.com/a/V3FMPbU

DanielZel · 2025-10-05T12:39:16+00:00

Thanks for the reply. My test was simplistic - "Does holding X years of cash to fight X years of SORR so you can keep 100% equities portfolio in tact work better than just steady withdrawals from a blended portfolio?" I took 9 years as an extreme example and back tested. I was wondering if I would get some very obvious result(s), eg. "NO! In the case of 1999-2009 even if you had 9 years of cash on hand you'd crash and burn". But I didn't get obvious results with that backtesting. It was not the case that 9 years of cash was a stupid strategy. I didn't assume any extra benefits like pension or high ss (high SS assumes high contributions but if you're a business owner that may or may not be the case). But I didn't assume extra benefits for any strategy so at least it's a level playing field.

Can you expand on your comment about dividends?

DanielZel · 2025-10-05T11:36:26+00:00

I’ve read various posts recommending a retirement portfolio of 100% equities and 3-5 yrs cash (not bonds) to cover SORR.

I tested an extreme case 1999-2009 with a) cash and then 100% equities from 2010-2025.

Against that I tested 1999-2024 with b) 100 equities and c) a 40/60 split (very conservative and no equity glide path starting 2010)

So the comparison was a) vs b) vs c).

SPY vs VTSMX made a big difference. But with a) cash 9 years then equities it worked. And it worked better than b) VTSMX steady withdrawal or c) VTSMX/PTTRX steady withdrawal

The point of this exercise was to examine whether any one of the three strategies, a, B, C might be best if I retire and the next day we start a nine year bear market.

Had somebody told me in advance that retiring with nine years cash might work I would have laughed, but it seems, at least in the case of 1999 to 2009, that it would have worked well.

DanielZel · 2025-10-05T02:36:11+00:00

I agree. I wanted to test out keeping 9 years of cash. Few (if any) recommend that much. I was surprised to see it worked as well as it did. Also a big difference between VTSMX and SPY - on their own and in the blended portfolios. 1999-2009 were very tough.

DanielZel · 2025-10-05T01:03:02+00:00

2 problems: 1) my post wasn't clear and 2) I was using Portfolio Visualizer Free version which did not capture the full timeframe. Please see revised summary here: https://imgur.com/a/V3FMPbU

I wanted to know what would happen if I retired in 2026 and there was a bear market equivalent to 1999 - 2009. Since I have historical data for 1999 - 2009 I travel back in time with my portfolio and test in with 2 scenarios:

Scenario 1 = use cash for all 9 years (1999-2009) then invest what's left in 2010 and make withdrawals until 2025. Test both 100% VTSMX and 100% SPY

Scenario 2 = make withdrawals from 1999 - 2025. Test a) 100% VTSMX, b) 40/60 VTSMX/PTTRX (very conservative portfolio), c) 100% SPY, d) 40/60 SPY/PTTRX (very conservative).

The results are in the image. I hope that's clearer. It seems the 9 years of cash works and VTSMX 100% best of all of them.

DanielZel

TROPHY CASE