Category Archives: Investment, Finance

Thinking about retirement portfolios

Join the Crowd: Manage Your Own Investments

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Criterium am_0076

On Monday, Karen Damato wrote a lead piece in the Wall Street Journal, “A New Era for Do-It-Yourself Investing,” reporting that investors are taking charge of their investments, yet they are not going it alone. (Readers may meet a pay-wall with the link.) Many investors are using a hybrid approach.They are moving away from having a person or firm control their accounts, yet they are still seeking a-la-carte advice and using on-line tools to guide and validate their own investment decisions. Continue reading →

How To Win Income and Security from Retirement Investments

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A marriage of income and security

Marriage often creates something larger than the two individuals. It can be that way with retirement income and security.

The last post discussed two ways to gain income from retirement savings: annuities and percentage withdrawal rules. This post describes marrying the two approaches. We learn that retirees can, in a manner of speaking, eat their cake yet still have it.  Continue reading →

How Much to Save for Retirement?

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Retirement Nest Egg

Retirement Nest Egg

That simple title question suggests a simple answer, yet today’s retirees live out a large variety of answers. Life is unpredictable and it is not easy to save for retirement. Further, people get along on what they have and what they receive from others. In short, if a fellow will settle for a short, brutish retirement, he need save nothing.

Still, looking ahead and envisioning realistic retirement goals, then balancing current spending with saving are very useful activities. They put people in charge of their lives and give them a sense of responsibility, both of which induce maturity, discipline and work. Continue reading →

Checking Up on Alice—Portfolio Review

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Four Investments, 1997-2012

Last weekend TV viewers watched the beginning of the third season of BBC’s Downton Abbey, a story about an aristocratic family in England in the 1920s. Sir Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, with his family and staff, live on investments in a splendid castle.

Last July readers of this blog met Alice, a model retiree, who also lives on investments and manages her portfolio of four different index mutual funds. Moreover, Alice has Social Security and a pension, both of which postdate Lord Grantham. Continue reading →

You Don’t Need Someone In Charge of Your Money

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In Charge

In Charge

Can you imagine a world where people who followed a few simple guidelines about diet and exercise but never visited doctors had health outcomes as good as those who do see doctors? Can you imagine a world in which wonderful music might come from people who played instruments but had little musical knowledge, training or experience?

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Understanding QE3—The Federal Reserve’s Latest Policy

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Bad weather outside, rainy, dark, dismal—I’m thinking about economics. A retired friend asked about QE3, the acronym for Quantitive Easing 3—the Federal Reserve’s (Fed’s) newest effort to boost the economy. There have been two related efforts in the past few years, hence this new one is number 3. “I don’t understand it—is there anything in it for me?” he asked.

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