Managing withdrawals and understanding the tax implications is critical to retirement success.

That’s why I'm sharing a new tax planning guide with you today.

This (free!) guide covers:

• Which withdrawal/income sources are subject to certain types of taxation (e.g., federal, state, NIIT, etc.)
• Which withdrawal/income sources may have additional penalties
• Important planning nuances to be aware of regarding specific withdrawal sources
• Whether certain withdrawal/income sources increase your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI)

With this info, you'll ensure you're pulling from the right sources (at the right time!), minimizing tax impacts, and maximizing retirement success.

Grab the free guide 👇

​The 2024 Taxation Guide To Withdrawals & Income Sources​

Recurring Themes

Week after week, I regularly share three core thoughts with you:

1. We don't know what will happen next in the market
2. We are long-term investors who, not surprisingly, focus on the long-term
3. We stay the course

Given these recurring themes, I thought I’d bring these ideas together today.

You'll notice that they are more interconnected than you may have realized.

To start, let’s look at the data.

More specifically, let's look at the probability of earning a positive return in the market:

As you can see, the shorter the time frame, the more of a coin flip the outcome will be.

Naturally, this illustrates the foolishness of short-term market predictions.

While media pundits routinely profess certainty about the future, Warren Buffett leaves no room for misinterpretation:

Buffett has echoed this thought throughout his illustrious career.

This being the case, all investors should ask themselves:

If one of the greatest investors admits that he can’t forecast the market, why should we listen to anyone who says they can?

Since we can't possibly know the future, we have to plan accordingly by setting resources aside to ensure near-term needs are met regardless of market conditions.

Now, as we extend our time horizon, the probability of a positive outcome begins to tilt heavily in our favor.

Not that the market is ever predictable per se, but the odds are incredibly high that good things will happen the longer that we hold our assets.

Thus, it is not blind optimism that fuels our preference for owning the world’s great companies over the long run, but the historical data.

Investing legend Cliff Asness had this to say about the value of maintaining a long-term focus:

As you can imagine, I wholeheartedly agree.

Now for a quick review of these first two tenets:

1. We recognize the unpredictability of the near-term market, so we safeguard the assets needed in the near term.
2. For longer-term goals, we focus on investing in the world’s great companies because they have, over extended periods, offered highly probable and favorable returns.

Again, all of history gives us confidence that this balanced approach is the prudent approach.

Lastly, to fully realize the potential long-term returns that an equity portfolio has to offer, we must stay committed to holding our portfolio through both good and bad markets.

This commitment is summed up in our third recurring theme:

Staying the course.

Charlie Munger expressed the value of this theme as succinctly as I ever could:

The S&P 500 (U.S. Stock Market) has grown from a price of 17 in 1950 to a value of ~5,800 today 🤯

This shows the undeniable value of the perpetual ownership of a diversified portfolio of great companies.

Staying the course through thick and thin to earn that return requires a long-term perspective, discipline, and patience...

...three things that are in short supply in our increasingly short-term world.

I share this with you today because I recognize how contradictory it may seem to be perpetually optimistic about the future while openly acknowledging our ignorance of what might happen next.

To staying the course (and staying 'wealthy'),

Taylor Schulte, CFP®