Your Risk-Free Investments And Annuities Are Not As Risk-Free As You Think

Your Risk-Free Investments And Annuities Are Not As Risk-Free As You Think

Most investors know that investing in stocks is riskier than investing in bonds. And those who are exceptionally risk-averse tend to keep their money in CDs or money market funds. For safety in retirement, especially in the wake of the 2008 recession, more and more retirees have additionally been putting their money into annuities, which…
Read more

What’s a Safe Withdrawal Rate in Retirement?

When we talk to our clients and others in the community about their retirement goals and plans, they often ask, “How much money will I need to accumulate before I retire in order to be able to live the lifestyle I’d like?” While this is an important question, more specifically what they’d really like to…
Read more

What Can You Do If Your 401(k) Is Not Very Good?

401(k)s can be a great way to save for retirement. But how do you know how good your company’s plan is? How would you go about measuring it? And, once you find out, what can you do about it? On the measurement side, there is now a website, BrightScope.com, that rates 401(k) plans based on…
Read more

When Rates Start Heading Upwards Is It Time To Bail Out Of Bonds?

For the last 30 years, beginning in the early 1980s, interest rates had been following a long-term downward trend, as can be seen in the chart below. Declining interest rates are good for bondholders – as rates drop, bond prices rise. Most economists predict that we are now entering a long period of rising bond…
Read more

Is A College Degree Still Worth It?

The cost of higher education at both public and private colleges has grown 440% over the last twenty-five years, according to the National Center for Public Policy and Education. That’s nearly four times the rate of inflation and double the rate of increase of health care costs. Possibly as a consequence, total U.S. student loan…
Read more

Why Expert Predictions Are Worthless

I wrote a blog last year about a McKinsey study that found that media analyst predictions about S&P 500 earnings growth have been significantly wrong almost every year out of the last 25. Now, thanks to a recent book by Dan Gardner, Future Babble, we can understand why. Gardner pulls together compelling evidence to explain…
Read more