While many investors re-balance their portfolios back toward strategic benchmarks on a calendar basis, the author of today’s article advises that an unscheduled re-balancing may be in order now as the coronavirus-driven market turbulence of the last several weeks has thrown the composition of portfolios out of whack: “Sharp equity selloffs and government bond yield declines have mechanically turned many…
What is the more important investment decision when it comes to your retirement portfolio: asset allocation (how much to allocate to various asset classes) or security selection (which specific securities to purchase to fulfill your asset allocation)? For many investors – and retirement planners – the answer has long been the latter (security selection), but a new study suggests that…
When it comes to the ultimate size of your retirement nest egg, the author of today’s article notes that “Calculating future savings requires numerous factors, including current age and predicted retirement age, any current assets, how the portfolio is invested and at what rate a person can realistically expect that money to grow.” And it’s this latter factor – the…
Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders may or may not become president. And Democrats’ chances of taking complete control of Congress appear slim. Still, the author of today’s article expresses concern that “If the Dems take over, the top federal bracket goes to 50%, the cap on payroll taxes goes away and dividends and capital gains lose their favorable rates. Would…
“If you follow rich people, you’ll notice that they never actually sell any assets – they instead use them to generate more and more cash flow. We can – and should – do the same,” argues the author of today’s article – who proceeds to highlight five dividend paying (and dividend growing) stocks that have meaningful (above 5%) yields today…
Once only an option for the very wealthy, Self-Directed Individual Retirement Accounts (SDIRAs) – where the account holder controls the account’s investments (and those investments can include a wide array of choices beyond just stocks and bonds) – are now entering the mainstream as more people look to alternative assets to help secure their golden years. Could an SDIRA be…
The retirement financing strategy highlighted in today’s article is sometimes referred to as “safety first” – a notion that may be taking on even greater importance for retirement savers in light of recent market gyrations. The strategy in question is the “floor-and-upside” strategy, where “the basic idea…is that a retiree devotes some of her retirement funding assets to building a…
Is 2.6 the new 4? When it comes to your financial plan’s safe withdrawal rate in the low-return environment that many institutions are forecasting for traditional asset classes going forward, that may be the case. However, rather than just accepting lower withdrawal rates, there may be things investors can do to overcome this situation. Today’s article offers a number of…
According to the American College of Financial Services, Americans are not particularly knowledgeable about how to preserve their accumulated assets and create sustainable streams of income in retirement. As such, the central question of today’s article is “How do you convert your nest egg into a stream of retirement income that lasts as long as you do?” The author outlines…
How much do you need to save for retirement? In what order should you fund various retirement savings vehicles? What insurance policies will you need in retirement? How can you safely go about drawing down your assets once in retirement? Retirement planning is incredibly complex – which is why the author of today’s article breaks the process down into several…