<oembed><type>rich</type><version>1.0</version><title>Trey wrote</title><author_name>Trey (npub1m6…ue2p9)</author_name><author_url>https://nostr.now/npub1m6y9qq06c74trgs60ya320pgmhz6099grra5lw04akyuxvcz7lvq9ue2p9</author_url><provider_name>njump</provider_name><provider_url>https://nostr.now</provider_url><html>I stress tested a $1.5 million bitcoin portfolio through the worst bear markets in BTC history. Even at 100% bitcoin with an 80% drawdown, the portfolio still supported $112K per year in spending over a 30-year retirement.&#xA;&#xA;The traditional 4% rule was built for stocks and bonds with 55% max drawdowns. Bitcoin routinely drops 75-85%. That scares people away from using it as a primary retirement asset, and I get why — watching your portfolio lose three-quarters of its value while you need to pay rent is a different kind of stress test than anything the Trinity Study modeled.&#xA;&#xA;But the expected returns change the equation entirely. At 25% annualized growth versus 10% for stocks, bitcoin recovers from those drawdowns on a completely different timeline. The key insight from running the numbers: what kills you isn&#39;t the drawdown itself, it&#39;s being forced to sell bitcoin at the bottom to cover expenses.&#xA;&#xA;A 75/25 bitcoin-to-stocks split gave 76% more spending headroom than needed. Not because stocks outperform — they don&#39;t — but because having something to sell first gives bitcoin time to recover. The non-bitcoin allocation is insurance, and like all insurance, it has a cost. You give up enormous upside in the 95% of scenarios where you don&#39;t catch terrible timing.&#xA;&#xA;The real safety net isn&#39;t a perfect allocation. It&#39;s flexibility — part-time income, geographic arbitrage, or simply coasting through the drawdown with zero withdrawals for a year.&#xA;&#xA;I built a bear market stress test into the FIRE BTC Compass and broke down the full analysis https://firebtc.io/p/surviving-the-bear?utm_source=social&amp;utm_campaign=surviving-the-bear</html></oembed>