Important Note: The MyBucketSystem is designed as an aid for helping estimate the retirement income that an investment portfolio may provide.

1. The returns presented in the 4 Buckets are estimates of potential returns based on long-term historical returns. Past performance is no guarantee of future results
2. The returns for the 4 Buckets include the reinvestment of dividends and other earnings.
3. The returns for the 4 Buckets are presented gross of any fees or trade costs.
4. The impact of advisory fees or any other costs to invest have not been calculated, but the returns will be lower to the extent of advisory fees and other costs.
5. All portfolio holdings in the 4 Buckets have the possibility of loss.

The following methodology was used to design the returns for MyBucketSystem:
The goal of the MyBucketSystem was to set a target of withdrawing less than 5% from the portfolio on a yearly basis. Certified Financial Planning studies have shown that if a client withdraws less than 5% of the portfolio during retirement they have a high probability of not running out of money. The MyBucketSystem withdrawal rate is 4.8%.

The Buckets are designed to have the following investments:
Bucket 1- Short-Term Bonds and Bills & Cash.
Bucket 2- Mid-Term Bonds.
Bucket 3- Long-Term Bonds & Preferred Stock.
Bucket 4- Stocks & Equities

The rates of returns for each bucket were selected based on the data listed below:
Bucket 1- Over the past 20 years, Short-Term Bonds and Bills have averaged 4.0% or more. We used 1.5% to be conservative.
Bucket 2- Over the past 20 years, Mid-Term Bonds have averaged 5.0% or more. We used 3%.
Bucket 3- Over the past 20 years, Long-Term Bonds have averaged 5.5% or more, but preferred stocks have averaged 7% or more. Therefore, we took a blended rate to come up with 5%.
Bucket 4- Stocks have averaged between 9.5%-10.5% since 1929 depending on the type of stocks(Large, Mid & Small). We wanted to be more conservative, so we used 8.5%. Our 8.5% includes the dividends from the stocks.