What is Withdrawal Strategy mode?

Withdrawal Strategy mode can be found in the “more” tab in the Plan interface, and it can be used to explore how a variety of classic withdrawal strategies would play out starting at a certain year or milestone in your plan, e.g. Initial Percentage, Ratcheting Safe Withdrawal Rate, Variable Percentage Withdrawal (VPW), Guyton-Klinger, etc.

However, something important to keep in mind about WS mode is that it is orthogonal to the normal planning experience in PL. The withdrawal strategy you select will override most of the normal events in your plan (e.g. expenses, asset purchases, etc.) starting at the year you choose, so you can explore how the “textbook” strategy would compare to your actual plan (which may have no relation to the strategy, or perhaps be utterly incompatible).

This is important to understand, so that you don’t find yourself wondering, “hey I thought I modeled X, why is it not occuring?”

For most new users who are just learning the tool, it’s best to leave Withdrawal Strategy mode disabled and build a normal plan instead, where drawdown is computed automatically based on what is needed to cover the obligations defined in your plan.

For more details, check out this thread on Discord.