If you even have a retirement plan at all you are undoubtedly ahead of most Americans. Still, even if you have taken this important step, the question needs to be asked: is the retirement plan you have drafted viable? The author of today’s article outlines how pre-retirees can go about assessing the adequacy of their savings rate – and how…
The author of today’s article used to joke that he had “the most depressing job in America”: writing about issues surrounding retirement. In fact, he argues that no progress has been made over the last two decades in improving the retirement picture for Americans, despite a variety of new laws and financial products introduced over this period that sought to…
The market’s sequence of returns matters – having weaker returns come early in one’s life cycle (when the amount invested is smaller) and stronger returns come later in one’s life cycle (when the amount invested is much larger) puts one in a much better position going into retirement than the reverse scenario. Unfortunately, while the sequence of returns matters a…
Dipping into your 401(k), taking out a loan, or turning to high-interest credit card debt when life throws one of its unpleasant (and expensive) little surprises your way has its cost. As the author of today’s article notes, “any of these steps will set you back in growing your net worth and hinder your ability to reach your goals.” Thus…
There are many actions (and inactions) that can wreck retirement plans. As such, while the author of today’s article acknowledges that the $1 million figure frequently cited as how much one needs to amass for a comfortable retirement may be arbitrary, he stresses that “what is not arbitrary is it takes discipline and it requires avoiding mistakes and pitfalls to…
Despite renewed strength in – and interest in owning – gold, the author of today’s article believes that few people have a good understanding of why the precious metal behaves the way it does – and thus what role (if any) it has to play in an investment portfolio. As such, he proceeds to examine the case for and against…
With the average life expectancy in the U.S. approaching 80 years, the long-advised strategy of shifting away from riskier (but higher-returning) assets like stocks and towards safer (but lower-returning) assets like bonds as you near retirement is not without its own risk: the risk of running out of money. The trick to navigating this risk/reward quandary, according to today’s article,…
Which is the better choice for retirees (or any other income investor): building a portfolio of individual dividend stocks or buying a dividend exchange-traded fund? The author of today’s article argues that, “while total return is certainly a very important consideration, there are a number of other factors that can swing the decision one way or the other” – and…
What’s more important (and therefore which should you be focusing on more): saving or investing? The answer, according to the author of today’s article, is that it depends. Specifically, the author outlines how the answer to this question depends on where you are in your investment life cycle. What simple calculation does the author suggest for determining whether you should…
When it comes to determining how much to spend from a retirement portfolio each year, the author of today’s article states that, while there is no perfect strategy, “there are many perfectly fine spending strategies. So the goal is to understand the pros and cons of each strategy, then pick the one that suits you and move on with your…