At the end of the ten years, the stock/bond portfolio is worth $148,820 compared to $90,961 for the fixed income strategy. More importantly, it has maintained its purchasing power ? it's worth $110,736 in constant dollars. Even after adjusting for inflation, the account has 10.7% more purchasing power than it did when the strategy was launched. The important point to note is that the total return approach to investing still allows you to take a full annual withdrawal even in years when the market declined or did not return as much as the withdrawal rate. I used the 60/40 portfolio mix in the example because SMI recommends it for investors with five or less years until retirement assuming you can emotionally accept the risk.
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