I recently FIREd, and am enjoying every minute of it. I thank this (migrated?) community for their stories, struggles, successes, and wisdom. Adaptation to a life of FIRE has been pretty easy, except for one thing. Prior to FIREing, I kept a close eye on my portfolio, the markets, and everything financial. As you know, if you’re driven to FIRE, it takes a bit of effort to keep things fresh in your portfolio. To some, managing your own portfolio can be a hobby, or other form of enjoyment. Not me. I get no joy in monitoring the markets. I would now prefer to focus on living and not financial management. Question: do you have any suggestions on the best way to put a portfolio on autopilot? What I’m seeking is something bot-like that monitors my holdings, applies a variety of policies, and alerts me when action is needed. Some factors:
- I’ve looked at managed account options. They all seem to be pricy offering little in return. This option seems viable to those with > $10M.
- I’m reluctant to go with “target” funds. They don’t seem to be very efficient, and are not at all tunable.
- There seem to be some promising software packages out there that go beyond mere monitoring.
- I don’t think ChatGPT is quite ready for this task :).
I mean, if you’ve been FIRE’d a few years, you’ve lived at/below your SWR rate, and your portfolio has grown at all, you’re pretty much past the worst of the SORR. Leave your bonds (if applicable) in a bond index fund and your stocks in VTSAX or similar.
If I met the above conditions, I’m setting my portfolio to < 5% bonds, turning off reinvesting dividends, and then the only thing really left to do is withdraw monthly, quarterly, twice a year, or annually to meet your spending needs and/or target income level for healthcare subsidies or whatever.
Maybe it’s more complex then that (can’t speak from experience) but there isn’t really a ton to do. Live your life.
Can’t edit from the Mlem app at the moment, but just to be clear — don’t rebalance stocks/bonds in retirement if it’s going to trigger pointless capital gains taxes. Just withdraw in such a way to reach the ratio you want in time.
Why turn off reinvesting dividends?