Is Building Wealth for Retirement “Striving After the Wind”?

Our pastors have recently been preaching expositorily through the Book of Ecclesiastes. In a message on Ecc. 5:8-20, one pastor made this statement: “Wealth is deceptive.” Notice he didn’t say wealth is good or bad; he said, “deceptive.” That suggests that wealth is morally neutral, but it may promise one thing and deliver another depending … Read more

My “Bucket Strategy”

I think many retirees, especially those with fewer savings, should strongly consider the “cash bucket with income floor” strategy that I discussed in the last article. If you have a pension or annuity income, or cash value in a permanent life insurance product, in combination with Social Security, then you already have an “income floor.” … Read more

The “Cash Bucket Strategy”: Issues and Alternatives

This article is the second in a three-part series on the “Bucket Strategy.” The bucket strategy is a good one, but it’s not perfect. I have been using a version of the bucket strategy since I retired in 2018, structured in what I would call a “strategic growth and income” portfolio. Overall, I still think … Read more

The Coronavirus Pandemic and the “Cash Bucket Strategy”

The coronavirus pandemic and corresponding market crash will likely cause the retirement “Cash Bucket Strategy” to become more popular. As Dave Ramsey often says, “cash is king.” Earlier this year, as the COVID-19 pandemic ensued, like lots of other retirees, I watched as my retirement investments took a huge hit. Early estimates were that millions … Read more

Announcing My New Book: “The Minister’s Retirement”

I am very excited to announce that my new book, The Minister’s Retirement, has been released and is now available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. The following is from the introductory material in the book: “This is a book about planning for retirement targeted specifically at ministers. Granted, most ministers I know would … Read more

My View From the Cheap Seats

We will learn a lot from this pandemic. But perhaps its greatest lesson—one that history teaches us over and over again—is that we can neither predict the future nor control it. At best, the only thing we can do is to anticipate adverse events and plan for them accordingly. Now that the “coronavirus recession” is … Read more