Some Thoughts on “Key Retirement Planning Birthday Milestones”

A friend recently sent me this link to a chart on PNC Bank’s website titled “A Timeline for Achievement” that provided a helpful list of age-based retirement planning milestones. (Disclaimer: This is not an endorsement for PNC, although I am sure they are a good bank, I just found the chart interesting. This kind of … Read more

New Year Retirement Stewardship 10-Point Check-Up

Happy New Year! Planning is a wise part of retirement stewardship. But no matter how well we plan, we must always remember that “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps” (Prov. 16:9). And now that we are closing out 2018 and looking out ahead to 2019, I thought I would share some thoughts … Read more

Reflections and Lessons from 40 Years of Stewardship

As I shared in a previous article, I decided to retire from my full-time paid position a few weeks ago. I will do an article about how my “transition” to retirement is going and what I am up to in a future article. In this post, I want to share the main lessons I have … Read more

5 Ways to Prepare for the Next Big Correction (or Recession)

In our last article, we looked at some of the causes of the “Great Recession” of 2008 and suggested that there are signs that we could be headed toward a market correction or even a recession based on an over-valued stock market, increasing household and government debt, and rising interest rates. There are differences between 2018 … Read more

10 Years Later: 5 Stewardship Lessons from the “Great Recession”

This month could be considered the ten year anniversary of the start of the “Great Recession.” Most of us will remember the trials and tribulations of the financial upheaval that worked its way through the U.S., Canada, and Europe in 2007-2009. Only in the last few years have we seen a significant recovery in all … Read more

What Can You Do When An Elderly Parent Is Running Out Of Money?

I recently was asked an interesting question by a church friend concerning his elderly mother. Like many of us, he is a ‘boomer’ and has an 85-year-old mother who currently lives in an assisted-care facility. Her expenses are being paid for by Social Security, a military survivors pension, and long-term care (LTC) policy. Her living … Read more

Investing for Retirement – Part Three

In Investing for Retirement – Parts One and Two, I introduced a ‘framework’ for investing for retirement and discussed different asset types and holding options, and also active versus passive management styles. Once you make those decisions (or have some idea what you want to do), you’ll need to decide how you want to implement them. … Read more

Investing for Retirement – Part Two

This is the second article in a three-part series about investing for retirement. In the first article, I discussed the various types of assets you could hold as investments. In this article, I’m going to look at the different ways you can invest in them and different management styles (active versus passive.) The better you … Read more

Investing for Retirement – Part One

If you have followed this blog for very long, you may have noticed that I don’t write much about investing. There are several reasons for that, not the least of which is that I am not a professional financial advisor and I’m not qualified to make recommendations to other people about how to invest their … Read more