“Never overlook the pernicious and toxic impact of inflation over periods as long as retirement,” warns the author of today’s article. He outlines why inflation over the next several decades could actually be significantly higher than currently assumed – and how, if that proves to be the case, it would make inflation-indexed annuities (or real annuities), generally considered very expensive,…
A critical part of retirement planning is figuring out how much you will need to have accumulated to fund your golden years – and one common approach to calculating this figure is to use a multiple of your ending salary. Fidelity, for example, recommends retirement savers have 10 times their ending salary saved by age 67. And while different entities…
The author of today’s article likens them to an “elite Navy SEALs team of retirement savers”: those with $1 million or more in their 401(k). And after membership in this elite group decreased in the final months of last year as volatility in the stock market took its toll, the number of 401(k) millionaires ticked back up in the first…
Believe it or not, Democrats and Republicans in Congress might actually get something done on a bipartisan basis in the coming weeks, and as today’s article notes, that something “has the potential to be a big win for individual investors”. More specifically, there’s a real chance that Congress could pass bipartisan retirement savings legislation that would be signed into law…
Stress tests aren’t just for banks – they’re useful for retirement plans too! And a comprehensive stress test of your retirement plan involves more than just stress testing your portfolio: the author of today’s article advises that “you should stress test your venue, your retirement and income portfolios, and anticipated leisure pursuits.” For more on carrying out a comprehensive stress…
What happens if you have the bad luck to retire at a market peak, right before a brutal bear market (a scenario that many approaching retirement right now may be especially concerned about)? The author of today’s article runs the numbers to determine what effect this has on a portfolio’s value over the course of a retirement – and his…
When it comes to funding his retirement, the author of today’s article intends to do it with the dividend income his equity portfolio generates, noting that “Dividend payments are more stable than share prices and the potential for capital gains, which makes them an ideal source of income for retirement. Historically, US dividend growth has exceeded the rate of inflation.…
When it comes to determining how much money you need to retire, there is no lack of opinions out there. Today’s article, however, highlights “an elegant solution to the problem” devised by one financial advisor that the author describes as a “divergent thinker”: a simple formula based on the market value of your house. For this formula – and why…
When it comes to de-risking your retirement portfolio, the author of today’s article suggests thinking of it as being akin to de-icing your car, noting that “de-risking is important. It helps insulate your future retirement income from a market plunge that could occur near, or soon after, your retirement date.” In terms of how to de-risk, however, she advocates taking…
It’s hard to imagine that what is perhaps most people’s primary financial preoccupation today – retirement – was not always a common thing. In fact, today’s article notes, there was a time when this life stage that everyone strives to achieve today was not considered desirable! Today, the question is not so much whether retirement is desirable but what type…