Expect less from the dollars you spend and the investments you buy—and your life will be full of pleasant surprises.
NO. 2: WE GET one shot at making the financial journey from here to retirement—and failure is not an option, so we should save like crazy, avoid big investment bets and insure against major risks.
NO. 2: WE FOCUS on today—and shortchange tomorrow. Our nomadic ancestors didn’t worry about the long term. Instead, they focused on surviving today, which meant consuming as much as they could whenever they could. Those instincts live on within us, driving our spending, saving and investing behavior—and causing long-term financial damage.
CHECK YOUR retirement readiness. Try the simple calculators from AARP and Vanguard Group. Neither requires you to create an account. Each will give you a somewhat different assessment—a reminder that such projections are a rough-and-ready business. Still, you should get a sense for whether you're on track for a comfortable retirement or off the rails.
NO. 104: SHIFTS IN investor sentiment—as reflected in the stock market’s rising and falling price-earnings ratio—become less important as our time horizon lengthens. Instead, for investors who hold diversified stock portfolios for decades, what matters is the stock market's starting dividend yield and subsequent growth in earnings per share.
NO. 2: WE GET one shot at making the financial journey from here to retirement—and failure is not an option, so we should save like crazy, avoid big investment bets and insure against major risks.
DELAYING SOCIAL Security until age 70 will get you the largest possible monthly benefit, and that’s the right strategy for many retirees. But what’s right for many folks won’t necessarily be right for you—and you may want to file at 62, the youngest possible age, so you maximize your total lifetime benefit.
If you’re single with no dependents, you should probably file at age 62 if you’re in poor health or your family doesn’t have great genes,
I SEE THIS LABEL used a lot. But it hit me that I really didn’t know what “senior” means. I know it’s used to describe old people. But truthfully, I don’t know what “old” means, either.
We’ve been manipulated into believing that, when we turn 65, we automatically turn old—which isn’t true. It’s a mistake to label people based on their age, because biological age can vary considerably from chronological age. A person’s age is a meaningless number unless we’re dealing with hard-and-fast rules,
How much should we rely on studies, surveys, academically-generated tools and guides? I’m not sure, but they are used by policy makers so I guess we should pay attention.
However, that doesn’t mean they are meaningful in personal retirement planning- that is unless you are average or typical. I’m guessing HD readers know that, but just I case.
Consider the Elder Index from the University of Massachusetts. According to their website:
“The Elder Index can be a powerful tool for state and local advocates and aging service providers to educate policymakers,
I’LL ACKNOWLEDGE THAT today’s topic isn’t the most upbeat. I want to talk about risk—and, specifically, some of the underappreciated risks related to retirement.
In thinking about risk, the hardest part—in my view—is that it defies a single definition. Because of that, there’s no uniform yardstick for measuring it and thus no single strategy for managing it. As Howard Marks states in his book The Most Important Thing, “Much of risk is subjective,
I DID ACHIEVE financial independence and retire early—if you count age 64 as early. My friend Jose, a true believer in FIRE, or financial independence-retire early, celebrated his retirement at 44. That took a steely nerve that I lacked, plus I had big college bills to pay before retiring.
One big challenge of FIRE, of course, is that your savings might need to last 40 or even 50 years. Vanguard Group recently published a research paper to help FIRE followers go the distance.
It’s not a political question, but a practical one, especially for us retirees. Let’s see.
We survived a pandemic.
My wife and I have both had expensive health issues in the last four years for which we received excellent care and that were paid in full by Medicare and our Medigap insurance.
Inflation has been up and now going down – but at its highest a lot less troubling than in the 70s and 80s. Social Security was adjusted upward accordingly.
Going Against the Grain
Buying an Annuity from the SSA
Bogle has saved us a Trillion Dollars through Vanguard’s 50th Anniversary
The Opposite of HumbleDollar
Tasting Retirement
Jonathan Clements | Apr 25, 2025
Kind Hearts are More than Coronets
A False Sense of Security
Any Crypto Investors?
You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby by Marjorie Kondrack
RDQ Sorry folks, I still see annuities, including deferred annuities, as a viable option for creating steady retirement income.
You versus Social Security – Quinn is betting against you.
Deducting Medical Expenses of a Decedent
No Exception
Adam M. Grossman | Apr 26, 2025