Turns out, members of California’s public pension don’t like it when the C-suite are activists with other people’s money. The workers expressed their dissatisfaction with pension-fund-activism by firing CEO Priya Mathur and replacing her with Jason Perez. New CEO Perez's main point of criticism against Mathur's approach was her focus on "environmental, social and governance investing," which is a euphemism for using the pension fund's money to play politics. Perez ran on a platform of refocusing the pension fund on "the agency’s fiduciary duty to maximize investor returns." Sound … [Read more...]

Imagine sitting on the board of your favorite company, attending the next meeting, clearing your throat, and asking “How much are we going to increase the dividend this quarter?” Welcome to the company! Because that’s what it’s like to be an investor in a stock that cherishes its shareholders, its owners if you will, showing appreciation through regular dividends and dividend increases. It’s nice to be appreciated, especially when stocks are a little shaky. Getting paid to be in them helps. A lot. Which is why dividends are so important to every investor no matter their age or net … [Read more...]

If you want some inspiration for your savings, read this post I wrote back on September 2, 2016. It tells the story of Robert Morin and the power of saving.  "Robert Morin worked nearly 50 years at the University of New Hampshire library and never seemed to spend any money,” writes Brian MacQuarrie of the Boston Globe. He ate fritos and coke for breakfast, a cheese sandwich for lunch and frozen dinners for dinner. I’m not saying this is the life for you. But I do think it’s pretty amazing how being frugal can impact one’s finances. At the core of Mr. Morin’s financial success is the fact … [Read more...]

For investors with a concentrated U.S. growth stock focus, the third quarter continued what has been a solid year. For veteran investors who recognize the peril of such a strategy and instead choose to take a balanced, value-conscious approach, the third quarter added modestly to what has been an OK year. Fixed Income Markets Fixed income markets have been a drag on balanced portfolios YTD. The Bloomberg Barclay’s U.S. Aggregate Index was flat in the third quarter and is down 1.6% YTD. We view the modest losses in U.S. bonds as a blessing in disguise. Bonds are down YTD because interest … [Read more...]

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...]