Why a TIPS Ladder?

This article is part of the Biblically-Informed Framework for Retirement Stewardship (BIFRS) series. It was initially published on February 8, 2023, and updated in February 2026. As I update this in early 2026, I’m nine years into retirement and increasingly focused on ensuring my portfolio can maintain purchasing power over a 25-30-year retirement horizon. The … Read more

Why Invest in TIPS?

This article is part of the Biblically-Informed Framework for Retirement Stewardship (BIFRS) series. It was initially published on February 1, 2023, and updated in February 2026. The previous articles in this series discussed why retirees might want to own bonds and whether individual bonds might be preferable to bond funds. This article examines a unique … Read more

To Ladder or Not to Ladder?

This article is part of the Biblically-Informed Framework for Retirement Stewardship (BIFRS) series.. It was initially published on January 25, 2023, and updated in January 2026. In the last two articles, I discussed how retirees (and others) use bonds as part of a diversified portfolio because of their stabilizing effect during stock market volatility. Bonds … Read more

Individual Bonds or Bond Funds?

This article is part of the Biblically-Informed Framework for Retirement Stewardship (BIFRS) series.It was initially published on January 18, 2023, and updated in January 2026. Suppose you’ve decided to keep a portion of your portfolio in bonds, perhaps with a higher allocation percentage than stocks. In that case, you have another decision: whether to invest … Read more

Do Bonds Still Belong in a Retiree’s Portfolio?

This article is part of the Biblically-Informed Framework for Retirement Stewardship (BIFRS) series. It was initially published on January 4, 2023, and updated in February 2026. An important preliminary note: Given the significant losses sustained by both the stock and bond markets in 2022, I started 2023 with a series of articles about “safe” retirement … Read more

Responding to ”Epochal Change”

If you believe, as I do, that we’re likely in a period of “epochal change” (which I defined as the next few decades not being like they were for the last few), we’re left with the question I posed at the conclusion of my previous article: What to do? The most important thing Before I … Read more

A Challenging Time for Retirement Investors

(Note: We all have our eyes, hearts, and prayers directed toward what is going on in Ukraine. But with everything happening in the world—globally and domestically—I think part of good retirement stewardship is acquiring understanding so that we can make wise decisions about how to manage God’s money during difficult times (Prov. 1:5). If you … Read more

Investing for Retirement—Part 2: Your Approach

This aricle is part of the Retirement Financial Life Equation (RFLE) series. It was initially published on June 6, 2018, and updated in January 2026. When it comes to choosing your approach and how to implement it, you have several choices here. The main distinction is between doing it yourself (DIY) and hiring an investment … Read more