The 4% rule is intended to account for inflation. I.e., it expects the growth in nominal dollars to be greater than 4%. See also https://www.firecalc.com/ http

The 4% rule is intended to account for inflation. I.e., it expects the growth in nominal dollars to be greater than 4%. See also https://www.firecalc.com/ https://www.firecalc.com/ which will simulate over every market condition that has occurred so far.