kcowan wrote:The volatility of that RRB performance really reinforces the need to stay the course!
Well, that's one way to look at it, but not a recommended one.
If you had a systematic-withdrawal-rate (SWR) of 4% real starting today, with real-return rates of, say, 0.64%, your all-real-return-bond portfolio would be expected to decline by 3.36% per year (along with your real income, i might add). Your portfolio - and your real income - would be expected to have declined by about 40% after 15 years.
Now, after a few years of real-life experience with that, you could be brave and decide to "stay the course", expecting the bond prices to soar to compensate you for your discipline and perseverance, but good luck with that. There is a lot less room for that with real-returns at 0.64% than there was at 4.00%...
Not that real-return bonds don't play a role in a portfolio, but looking at that historical volatility in isolation to the current real-return rates is misleading.