Great idea for a board! It will be good to focus on the retirement years instead of the accumulation years.

March 31, 2001 is our target. (611 days, but who's counting.) We've both worked in the corporate world since the sixties and have had enough. We'll be in our mid fifties.

I've been a saver and investor my whole life. Early in 1998 I pulled our accounts from Merrill Lynch and went to Waterhouse. I always had played an active role in selecting my own investments, but had also gotten some good advice from my ML broker, Chrurnum Quick. In the later years, however, he had gotten lazy and just pushed mutual funds. Bye, bye Mr. Quick.

Currently I manage about half of our invested assets myself, the other half is still in 401k's and the like with our employers. Most of the latter is underperforming, but that will change in a year or two.

Of the money I manage myself, I keep about 20% in S&P500 index funds (VFINX and SPY.) About 30% is in RP4, about 20% in large cap growth stocks, 20% in mechanical strategies, and 10% in small caps. I stay fully invested at all times. Any loose cash gets put into SPY's or VFINX.

I've thought a bit about withdrawl strategies, and look forward to discussing them here.

Cheers!
GW