While we all want to be financially independent, retire early, and live off our investments (using some version of the 4 percent rule), we are also painfully aware that retiring at the peak of the financial markets right before a downturn or crisis can leave our financial health in a mess. This is what Sequence of Returns Risk, or Sequence Risk, does to retirement investment portfolios. And with the COVID-19 pandemic causing havoc in the financial markets this year in 2020, how do we even hope to be retiring in a pandemic and surviving Sequence of Returns Risk using a Yield Shield portfolio?

However, all the research on this retirement problem (including ours so far) has looked backwards, showing how a 4 percent rule (or more likely a less sexy 3% rule) can survive a deep downturn. What about now, during the COVID-19 pandemic that we are facing? Can we afford to