Prices. They’re like adult kids. We don’t have much control over ‘em. What do we do with them? I’ll tell you. Tough love hurts. Spend less, save more. Become an independent inflation fighter. Because inflation means different things to different people. A new iPhone isn’t as important to me as, say, it is to someone else. Simple and to the point. Like an aged fine wine, you’ll be amazed at how smart your adult kids think you’ve become—so I’m told. All I remember right now is, “Dad I want to be a garbage man.” For me, time stands still on a long dirt road not far from our log cabin in … [Read more...]

Your Survival Guy’s four ways to your wealth are: Let your money hibernate Work for as long as you can You are most valuable Get your lazy cash off the couch Look, I want you to be a compounding machine. I’ve spent most of my life compounding money beginning with a passport savings account my dad helped my sister, and I set up at the local bank when we were kids. Back then, interest rates were something you could sink your teeth into, and if you kept the money invested long enough, you saw interest on interest work its magic. I didn’t worry about inflation. That’s the … [Read more...]

Investing can be a dangerous endeavor, especially when it depends on things we don’t control, like prices. Prices are unpredictable, yet it never ceases to amaze me how many retirees bank on the following phrase: “Well, the stock market always comes back.” Really? Allow me to add: “But not on anyone’s schedule.” Listen, stock market corrections mean different things to different investors. The investor who retired last December is licking his wounds, wondering how he could be so unlucky. And there’s a good chance he sold at or near the bottom so he could sleep well at night. That’s … [Read more...]

You've heard from Your Survival Guy that you need to save til it hurts, and that if you love what you do at work you should keep doing it. I'm not saying those things for no reason. Retirement is getting harder by the day as inflation drives up the cost of living. Americans on fixed incomes are having a hard time keeping up. Rodney Mock and Larry Gorman, two professors from Orfalea College of Business at Cal Poly, explain the predicament many seniors find themselves in today with inflation surging. They write in The Hill: If one does not account adequately for inflation, visions of retirement … [Read more...]

You know from here and here that retirement plans aren’t worth a dime if they don’t change with the times—if they’re not dynamic. Planning for retirement and income drawdowns is what I do every day of the week. It’s part of my conversations with you. It’s why we talk, because change happens. Look, we’ve been telling you for years now that you want to live below your means. You want to save until it hurts, work for as long as you can, consider part-time work in retirement, and pay attention to reality. Retirement income draw rates created in the mid-90s are about as relevant today as the … [Read more...]

Do you have a plan? Are you my mother? Because when I hear about planning, that’s who immediately comes to mind. As I wrote to you yesterday, my mom’s a planner. When asked how she was able to take certain trips or go to space camp as a teacher, she would respond, “Prior planning.” As a teacher, she taught her students to believe in themselves, and if they wanted something in life, they could get it with some simple prior planning. Easy to say. Hard to do—much more exciting than arithmetic. That’s the beauty of her teaching. Prior planning. Isn’t that what successful retirement investing is … [Read more...]

You know about my recent trip to Key West here, here, and here. One night, after dinner with friends, sitting around the outdoor dining room table, they shared stories about their COVID trip pulling an RV trailer from Key West to Colorado to Disney—specifically Fort Wilderness—and back. They made incredible memories, despite some scary hairpin turns driving up and around the Rockies. Afterward, I told them about our trip to Fort Wilderness as a kid. “I remember one time we pulled in around midnight in our Winnebago,” I told them. “Parked at the reservation building, we ran inside with my … [Read more...]