You May Not Get to Choose When You Retire
You may have spent years planning to retire at a specific age, only to discover that the timing is not entirely yours to control. A company restructuring, a sale, a family member who suddenly needs your support, or a change in your own health can bring your working years to an end sooner than expected. […]
Using Home Equity as a Retirement Buffer Asset
Periods of financial stress can set the stage for difficult decisions for retirees, particularly when markets are down at the same time cash is needed for living expenses or an unexpected cost. Having another source of funds available can help reduce the need to sell investments after a decline and give the portfolio more time […]
Can You Live Off Dividends in Retirement?
Selling an investment in retirement can feel very different from receiving a dividend. One feels like spending down something you worked for years to accumulate. The other feels like skimming income off the top while leaving the underlying investment alone. Retirees who spent decades being told to save, invest, and avoid touching principal can be […]
How to Build a Social Security Bridge to Help Manage Sequence Risk
Social Security is a particularly valuable source of reliable retirement income. It functions much like a lifetime inflation-adjusted annuity backed by the federal government, providing income for as long as you live and adjusting benefits over time through cost-of-living increases. For married couples, the claiming decision can also affect the survivor benefit available after the first spouse dies. Unlike […]
The Wrong Way to Decide Whether an Annuity Is Expensive
One of the hardest problems in retirement is not knowing how long your money needs to last, and that uncertainty shapes almost every decision about how much you can safely spend. If you knew with certainty that retirement would last exactly 20 years, the planning would be considerably easier because you could establish a spending […]
What Happens If Congress Does Nothing About Social Security?
If Social Security is part of your retirement plan, the headlines can be unsettling. The program’s trust funds are running down, Congress has not agreed on a solution, and future benefits may eventually be lower than the amounts shown on today’s Social Security statements. That uncertainty can make it tempting to leave Social Security out […]
The Safest Investment May Not Create the Safest Retirement
Most of the decisions we make in retirement planning become easier once you understand why you are making them, but that does not mean they always feel intuitive. Investing is a good example. You spend your working years accumulating savings, often with the understanding that accepting some market risk is necessary to grow your money. […]
The Tradeoffs of Protecting Your Purchasing Power
Every generation has stories about how inexpensive things used to be. A gallon of milk, a tank of gas, a movie ticket, or the first home someone bought decades ago all seem impossibly cheap by today’s standards. A dollar simply does not buy what it used to. That may seem like little more than an […]
Your Age Is an Imperfect Guide to Investment Risk
A restaurant can be packed every night and still struggle financially. Knowing how much revenue comes through the door tells you something, but not nearly enough. You also need to know what it costs to operate and what obligations must be paid. Retirement portfolios deserve the same treatment. An account balance, or the age of […]
What Investors Should Know About IPOs
A successful restaurant rarely opens its doors on the first day with every table filled and every reservation booked for the next six months. Even the best restaurants spend years refining their menu, building a reputation, and proving they deserve a loyal customer base. Investors, however, often expect newly public companies to justify valuations that […]
