Retirement is a time for “Steady-Eddie” dividend-paying stocks and not a time for growth stocks (and the volatility that is inextricably linked to them). Such is the common wisdom. However, the authors of today’s article believe that not all growth stocks should be painted with the same retirement-incompatible brush – and they proceed to highlight two growth stocks (which also…
Whether you are still young and have high risk tolerance, are middle-aged with moderate risk tolerance, or are at retirement and need reliable income, today’s article seeks to answer the following question: “How can you buy ETFs to build a comprehensive, long-term retirement portfolio?” For each of the aforementioned life stages, the author outlines the types of core – and…
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…
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…
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…
“We’ve invented a new approach to money management,” claims Matt Fellowes, Founder and CEO of United Income – which is pitching itself as a one-stop shop for helping Americans tackle all of the difficult financial questions that surround retirement. What does United Income’s comprehensive, personalized, “big data” approach to retirement planning offer that other firms, online retirement calculators and financial…
How much money will you need in order to keep living like you live today in retirement? Various formulas for coming up with this number have been devised, but today’s article outlines one particularly simple rule of thumb that can be used in making this determination: the Rule of 300. How does the Rule of 300 work, how much does…