(ignore the last two lines in the original suggestion, sorry)

I see a related Discord discussion about this here:

https://discord.com/channels/869222901054857216/1039270706174767125

After looking through it, I think the existence of the Flex Spending and Discretionary Spending features provide a basis for continued consideration of what this might look like.

I agree that it won’t always be clear what it means to apply a WS to PL plan, but I think for the cases of the WS that are currently available, it’s clear enough. The Flex Spending mode provides a natural point of integration.

I think to help clarify incompatibilities, it would be useful to make policy/strategy success criteria more explicit (and separate them from what it means for any particular instance of a policy application to success). Right now, the only a PL “plan policy” metric is essentially “% of times you don’t run out of money before you reach a preset age.” But it could just as easily be “% of times I reached Milestone X” or “minimal net worth never drops below Y” or any complex combination of things which only a user can set because it’s completely subjective. Users can evaluate that themselves using the Monte Carlo summary output, but it could also be defined and tracked.

Similarly, a WS has an implicit “strategy” or “policy” level design metric in mind. If we make it explicit, perhaps it will make incompatibilities more clear and reconcilable.

Ultimately any black-box oracle function that I can wire into my plan that helps improve success rate is a tremendous gain.

WS mode’s purpose is to satisfy those who are looking for textbook withdrawal strategies.

WS mode is and probably will continue to be an orthogonal planning mode, that doesn’t naturally blend well with your planned spending. PL’s core simulation engine is already much more elaborate than a typical withdrawal strategy. So for folks wanting more nuanced handling, starting with a WS seems like we’re tying one hand behind our back.

I suppose PL could consider authoring its own specialized withdrawal strategy, that works differently from every other strategy. But I don’t think we would want to do this under the guise of a WS mode at all. I think that might muddy the waters and confuse those who expect Withdrawal Strategies to represent the academic/canonical strategies they’re familiar with.

I suspect what you’re getting at here may be better served with enhanced Drawdown Mechanics, and possibly OTHER Flex Spending rules as discussed here. https://discord.com/channels/869222901054857216/1430839677325279322/1430839677325279322