Retirement Planning Topics
The impact of Stock Dividends on Total Return
In many posts I have stressed the importance of the income an investment provides as much as any capital appreciation you may hope to gain from the investment. In my last post I described a real estate investment I have held for the past 20 years and the income it provides. The importance of income […]
A Real Estate Investment After 20 Years; Was it Worth It?
Next month marks the 20 year anniversary of the purchase of my first long-term real estate investment. In this post I thought it might be instructive to describe the actual transaction I made 20 years ago, the major events during the life of this investment, and the financial benefits my wife and I enjoy today. […]
Paying for Investment Advice
Generally, I believe the average person does not need to pay for any investment advisory services to achieve their retirement goals. The most important steps to reach your retirement goals is to be disciplined in your saving and investing over a long period of time as discussed in the posts in this blog. However, some […]
Fixed Income Ladder Revisited
I wrote in an earlier post that people who are at the door step of retirement should fund the early years by setting up a fixed income ladder. Click here to read my previous post on this subject. In this earlier post I talked about how I use bank Certificate of Deposits (CDs) as the […]
Replenishing the First Bucket
In a recent post I discussed the importance of setting up a fixed income ladder as your first bucket of the Buckets Strategy. As a follow up to that concept, I would like to introduce another skill that a retiree managing his own portfolio for income should know. That is when you should sell your […]
Equity Allocation Revisited
I have written often in this blog how one of the most important investment decisions you must make is selecting your appropriate equity allocation for your retirement portfolio. In my discussions on this topic, I have referenced a simple equity allocation guideline, “100 minus your age,” people can use that I first explained in this […]
A Rules-Based Approach to Retirement Income Withdrawal
The best approach to have an initial retirement income withdrawal rate above the recommended 4% Safe Withdrawal Rate (SWR) (assuming you are willing to periodically adjust your withdrawals when the markets warrant it) is detailed in Ben Stein’s and Phil DeMuth’s 2005 book, Yes, You Can Still Retire Comfortably!: The Baby-Boom Retirement Crisis and How […]
Increasing the Safe Withdrawal Rate, Part III
The third general approach to increasing your Safe Withdrawal Rate (SWR) above the recommended 4% is pretty straight forward. It requires that you be flexible in your spending from year to year. In this approach you increase your withdrawal rate when the financial markets are doing well and you reduce your withdrawal rate when the […]
Increasing the Safe Withdrawal Rate, Part II
In my last post I discussed how the most reliable way that a retiree can increase the Safe Withdrawal Rate (SWR) is to work longer, thereby decreasing the number of years a portfolio must support someone in retirement. In this post I will discuss the one situation where it is possible to have your cake […]
Increasing the Safe Withdrawal Rate, Part I
In my last post I discussed how the 4% recommended Safe Withdrawal Rate (SWR) can be increased, if you are willing to accept a higher probability that your financial portfolio will not last 30 years. In this post I will provide some thoughts on one of the ways that you can increase the SWR without […]
