The Investment TIPS You Should Care About
The U.S. began issuing Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) in 1997. Backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government and assurances that inflation cannot eat away at their value, TIPS provide a risk-free asset for U.S.-based investors.
What Is The Bond Yield Curve?
Understanding the relationship between bond risk and time to maturity and duration of a bond provides the basis for understanding the bond yield curve. The yield curve shows the yields to maturity for a series of bonds — typically U.S. Treasury bonds — with the same credit quality but different maturity dates, along with the term structure for interest rates.
What Bond Liability Means For Your Retirement Plan
Bond prices are sensitive to interest rate changes, and bond duration is a measure of just how sensitive. For instance, if a increase in interest rates from 2% to 3% caused a bond’s price to fall by 8.5%, the bond would have a duration of 8.5, meaning that a 1% rise in interest rates leads to an 8.5% drop in price.
Do You Need an Emergency Fund in Retirement?
Most retirees struggle with how to deal with their emergency fund. It’s there to help you deal with, well, emergencies. Retirees are just as prone to emergency as others, if not more so.
Should Legacy Goals Be Part of Your Retirement Plan?
Figuring out how to plan for your legacy goals is a nice problem to have. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t worry about it. Whether or not legacy goals are part of your plan can seriously impact what your retirement will look like. Including them means you’ll have less to spend on yourself (and you’ll […]
How Flexible Is Your Retirement Spending Plan?
A lot of expenses are negotiable, but many just aren’t. You have to buy groceries. You have to pay your homeowner’s insurance premiums. You have to go on that golf trip this winter (this one may be open to debate). As we’ve discussed in the past, it can be very useful to break expenses down […]
How to Use Life Insurance
Life insurance can be confusing. Especially since so many people want it to be. But it doesn’t need to be. Life insurance is one of the simplest financial tools out there – as long as you use it correctly. There are two basic components to your wealth: Your Financial Capital – All the stuff you […]
What is a Bond Ladder?
Bond ladders sound like another complicated finance concept only investing geeks understand, but they’re actually pretty simple. The easiest way to view them is as though you’re setting up your own annuity by prepaying for at least some of your income in retirement.
Finding the Right Balance Between Inflation Risk and Investment Risk
When we talk about retirement risks, people often tend to fixate on their investments. Yes, investment risk is important, but it’s only a piece of the puzzle. The primary risk to your retirement is not having enough money to do what you want. Like I said, investment risk certainly plays into this, but you need […]
Can You Rely On Dividends For Income?
There’s real value in knowing where your money will come from. Hence the appeal of income investing – building a portfolio focused on creating a long-term steady stream of income…But income investing presents a few problems.
