Bear Markets and Fixed Distributions

The two most important articles and podcasts The Merriman Financial Education Foundation produces each year are the "Ultimate Buy and Hold Strategy” — which helps you determine what equity asset classes to hold in your portfolio — and "Fine Tuning Your Asset Allocation” — which shows how much you should own in bonds to control volatility. However, when it comes time to take money out of investments for retirement, our site includes a series of tables to aid you in determining the Best Distribution Strategy.

In this podcast, Paul focuses on strategies for investors who have saved “enough” but not much extra. These investors usually use a Fixed-Distribution Strategy. There is a long series of Fixed-Distribution Tables, but today Paul talks specifically about Tables 7, 8, 9, 12 and 13.

Paul also discusses the beginnings of the recent bear market, plus longer-term bear market results. The average bear market loss is 33% to 37%, depending on the period covered.Next week Paul addresses Flexible or Variable Distributions, the "Ultimate Distribution Strategy".

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