You want to make sure your retirement plans are right for you. As I wrote to you yesterday, testing or experimenting by actually living in your chosen destination, for at least one season makes sense to me. You could also see what it’s like to be retired by taking a prolonged vacation. Put yourself in that retirement mindset. In other words, you are in charge of your retirement. It’s no secret retirees are moving to places where their money is treated with respect. But it’s beginning to become pretty crowded in certain spots. Take Nashville, TN for example. Cameron McWhirter reports at The … [Read more...]

You simply cannot afford to take heavy losses in or near retirement. From a financial standpoint the arithmetic of losses is devastating—lose half your portfolio and you need a 100% gain (not likely) to get back to even. Now, a study has been done to show the impact of losing money on one’s health. And it’s not good. “Published last month in the Journal of the American Medical Association, [Lindsay Pool of Northwestern University] investigated how losing one’s life savings in the short term might curtail one’s lifespan in the long term,” writes the WSJ’s Susan Pinker. Every two … [Read more...]

Originally posted August 10, 2017. Guess who needs the most of your dollars to survive? You guessed it, Washington D.C. If you're a retiree who has been living and working in Washington D.C. for your entire career, you would without a doubt stretch your dollars further if you moved to a less expensive locale. Washington D.C. is the most expensive place to live in the continental United States. As the Tax Foundation map below makes clear, for $100 of spending in Washington D.C., a consumer only receives about $85.47 worth of goods when compared to the national average. How does a … [Read more...]

When you retire, the feeling that you need to always be doing something will be there. It’s important to remember you’ve earned the luxury to “Take it Easy.” David Ekerdt writes: Instead, I believe that the mantra should be: Let retirement be retirement. Studies of people who pass from work to retirement consistently find that they prize sovereignty over time—freedom—as the great gift of their new stage of life. This should include the freedom to shrug off any pressure to conform to a busy standard. Our society has a sufficient number of retirees who feel driven to pass their later years … [Read more...]

When Laura Sexton retired as a senior chief hospital corpsman in the US Navy, she applied her Navy skills to her new job: Lead ski-run groomer and snowcat operator at Deer Valley Ski Resort in Park City. According to Sexton,” writes Nancy L. Anderson in Forbes “the Navy uses a three-step approach to learning anything that could serve us all well: See it, Do it, Teach someone else. First, you physically observe how to complete a task as it is explained (see). Second, you perform the task (do). Then, show someone else how to do it (teach).” The article continues: Many people want to (or need … [Read more...]

The WSJ reports today on a new paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research illustrating the trade-off between working longer and saving more. NBER finds that delaying retirement and social security by just three to six months has the same impact on retirement income as saving 1% of your salary for 30 years. Sounds powerful. A couple of words of caution on the results though. Most of the benefit from working longer comes from higher social security payments. For each year you delay social security passed your full retirement age, your social security benefit can rise as much as … [Read more...]

Of Americans aged 50 and over who are still working, 31% haven't even prepared a retirement budget. Of that same group 73% prepare to delay retirement according to a survey performed by the NHP Foundation. Many of the people in this group, encompassing many Baby Boomers but also some older Gen-Xers, are wishful thinking. Lee Barney writes for Plan Adviser: Thirty-one percent haven’t prepared a retirement budget. Among those that have tried to figure out a retirement budget, 62% say that Social Security will comprise half or more of their monthly income. Sixty-five percent have not budgeted … [Read more...]

I had a great conversation with a client yesterday who told me he has finally decided to retire. He could have retired years ago but continued working because working is what he knew how to do. He said it’s scary thinking about retirement not only from a financial point of view but from a personal point of view it’s just as hard. Retirement and the thought of retirement can be filled with doubt and uncertainty. In other words, answering the question “What am I going to do?” can be a challenge. I have found in speaking with clients who are in or nearing retirement that this is a common … [Read more...]

Even after a mini-correction in the S&P 500, most stocks still aren’t cheap. So what should you buy?  In 1991 I wrote that utilities offered outstanding relative value compared to other securities. Utilities Offer Outstanding Relative Value Three industry groups should be emphasized for new purchases in your portfolio over the next few quarters: electric, gas and telephone utilities. My number one mutual fund portfolio manager (this month’s spotlight), Vanguard Equity Income Fund’s Roger Newell told me recently that electric utilities are now his top industry choice with 18% of his … [Read more...]

Well this was a fun month for the stock market with wild swings from high to low of around 2,000 points in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. One question I’m asked on a consistent basis is “E.J., is your phone ringing off the hook?” and my answer is “no,” and I know why. Most of you have been educated by Dick Young that investment success is achieved over a lifetime, not a month or two. Investment success is about hitting singles and doubles, taking some walks here and there and sometimes getting hit by a pitch. Staying in the game is key. It’s a winning strategy because it puts compound … [Read more...]