REVISITING YOUR RISK TOLERANCE

I have been reading in my investor newsletters as well as several other authoritative sources that the markets, especially the US stock market are, at present, extremely overvalued. Some of these sources presented data that, they believe, clearly indicate we are in the final stages of a “market melt up,” similar to the the tech […]

When will the Secular Bear Market End?

The US stock market has been in a secular bear market since 2000. It will be difficult to make any money in stocks until this long term bear market ends. So, the question is when will the secular bear market we are currently experiencing end?

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 […]

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 […]

How a Young Investor Should Invest Retirement Funds Today

I recently had lunch with a former co-worker who asked me straight up how I thought she should be investing for retirement in the current investment environment. She is only in her early 30s but has been saving diligently for retirement and seems genuinely concerned about the current economic climate. So, I thought I would […]

Post #16 – How the Financial Crisis Moved Our Retirement Date Forward by 2 Years

My last post discussed the importance of periodically “Re-balancing” your portfolio as a practice that everyone should incorporate into the management of their retirement assets. I practiced this method throughout the recent financial crisis and the results worked out so well that we moved our retirement date forward by 2 years. In this post I […]