What do different sized nest eggs mean your financial security? Having several hundred thousand dollars saved is a huge accomplishment, but do you know the sustainable annual income those savings will support? Let’s take Abimelech: He is aged 66 ish, eligible for his full Social Security benefit. The average Social Security payment in 2021…
In last week’s blog, I referenced a study that says more money = more retirement happiness up to $4,000,000. That seems like a huge goal, and truly, it’s not for everyone, but I thought I’d use that statistic to run some numbers. First, what does $4,000,000 mean in terms of retirement income? See the…
This week, I’m using data from the Health and Retirement Study to talk about what makes retirees happy and what detracts from enjoyment. This study was begun in 1994 and tracked 20,000 retirees through 2018.* The conclusions were that there are three core pillars of retirement happiness: Money (obviously), Health, and Relationship with Peers…
You may have noticed that I never offer any sort of stock market forecasts, or beginning of the year prognostications, or opinions on what will happen with inflation, or dire warnings about the bond market collapse in the next 6 months. Why? Because I will never be right (unless by total lucky coincidence), and…
I like to throw you a depressing blog about the stock market occasionally to remind you that dropping stock markets are normal, not to panic and sell, blah, blah, blah. Just when I was struggling to make this information fresh, I happened to listen to a podcast in the Choiceology series by Dr. Katy…
A big topic of financial writing these days is The Mega Back Door Roth. Sounds like a King Kong type of movie and coincidentally has about as much use in most people’s financial knowledge as a giant ape movie in an Oscar race. As discussed in the previous blog, a back door Roth IRA…
This blog is a repeat of the topic of a Back Door IRA. The reason I bring it up again is that Mega-Back Door Roth IRAs have been in the news a lot lately. I’ll discuss those next week but thought we should all be on the same page of what the Not-Mega (aka Regular)…
“Regret theory suggests investors who sell at the wrong time and miss out on gains experience regret that affects their judgment, leading to subsequent market-timing mistakes,” says Sarah Newcomb, behavioral economist for research firm Morningstar and author of the book “Loaded: Money, Psychology, and How to Get Ahead Without Leaving Your Values Behind.” Reading…
As a fair and balanced blog writer, this week I am following up a blog about why retirees should not worry about Roth conversions with three reasons why such a move could be a good idea. It’s a nice thing to do for your kids: Any IRA money inherited by your kids will need…
There is so much talk, writing, podcasting, etc. on Roth conversions these days. Ultimately, I don’t feel doing Roth conversion (or not) will materially impact the retirement cash flow of 90% retirees. It might affect their estate plan, but that’s another blog for another week. Specifically next week. Here are three reasons I think…
