Retirement and portfolio research.

Original simulation studies from the people building the engine. Every article states its method, uses seeded runs that reproduce, and reports the trade-off rather than only the headline.

We run these simulations to answer questions we had about our own plans, then publish what came out — including when the result is inconvenient. Method, path counts and assumptions are stated in each piece.

New here? The retirement planning guide pulls all of it together in reading order, and the glossary defines the vocabulary as it comes up.

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Retirement withdrawals

Safe Withdrawal Rates by Retirement Age: 30 to 50 Year Horizons

The 4% rule is a 30-year sentence. We ran rigid and Guyton-Klinger policies across 30-, 35-, 40-, 45- and 50-year horizons on 200 seeded paths.

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Monte Carlo & projections

How Many Monte Carlo Simulations Are Enough?

A success rate is a binomial proportion. Here is the standard error at 100, 1,000, 5,000 and 10,000 paths, and which integer Killion actually runs.

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Monte Carlo & projections

Monte Carlo vs Historical Backtesting in Retirement Plans

History asks whether a plan survived the actual past. Simulation asks how often it survives in a world the model believes in. Killion runs both.

Painterly dusk landscape: an enormous moon rising over jagged rock spires and an autumn-orange valley.
Monte Carlo & projections

Does Monte Carlo Overstate Retirement Success?

Yes, when the market model is too gentle or the household is too obedient. A 90% from independent annual draws is not a 90% from a regime-switching engine.

Painterly dawn scene: a small boat carrying a lone figure drifts across calm water through a narrow passage between towering, mist-shrouded forested cliffs.
Retirement withdrawals

Is the 4% Rule Still Safe? We Ran 5,000 Simulated Retirements

The 4% rule sounds settled. We ran flexible and rigid withdrawal policies through 5,000 identical market lifetimes to see what "safe" actually means, and what it costs.

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Investing costs

What a 1% Investment Fee Really Costs Over 40 Years

One percent sounds trivial. We simulated 5,000 forty-year saving lifetimes at 0%, 0.5%, and 1% fee drag to measure what that annual charge actually removes at the finish line.

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Sequence of returns risk

Sequence of Returns Risk: What If the Market Crashes the Year You Retire?

The same market crash is a footnote at 48 and a crisis at 65. A look at sequence of returns risk, and why a crash the year you retire does the most damage.

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Strategy comparison

Which Investing Strategy Wins? Six Strategies Benchmarked on the Same Markets

Everyone has a favorite investing strategy. We ran six through 5,000 identical market lifetimes — same household, same markets — to see which actually wins.

Painterly dusk landscape: an enormous moon rising over jagged rock spires and an autumn-orange valley, with a lone figure on a path in the foreground.
Monte Carlo & projections

Monte Carlo Simulation in Personal Finance: Why Projections Fall Short

Monte Carlo simulation is the gap between a financial projection and a real plan. We ran one household through Killion’s full simulation engine to show why the odds, not the number, are what you actually plan against.

Painterly dusk scene of people climbing a hillside path toward a monumental cantilevered modern structure.
Investing behavior

Timing the Market vs Staying Invested: 40 Years of S&P 500 Evidence

Timing the market can win on paper. Here is what forty years of real S&P 500 returns say about why staying invested almost always wins in practice.