Retirement Insights
The Importance of Planning for Long-Term Care
A well-designed retirement plan must cover predictable spending and include provisions for unexpected contingencies that may arise during a long retirement. One of the most severe and unpredictable expenses retirees may face is long-term care (LTC). This encompasses a broad range of services addressing physical, mental, social, and medical needs that arise from significant physical…
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What’s the Difference between Budgeting and Financial Planning?
Everyone knows the story of the tortoise and the hare: A speedy hare ridicules a slow-moving tortoise until the tortoise proposes a race. The hare agrees, bolts past the tortoise and then, certain he’ll win, takes a nap break halfway through. The tortoise keeps on, slow and steady, and the hare awakes to find he’s…
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Retirement Income Strategies with Annuities
Originally published in Forbes. Income annuities come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Knowing which makes the most sense for your situation can be overwhelming. In this article, I will explore how income annuities work and what options are available. When do income payments start? Annuities can be either immediate or deferred. An…
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Which Is Better for Retirement Income: Insurance or Investments?
Retirement income planning has emerged as a distinct field in the financial services profession. But because it is still relatively new, the best approach for building a retirement income plan remains elusive. There are two fundamentally different philosophies for retirement income planning, which I call probability-based and safety-first. Those philosophies diverge on the critical issue…
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Risky Business: Why Younger Investors Should Take Risks in Their Portfolio
Millennials began their careers around the 2008-2009 downturn and are understandably gun-shy around stocks. They saw their parents’ losses and want to avoid having the same thing happen to them. As a result, most millennial investors are opting for the security of large cash positions or more conservative portfolios to make sure they don’t experience…
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Dave Ramsey’s 8% Withdrawal Rate
Having spent the better part of the last 10 years in Japan, I have not been all that familiar with Dave Ramsey. Sure, I’ve heard from time to time that there is a radio show financial guru who talks about 12% market returns and an 8% withdrawal rate in retirement, but that sounded so farfetched…
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Withdrawing a Constant Percentage of Remaining Wealth
For almost all of my work on retirement withdrawal rates, I’ve assumed a constant inflation-adjusted withdrawal rate strategy. That is, the withdrawal rate is defined as an amount of income withdrawn in the first year of retirement as a percentage of retirement date assets. This income amount then adjusts for inflation in subsequent years. Since…
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William Bengen’s SAFEMAX
If the long-term average real return from the stock market is 7%, does that mean one can safely use a 7% withdrawal rate from a 100% stocks portfolio without worrying about running out of wealth or even dipping into the original principal? The answer is No. But answering yes is a common mistake; one which…
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Analyzing Fixed-Income Securities and Strategies – Journal of Financial Service Professionals
Executive Summary Fixed-income instruments are largely used within a portfolio to reduce volatility and provide a more consistent distribution stream for clients. Holding non-callable instruments backed by the U.S. government offer significant protection in times of financial crisis while reducing the long-term opportunity cost of bonds. U.S. government instruments with maturities from one to five…
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Blog posts linked on this page are intended for convenience, educational, and informational purposes only. All expressions of opinion reflect the judgment of the authors as of the date of publication and are subject to change. The adviser does not endeavor to update or remove blog posts and articles after initial publication. No linked content should be construed as individualized advice or recommendations, and the discussions contained are not a substitute for investment advice from a professional adviser. This commentary should not be regarded as a complete analysis of the subjects discussed.