Enter the family password
Change any number below — the graph and results update instantly. Your changes are saved on this device automatically. The first year is flat: growth and inflation start the following year.
The budget. Plan on spending about $35,000 a year. Social Security covers roughly $20,000 of that, so the gap you need from savings is about $15,000 a year (a nice round number).
The spending cash — VMFXX. VMFXX is Vanguard's federal money market fund. It works like a savings account inside the brokerage: it doesn't move in price, it just pays interest. Keep about $15,000 (one year's gap) in it, and draw from it during the year whenever Social Security isn't enough. This is the only account you touch month to month.
The next years' cash — IBTH. IBTH is an iShares "iBonds" fund: a basket of 1-year US Treasury bonds that matures each December and automatically turns into cash in the account — nothing needs to be sold. Keep $30,000 (two years' gap) here, earning a bit more than VMFXX. Together with VMFXX that's a $45,000 safety bucket — three years of gap money.
Once a year, in January: refill VMFXX back to $15,000 from the matured IBTH cash, reinvest the rest into IBTH, and sell enough VOO to bring the bucket back to $45,000. One transaction day per year. If stocks had a bad year, we can skip the VOO sale — the bucket holds three years of gap money exactly for that reason.
The Roths just grow. No new contributions, no withdrawals — they're the long-term reserve and emergency money.