Bill Bengen, a financial planner, forged an industry standard in 1994 for thinking about “safe” withdrawal rates for investment portfolios during retirement. His so-called 4% rule provided a quantitative framework for what had been mostly ad-hoc analysis up to that point. In a recent book, the father of the 4% rule has updated his research and now estimates that a safe withdrawal rate is higher than he originally reported.
Daily Archives: December 5, 2025
Macro Briefing: 5 December 2025
US weekly jobless claims fell to the lowest level in over three years last week. The Thanksgiving holiday is probably a factor that’s distorting the data, but recent updates suggest that layoffs remain muted. “The labor market is kind of frozen,” said Kathy Bostjancic, chief economist at Nationwide. “Companies are in wait-and-see mode.”
