Permanent Portfolio: 60-year retirement

Last Update: 29 February 2024

Do you have in mind a 60 years retirement, investing in the Harry Browne Permanent Portfolio?

Worst case scenario so far, over a 60-year time horizon, you could have withdrawn 2.193% of your initial capital each year, kept withdrawing all the time (adjusting for inflation), and you wouldn't have run out of money before 60 years.

With a 4% withdrawal strategy, you would have lived on your investiment for 60 years in the 22.43% of cases. In the 10.1% 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 60 years of the Harry Browne Permanent Portfolio

Over the last 60 years (last update: February 2024), the portfolio has returned 7.65% annualized, with a maximum drawdown of -16.38%.

A safe withdrawal rate would have been 3.668%.

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 Feb 2024
Withdrawal Rate (%)
Investment Performances
Timeframe Period from Period to Perpetual Safe Ann.Return(%)
[ Infl.Adj. ]
Max
Drawdown(%)
60 Years 1 Mar 1964
29 Feb 2024 3.227 3.668 7.65
[ 3.59 ]
-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 February 2024

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 Feb 2024)

How much would it be an acceptable withdrawal rate, for the Harry Browne Permanent Portfolio?

Analyzing the available data source, all the 60-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 - Feb 2024
Period: Mar 1924 - Feb 2024
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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)
1.635
Feb 1937
1.775
Feb 1937
1.914
Feb 1937
2.054
Feb 1937
2.193
Feb 1937
95%
1.782
1.939
2.088
2.246
2.397
90%
1.824
1.999
2.182
2.351
2.526
80%
1.956
2.135
2.307
2.486
2.662
50%
Median WR
2.687
2.849
3.022
3.185
3.341
Only 1 case
Best Period (From)
5.491
Feb 1873
5.621
Feb 1873
5.751
Feb 1873
5.882
Feb 1873
6.018
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)
1.635
Feb 1937
1.775
Feb 1937
1.914
Feb 1937
2.054
Feb 1937
2.193
Feb 1937
95%
1.786
1.915
2.041
2.171
2.303
90%
1.832
1.969
2.101
2.233
2.367
80%
1.979
2.118
2.267
2.415
2.559
50%
Median WR
2.930
3.040
3.160
3.274
3.392
Only 1 case
Best Period (From)
3.570
Mar 1924
3.755
Mar 1924
3.940
Mar 1924
4.125
Mar 1924
4.313
May 1924
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 February 2024

Withdrawals and Success Rate

If you had implemented a specific Withdrawal Strategy with the Harry Browne Permanent Portfolio, over 60 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 60-year timeframes available in the data source. To focus on a specific withdrawal rate, click on the links in the table.

Period: Jan 1871 - Feb 2024
Period: Mar 1924 - Feb 2024
Swipe left to see all data
Withdrawal
Rate
% Success over 60 Years
% Fail
% Success over 60 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.
2.193%
0.00
100.00
98.93
89.99
74.98
2.50 %
91.24
90% Succ.
2.526%
8.76
79.27
63.18
58.89
56.03
3.00 %
59.70
50% Succ.
3.341%
40.30
56.75
51.12
46.02
41.11
3.50 %
40.75
59.25
33.96
27.97
23.59
18.05
4.00 %
22.43
77.57
17.96
14.03
11.17
10.10
4.50 %
10.99
89.01
10.01
9.29
8.40
7.69
5.00 %
7.95
92.05
6.79
5.90
4.56
3.84
5.50 %
4.11
95.89
3.13
1.43
0.63
0.00
6.00 %
0.18
99.82
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%
Swipe left to see all data
Withdrawal
Rate
% Success over 60 Years
% Fail
% Success over 60 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.
2.193%
0.00
100.00
97.51
87.94
79.83
2.50 %
83.58
80% Succ.
2.559%
16.42
76.09
69.02
66.11
65.90
3.00 %
65.49
50% Succ.
3.392%
34.51
64.24
58.63
53.01
43.45
3.50 %
39.09
60.91
27.23
14.76
7.07
1.25
4.00 %
5.82
94.18
1.87
0.00
0.00
0.00
4.50 %
0.00
100.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
5.00 %
0.00
100.00
0.00
0.00
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 February 2024

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