Desert Portfolio: 50-year retirement

Last Update: 31 March 2025

Do you have in mind a 50 years retirement, investing in the Gyroscopic Investing Desert Portfolio?

Worst case scenario so far, over a 50-year time horizon, you could have withdrawn 2.736% of your initial capital each year, kept withdrawing all the time (adjusting for inflation), and you wouldn't have run out of money before 50 years.

With a 4% withdrawal strategy, you would have lived on your investiment for 50 years in the 42.25% of cases. In the 17.97% of cases, you would have preserved your initial inflation adjusted capital.

According to the historical returns and stats of the portfolio, which has been a sustainable withdrawal rate to live off your investiment?

The last 50 years of the Gyroscopic Investing Desert Portfolio

Over the last 50 years (last update: March 2025), the portfolio has returned 8.31% annualized, with a maximum drawdown of -14.7%.

A safe withdrawal rate would have been 5.042%.

The Withdrawal Rates calculated here are annualized and refer to the initial capital (not the current!). The first month withdrawal is 1/12 of that annualized withdrawal and it's adjusted for inflation for each subsequent month.

A Perpetual Withdrawal Rate (PWR) protected the original inflation adjusted capital.

A Safe Withdrawal Rate (SWR) didn't protect the original capital, but the portfolio didn't run out of money during retirement. The portfolio went to zero exaclty at the end of the retirement period.

Learn more about Withdrawal Rate simulation
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Timeframes ending at Mar 2025
Withdrawal Rate (%)
Investment Performances
Timeframe Period from Period to Perpetual Safe Ann.Return(%)
[ Infl.Adj. ]		 Max
Drawdown(%)
50 Years 1 Apr 1975
 31 Mar 2025 4.476 5.042 8.31
[ 4.47 ] 		-14.70
Jan 2022 - Sep 2022
Simulations are calculated with actual returns of Gyroscopic Investing Desert Portfolio | Preserved capital and withdrawals are considered adjusted for inflation | Withdrawals happen monthly | Performances are calculated in USD dollars, considering reinvestment of dividends when applicable | Portfolio is rebalanced each month | Inflation is updated at March 2025

For a complete view of the portfolio and all the possible strategies, please refer to Gyroscopic Investing Desert Portfolio page.

Withdrawal Rates Simulation (updated at Mar 2025)

How much would it be an acceptable withdrawal rate, for the Gyroscopic Investing Desert Portfolio?

Analyzing the available data source, all the 50-years timeframes have been considered to calculate the withdrawal rates and their success percentage.

Legend:
SWR 100% Success
PWR 100% Capital Protection
Period: Jan 1871 - Mar 2025
Period: Apr 1925 - Mar 2025
Swipe left to see all data
WR (%) - Withdrawal Rate, on % Preserved Capital (Infl.Adj)
100%
Preserved		 75%
Preserved		 50%
Preserved		 25%
Preserved		 0%
Preserved
Success 100%
Worst Period (From) 		1.910
Feb 1899 		2.152
Feb 1899 		2.353
Feb 1937 		2.544
Feb 1937 		2.736
Feb 1937
95%
 2.124
 2.341
 2.548
 2.756
 2.951
90%
 2.247
 2.453
 2.671
 2.871
 3.071
80%
 2.452
 2.657
 2.858
 3.062
 3.270
50%
Median WR 		3.233
 3.390
 3.549
 3.710
 3.862
Only 1 case
Best Period (From) 		6.313
Jun 1920 		6.557
Jun 1920 		6.800
Jun 1920 		7.043
Jun 1920 		7.286
Jun 1920
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WR (%) - Withdrawal Rate, on % Preserved Capital (Infl.Adj)
100%
Preserved		 75%
Preserved		 50%
Preserved		 25%
Preserved		 0%
Preserved
Success 100%
Worst Period (From) 		1.966
Dec 1936 		2.162
Feb 1937 		2.353
Feb 1937 		2.544
Feb 1937 		2.736
Feb 1937
95%
 2.103
 2.299
 2.492
 2.695
 2.897
90%
 2.191
 2.423
 2.637
 2.825
 3.004
80%
 2.554
 2.716
 2.937
 3.124
 3.329
50%
Median WR 		3.278
 3.430
 3.580
 3.757
 3.914
Only 1 case
Best Period (From) 		4.968
Oct 1974 		5.107
Oct 1974 		5.246
Oct 1974 		5.385
Oct 1974 		5.525
Oct 1974
Simulations are calculated with actual returns of Gyroscopic Investing Desert Portfolio | Preserved capital and withdrawals are considered adjusted for inflation | Withdrawals happen monthly | Performances are calculated in USD dollars, considering reinvestment of dividends when applicable | Portfolio is rebalanced each month | Inflation is updated at March 2025

Withdrawals and Success Rate

If you had implemented a specific Withdrawal Strategy with the Gyroscopic Investing Desert Portfolio, over 50 years, which would have been the success rate so far?

Simulations follow the same rules mentioned before. Withdrawals are expressed as yearly rates and refer to the initial capital. After that, withdrawal amount is monthly adjusted for inflation.

Success rates are calculated over all 50-year timeframes available in the data source. To focus on a specific withdrawal rate, click on the links in the table.

Period: Jan 1871 - Mar 2025
Period: Apr 1925 - Mar 2025
Swipe left to see all data
Withdrawal
Rate
% Success over 50 Years
% Fail
% Success over 50 Years - on % Preserved Capital (Infl.Adj)
At least 0%
Capital Preserved		 Percentile No Capital
Preserved		 25%
Preserved 		50%
Preserved 		75%
Preserved 		100%
Preserved
2.00 %
100.00
0.00
100.00
100.00
100.00
98.64
2.50 %
100.00
100% Succ.
2.736% 		0.00
100.00
96.25
88.66
77.72
3.00 %
93.05
90% Succ.
3.071% 		6.95
84.03
71.33
64.70
60.62
3.50 %
66.37
50% Succ.
3.862% 		33.63
62.54
53.12
42.89
35.06
4.00 %
42.25
57.75
34.90
27.32
23.16
17.97
4.50 %
24.20
75.80
20.29
16.61
14.14
12.30
5.00 %
16.05
83.95
13.66
11.10
8.55
6.47
5.50 %
10.14
89.86
8.23
6.55
5.11
3.59
6.00 %
6.55
93.45
5.11
3.75
1.92
0.56
6.50 %
3.75
96.25
2.08
0.64
0.16
0.00
7.00 %
0.64
99.36
0.16
0.00
0.00
0.00
7.50 %
0.00
100.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
8.00 %
0.00
100.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
Legend: Min% of Protected Capital
Min 0%
Min 25%
Min 50%
Min 75%
Min 100%
Swipe left to see all data
Withdrawal
Rate
% Success over 50 Years
% Fail
% Success over 50 Years - on % Preserved Capital (Infl.Adj)
At least 0%
Capital Preserved		 Percentile No Capital
Preserved		 25%
Preserved 		50%
Preserved 		75%
Preserved 		100%
Preserved
2.00 %
100.00
0.00
100.00
100.00
100.00
99.17
2.50 %
100.00
100% Succ.
2.736% 		0.00
100.00
94.51
87.69
80.53
3.00 %
90.02
90% Succ.
3.004% 		9.98
83.86
77.37
73.88
68.72
3.50 %
74.38
50% Succ.
3.914% 		25.62
72.21
59.57
43.76
30.28
4.00 %
42.10
57.90
28.45
15.64
11.31
7.15
4.50 %
11.65
88.35
8.15
5.82
2.50
1.33
5.00 %
4.99
95.01
1.50
0.33
0.17
0.00
5.50 %
0.17
99.83
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
6.00 %
0.00
100.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
6.50 %
0.00
100.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
7.00 %
0.00
100.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
7.50 %
0.00
100.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
8.00 %
0.00
100.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
Legend: Min% of Protected Capital
Min 0%
Min 25%
Min 50%
Min 75%
Min 100%
Simulations are calculated with actual returns of Gyroscopic Investing Desert Portfolio | Preserved capital and withdrawals are considered adjusted for inflation | Withdrawals happen monthly | Performances are calculated in USD dollars, considering reinvestment of dividends when applicable | Portfolio is rebalanced each month | Inflation is updated at March 2025

Related Pages

Portfolio Main Page:
Gyroscopic Investing Desert Portfolio

For the Gyroscopic Investing Desert Portfolio, we have prepared a report for each available timeframe:
10-Year    20-Year    30-Year    40-Year    50-Year    60-Year    70-Year    80-Year   

if you want to learn more about the statistics of a specific withdrawal rate, we suggest these in particular:
2%    2.5%    3%    3.5%    4%    4.5%    5%   

Website Homepage:
BestRetirementPortfolio.com