Is the 4% rule too stingy for your retirement? Try spending 5%.

The 4% rule of retirement puts you on an austere budget in your leisure years. Even if you save a million dollars, the 4% formula allows you to spend only $40,000 of your money in the first year.

But what if we said you could spend 5%? Or even 5.7%?

Investment researchers have been playing around with the 4% rule, looking for ways that retirees can safely spend more than four cents on every retirement dollar.

In a December paper, Morningstar suggests tweaks to the 4% rule that allow retirees to spend a larger share of their savings every year without running out of cash.

We’ll get to the tweaks shortly. First, though, let’s revisit the 4% rule and how it works.