This is Motley Full Answers. I'm Alison Southwick and I'm joined as always by Robert Brokamp,

personal finance expert here at the Motley Fool, eh, bro? Hi, Alison. In this week's episode,

we're joined by Dr. Megan McCoy, who is going to tell us everything you want to know about financial

therapy.

All that and more on this week's episode.

So, bro, what's up?

Well, Allison, you know how I love talking safe withdrawal rates in retirement.

Yes, I do.

Just can't get enough of it.

But for those of you who don't remember,

the safe withdrawal rate

is the amount retirees could take out each year from their portfolios and be reasonably sure

that their money will last as long as they do. And most people know nowadays that the rule of thumb

is 4%. And that's not important for retirees. People who are working use this as a benchmark for determining

when they've saved enough to retire. So if you read any blogs about the fire movement,

fire standing for financial independence retire early, you'll see plenty of discussion about the 4%

rule. The rule was first revealed to the world in 1994 when financial planner Bill Bangen published

the results of a study which found that 4% was the amount you could withdraw in the first

year of retirement, adjust that dollar amount for inflation for each subsequent annual

withdrawal, and a portfolio that was 50% large-cap U.S. stocks and 50% intermediate treasuries would not run out of money for at least 30 years.

His findings were confirmed a few years later by the so-called Trinity study since it was published by three professors at Trinity University in Texas.

And 4% is basically remain fixed as the rule of thumb for individual investors, as well as professional

...