Tapering drawdown: - frontloaded whilst still young

Triumph13

I have no problems with the plan to take the DB early in this case as it still leaves the OP with 'enough' income and so burning through capital to increase an already sufficient guaranteed income may well not make sense for some people.
The big un-addressed question would seem to be would the OP's wife have 'enough' if he predeceases her? This could definitely be an issue if they have already blown all the DC funds having fun. It looks like she's already taken the AR hit on her DB which may be unfortunate. Using some of the DC funds to defer her SP for a few years may make sense to equalise the positions a little after first death.
As to the whole issue of planning to spend more early on, I think that depends a lot on how you are planning to spend it. Generally living high off the hog would probably be a very bad plan and lead to a grumpy old age. Spending on a few big one-offs eg trip-of-a-lifetime adventures whilst leaving your general standard of living at a sustainable level doesn't seem so bad.

NeilC1965

Triumph13 wrote: »

The big un-addressed question would seem to be would the OP's wife have 'enough' if he predeceases her? This could definitely be an issue if they have already blown all the DC funds having fun. It looks like she's already taken the AR hit on her DB which may be unfortunate. Using some of the DC funds to defer her SP for a few years may make sense to equalise the positions a little after first death.

Well , my wife would have her db + 1/2 my db + state + plus any dc remaining = approx 25k pa + remaining dc. She is more than happy with this as she also has an inheritance which she plans to use to supplement her retirement should she need to.