Week 10 of Rebel Finance School tackles the question that matters most once you’ve built your wealth: how do you actually live off it without running out? Alan and Katie Donegan walk you through the maths of drawdown — how much you can safely withdraw each year, how inflation erodes your spending power over time, and why the order your returns arrive in (sequence of returns risk) can matter more than the returns themselves.

They cover the role bonds play in smoothing that risk, how to think about asset allocation as you approach and enter retirement, and — crucially — how building flexibility into your plan protects you from worst-case scenarios without requiring you to hoard cash or live in fear of market crashes.

By the end, you’ll:
• Understand how drawdown works and how to calculate a sustainable withdrawal rate
• Know what sequence-of-returns risk is and why the first few years of retirement matter most
• Have practical strategies to protect your portfolio — including bonds, cash buffers, and flexible spending
• Know how to adjust your asset allocation across different life stages
• Be able to retire confidently without obsessing over market conditions

This video is part of the free 10-week Rebel Finance School course. For the accompanying notes, spreadsheets, and bonus material, sign up here: https://rebeldonegans.com/finance/rfs/

Join the Facebook group for friendly support from like-minded people: https://www.facebook.com/groups/rebelfinance

What did you think of the course? Please tell us so we can improve it for future Rebels (and you if you decide to repeat the course in the future!): https://forms.gle/rjo8BFwjiZsGDRjf9

This video is part of the free 10-week Rebel Finance School course. For the accompanying notes, spreadsheets, and bonus material, sign up here: https://rebeldonegans.com/finance/rfs/

Join the Facebook group for friendly support from like-minded people: https://www.facebook.com/groups/rebelfinance

Details

Monday 3 August. 8pm UK time

Joining instructions

YouTube: https://youtube.com/live/xVo3zW8ci40

Click on the link and press “Notify me” for YouTube to remind you when we go live, OR click the “Add to calendar” button below, and the special time zone elves will do their magic and pop it into your calendar at the right time.