What is the best strategy for retirement spending? Clearly, calculations of the implications of different strategies will be easier and simpler if the complications of pensions, taxes and government transfers can be ignored (as much of the literature now does). What is the cost of such simplification? How much might retirees, their advisors and researchers expect to go wrong in specifying the preferred strategy, if pensions, taxes and transfers are ignored? More specifically, does including them in analysis alter the ranking of commonly advocated alternative drawdown strategies?