Robert Brokamp

speaker

4,580 appearances 41 recordings 3 series first heard Oct 2025 last heard 2d ago

Robert Brokamp’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 41 in all, peaking in Sep 2026 with 5.

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Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing · The Father of the 4% Rule Says Retirees Can Take Out Much More · 25 Jul 2026 podcast

Over the subsequent three decades, Mr. Bangan has done a lot of additional research, which he has summarized in his excellent new book, A Richer Retirement, Supercharging the 4% Rule to Spend More and Enjoy More.

Bill, welcome to Motley Fool Money.

Hey, thanks for inviting me.

I'm looking forward to it.

We're looking forward to it.

Let's start with a little bit of your history.

You got a degree in aeronautics and astronautics from MIT, but instead of working in the space industry, you joined a family-owned soda bottling business and eventually became the president.

The company was sold in 1987, and you started a whole new career in your 40s as a financial planner.

So what led you to the financial planning profession and then eventually your research into withdrawal rates?

And then from there, you had to determine, a lot of your clients were boomers, not quite yet in retirement, but getting close.

I'm sure they asked you, all right, how much can I spend in retirement?

You looked for an answer and you couldn't find one.

So you fired up your Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet, bought some data, figured it out, and your initial research found that the safe maximum withdrawal rate, which you call the safe max, was 4.15%.

Then you moved it up to 4.5% after doing additional research that you published in a book in 2006.

So it's been above 4% really since the beginning, yet the term 4% rule has stuck.

It is now widely referenced.

So what was it like to see your research become so well known, but also be given a name that's kind of outdated and doesn't really quite capture all the nuance and depth to your research?

So with your recent research, you have moved up the safe max to 4.7%.

What are the biggest factors that have resulted in your increasing the number over the years?

As you point out, the safe max of 4.7% is it's almost like a worst case scenario.

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