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
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
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
In a recent chat with a younger friend at church, he expressed a desire to find the right balance in his retirement stewardship. He didn’t use that phrase specifically, but that’s how I understood him. He was talking about his financial resources in general, but planning and saving for retirement is part of that equation. … Read more
One of the ways we practice wise retirement stewardship is by making good use of the tax-advantaged savings plans at our disposal. Tax-deferral is a gift of God’s common grace that we can all take advantage of here in the U.S. (Psalm 145:9). As our savings earn interest and dividends and increase in value, we … Read more
I recently did a series of articles describing a simple process for deciding whether you can retire – from a financial perspective. One possible outcome is that you can’t, at least not yet. But even if you can, there is another dimension to consider before pulling the trigger: should you retire? The financial aspects are … Read more
I can almost hear the gasps. “What is going on here!? He’s always harping on the need to save something for retirement; now he’s going to tell us we shouldn’t?” The fact is that most people probably aren’t saving as much as they should for retirement. Lots of recent studies bear that out. And if … Read more
The church that I belong to is going through a pastoral transition this year. That’s because our senior pastor, who is also a good friend, is in the process of turning over the leadership of the church to the younger pastors on staff. He isn’t retiring as he still has a significant role in our … Read more
In the last two articles, to help you answer the “Can I retire?” question, I went over an approach for calculating your essential living expenses and for determining whether you will have enough income from “guaranteed” sources to cover them. I also looked at what you could do regarding withdrawals from “non-guaranteed” sources, such as … Read more
