Retirement Watch Weekly
Knowing When to Retire
Here’s an interesting article in The Wall Street Journal exploring the issue of when a person should quit a job. (Subscription might be required.) It’s addressed mainly at people who are at or near retirement age and can afford to retire but haven’t decided to. On the whole they enjoy their jobs and careers and […]
Bad Timing? Stock Allocations of Target Date Mutual Funds
The fastest-growing feature in 401(k) plans in recent years is the target date mutual fund. These are diversified funds. The fund sponsor adjust the asset allocation based on how close the shareholders are assumed to be to retirement age. For example, a 2050 target date fund assumes the shareholders will retire in 2050. It will […]
High Stock Values Don’t Mean a Stock Market Crash is Near
Stock values and many other asset values are too high, says Cliff Asness of AQR, a money management firm. But that doesn’t mean it is time to sell and hide in cash. Many assets values have been high for a long time. But high values alone don’t mean a decline is imminent. Asset prices could […]
Controlling Retirement Housing Costs
Housing is the biggest expense of most retirees, according to the Department of Labor. But don’t take that literally. Most of the cost is what Labor estimates as owners’ equivalent rent, not a cash expense. Even so, this article gives the details and some advice on how to reduce the cost. The best advice is […]
Profile of a Stock Promoter
Somehow enough investors never seem to catch on, so con artists make millions of dollars all the time by convincing investors to contribute money to companies that turn out to be phony. Here’s an entertaining profile of someone who was active as a stock promoter until recently and fleeced investors out of a lot of […]
A Higher Return on Safe Money, Plus LTC Benefits
Most of you have a slug of “safe money” on which you’d like to earn a higher return without risking your principal. You also would like to protect your estates from long-term care expenses without the use-it-or-lose-it feature of stand-alone long-term care insurance policies. There are tools available to help you reach these goals. In […]
October 2014
October 31, 2014 04:20 p.m. Your Retirement Finance Week in Review Happy Halloween. First I want to thank all of you who joined us for the recent webinar, “Your Portfolio and Your Heirs.” It was an important presentation, and we had a strong turnout. If you weren’t able to attend the webinar, you can view […]
Knowing When Not to Delay Social Security
Most people don’t delay Social Security retirement benefits. They begin benefits as soon as they are able to at age 62 or shortly thereafter. That’s one reason why I frequently explain the advantages of delaying benefits for at least one spouse in a married couple. Yet, there are two sides to this issue. There are […]
