My recent article on the Financial Independence, Retire Early (“FIRE”) movement and some of the unrealistic assumptions baked into the model elicited a great deal of comment. The original article is available here but the basic premise was that applying the 4% rule or 25 times annual living expenses to an extended retirement period could be problematic.

One of the most common queries was what I thought about an extended retirement on the income generated by a portfolio. The basic premise is building a portfolio of income producing shares, living off the dividends and never selling the shares. This eliminates the risk of running out of money. That risk – called longevity risk – is outliving your money during a retirement of an…