I look at my imagined wine barrels and large vat every December 15, but it’s good for me to take a snapshot of what has happened since my sale of securities on December 3 for our 2019 Safe Spending Amount. (That has turned out

This is my imagined workday every December 15. I even mark this day as “Bottling Day” on my calendar. I imagine that I dress warmly for my annual work task out in our garage. The high was 46^o this year, warmer than in recent

The calculation year for Patti and me ended November 30. I sold securities the next business day – Monday, December 3 – to get our total Safe Spending Amount (SSA) for 2019 into cash. Then my portfolio took a sudden, steep hit. My stocks declined

I knew this before entering our 12-month returns ending November 30 into our calculation sheet: our Safe Spending Amount (SSA) – the amount that results in zero probability of depleting our portfolio through 2034 (Patti’s age 87) – is unchanged in spending power for 2019.