Last Update: 30 April 2025

Do you have in mind a 50 years retirement, investing in the Harry Browne Permanent Portfolio?

Worst case scenario so far, over a 50-year time horizon, you could have withdrawn 2.354% of your initial capital each year, kept withdrawing all the time (adjusting for inflation), and you wouldn't have run out of money before 50 years.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 32.48% of cases. In the 11.41% 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 Harry Browne Permanent Portfolio

Over the last 50 years (last update: April 2025), the portfolio has returned 7.87% annualized, with a maximum drawdown of -16.38%.

A safe withdrawal rate would have been 4.539%.

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 Apr 2025
Withdrawal Rate (%)
Investment Performances
Timeframe Period from Period to Perpetual Safe Ann.Return(%)
[ Infl.Adj. ]		 Max
Drawdown(%)
50 Years 1 May 1975
 30 Apr 2025 3.916 4.539 7.87
[ 4.05 ] 		-16.38
Jan 2022 - Sep 2022
Simulations are calculated with actual returns of Harry Browne Permanent 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 April 2025

For a complete view of the portfolio and all the possible strategies, please refer to Harry Browne Permanent Portfolio page.

Withdrawal Rates Simulation (updated at Apr 2025)

How much would it be an acceptable withdrawal rate, for the Harry Browne Permanent 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 - Apr 2025
Period: May 1925 - Apr 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) 		1.526
Feb 1936 		1.737
Dec 1936 		1.945
Dec 1936 		2.152
Feb 1937 		2.354
Feb 1937
95%
 1.649
 1.877
 2.125
 2.383
 2.617
90%
 1.751
 2.006
 2.262
 2.509
 2.765
80%
 1.938
 2.179
 2.434
 2.689
 2.921
50%
Median WR 		2.903
 3.088
 3.280
 3.483
 3.684
Only 1 case
Best Period (From) 		5.384
Mar 1873 		5.667
Mar 1873 		5.950
Mar 1873 		6.241
Feb 1873 		6.553
Mar 1871
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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) 		1.526
Feb 1936 		1.737
Dec 1936 		1.945
Dec 1936 		2.152
Feb 1937 		2.354
Feb 1937
95%
 1.609
 1.840
 2.064
 2.270
 2.474
90%
 1.679
 1.906
 2.130
 2.380
 2.604
80%
 2.048
 2.246
 2.447
 2.648
 2.848
50%
Median WR 		2.957
 3.162
 3.348
 3.542
 3.746
Only 1 case
Best Period (From) 		4.807
Jul 1970 		4.939
Jul 1970 		5.070
Jul 1970 		5.202
Jul 1970 		5.334
Jul 1970
Simulations are calculated with actual returns of Harry Browne Permanent 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 April 2025

Withdrawals and Success Rate

If you had implemented a specific Withdrawal Strategy with the Harry Browne Permanent 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 - Apr 2025
Period: May 1925 - Apr 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
100% Succ.
2.354% 		0.00
100.00
99.20
90.42
76.94
2.50 %
97.05
95% Succ.
2.617% 		2.95
90.42
76.30
64.80
61.37
3.00 %
75.34
24.66
64.41
61.21
54.19
45.65
3.50 %
59.54
50% Succ.
3.684% 		40.46
49.32
39.35
30.73
24.10
4.00 %
32.48
67.52
27.61
20.51
15.00
11.41
4.50 %
20.03
79.97
13.89
11.01
8.70
6.23
5.00 %
9.66
90.34
8.46
5.91
3.99
2.08
5.50 %
6.70
93.30
4.87
2.79
0.80
0.00
6.00 %
3.35
96.65
1.36
0.00
0.00
0.00
6.50 %
0.40
99.60
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%
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
100% Succ.
2.354% 		0.00
100.00
98.34
85.69
80.87
2.50 %
93.84
90% Succ.
2.604% 		6.16
84.03
78.70
72.71
68.55
3.00 %
74.71
25.29
72.38
69.05
59.73
48.42
3.50 %
68.39
50% Succ.
3.746% 		31.61
53.58
37.77
22.30
15.14
4.00 %
24.13
75.87
16.31
9.32
7.15
5.66
4.50 %
8.65
91.35
4.83
4.33
2.16
1.33
5.00 %
1.50
98.50
1.00
0.17
0.00
0.00
5.50 %
0.00
100.00
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 Harry Browne Permanent 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 April 2025

Related Pages

Portfolio Main Page:
Harry Browne Permanent Portfolio

For the Harry Browne Permanent 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