Well, it’s baaaaack…and you know what: stock market volatility. And it came back with a vengeance a few weeks ago, moderating some in recent days. Presidential administration transitions ordinarily create uncertainty and instability, but wars, tariffs, and deportations are stirring the pot a little more than usual. I occasionally get asked how I think a … Read more
The Dictionary of Bible Themes defines worry as “A sense of uneasiness and anxiety about the future. Scripture indicates that such anxiety is ultimately grounded in a lack of trust in God and his purposes.” Perhaps because worry tends to focus on the future, it’s something that retirees, or near-retirees, can quickly fall into. We … Read more
Generally speaking, there are two “camps” (or schools of thought) for investing for and creating an income stream in retirement. The first could be called the “probability-based approach,” and the second the “safety-first approach.” These “camps” share some things in common but are often at odds with each other. The key difference is that the … Read more
First and foremost, thank you for subscribing to this blog. I’ve had quite a few new subscribers this year and really appreciate the kind comments I received from readers. If you have a topic you’d like me to explore next year, just a question that you and perhaps others would like me to respond to, … Read more
Regular readers know that I sometimes reflect on an interaction I’ve had with an individual or couple in the context of financial counseling/coaching and the broader implications of the subject or issue(s) being discussed to retirement stewardship in general. I recently talked with an older widow in our church about her financial situation. Although she … Read more
A family friend recently asked me to look at her retirement investment portfolio. It’s advisor-managed and has an allocation one-third S&P 500-indexed annuity, one-third stock and bond ETFs, and one-third cash (government money market). Our friend is a recent retiree with a long planning horizon, so at first glance, I wondered why her portfolio had … Read more
The older I get, the more critical simplification becomes to my wife and me, especially with our finances. You don’t need me to tell you that we live in a highly complex world. Every decision we make, especially those related to our finances and retirement planning, seems pretty complex (or we tend to overcomplicate them). … Read more
In the previous article, I alluded to my “safe withdrawal rate” (SWR) portfolio strategy, which I described as “strategic growth and income.” I also discussed the impact of inflation on it and two different types of annuities—a nominal (non-inflation-adjusted) annuity and a nominal annuity with a 3% annual cost-of-living increase (COLA) but not indexed to … Read more
Many financial planners, advisors, and especially retirees are wary of annuities. They cite cost, complexity, loss of liquidity, under-performance, and other factors as their primary concerns. In many cases, their concerns are warranted. Yet many retirement planning professionals, academics, actuaries, and economists—i.e., a bunch of really smart people—regularly encourage consumers to consider a particular type … Read more
