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,…
There is a cobra that could potentially poison your retirement – and that cobra is bonds. The author of today’s article highlights the so-called cobra effect – how “individuals making decisions to cause one outcome to occur can accidentally cause the opposite” – and explains how this phenomenon can occur with retirees and bonds, increasing the probability that they will…
Forget bland and boring bond funds – the author of today’s article highlights three bond exchange-traded funds that he sees as “off-the-beaten-track [picks] with world-class qualities.” To learn about these three bonds ETFs – including a “fallen angels” play that owns “once highly touted corporate bonds [that have] slipped down the credit ladder – and how they can be best…
Whether you are in your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, or 60s and beyond, today’s article has some tailor-made investing guidance for you – including some specific funds for those in each decade of life to consider. In addition, the article examines whether – contrary to conventional wisdom – a 50-50 stock/bond split may be appropriate for retirees, as has been…
Will they or won’t they…destroy the stock market? One theory making the rounds in the investment world is that, as a result of a combination of a mass movement from stocks to bonds and taking required minimum distributions, baby boomers will be huge stock sellers in the coming years, with devastating implications for the stock market. But how likely is…
Zero. That is where investment advisory firm Research Affiliates places the chances of a typical balanced fund of 60% stocks and 40% bonds earning 5% or more in the next 10 years. Given that many retirement calculators use a default annualized long-term expected return of 6% or higher, the author of today’s article cautions that people saving for retirement based…
In the current low-rate environment, “generating steady retirement income has never been harder,” declares the author of today’s article. Moreover, the author cautions that yields could just as likely go lower from here as higher. As such, he proceeds to discuss “eight popular sources of retirement income, ranging from dividend stocks to bonds to real estate to annuities, what current…
With their low default risk, high dividend yields – with some paying yields above 6% – and ability to provide most Americans with tax-free income, the author of today’s article describes municipal bonds as having “the retirement income trifecta.” Recognizing that it can be difficult to buy quality individual municipal bonds, the author recommends seeking out the kinds of municipal…