Category: Retirement

If you’re just starting out, you may be put to the decision of whether you should fund your retirement accounts or fund your emergency fund. In order to answer this question, you need to have a grasp of your total financial picture and you can do so by asking yourself the a few questions. Does…

According to Standard and Poor’s (specifically Standard & Poor’s Quantitative Services Group), from January 1926 through December 2007, the dividend component of the total return for the S&P 600 was 40.59% of the return. That’s right, over 40% of the return of the S&P, from 1926 through 2007, came in the form of dividends. Are…

Last December I read about this concept of a “Super 401(k)” that was offered by Devon Energy and discussed in BusinessWeek. This Super 401(k) was super in that employees were given more generous employer contributions in return of surrendering most of the investment decisions. It’s essentially a mix between a pension and a 401(k), because…

401(k)’s are great but one of the greatest drawbacks is the fact that you will always be taxed at the short term capital gains rate, your marginal tax rate, on investments in a 401(k) and that hurts. With investing, the government wants you to hold onto an investment for the long haul and thus taxes…

Bear Stearns had 85 years of straight profits before last week’s spectacular implosion, when they were sold for $2 a share to JP Morgan Chase (and essentially the Fed). While the price was increased to $10 a share this week, the bottom line is that a lot of shareholders lost a lot of money and…

Warren Buffett said this about diversification: I have 2 views on diversification. If you are a professional and have confidence, then I would advocate lots of concentration. For everyone else, if it?s not your game, participate in total diversification. The economy will do fine over time. Make sure you don?t buy at the wrong price…

I had a chat with Dan McGinn of Newsweek yesterday about the perfect storm of retirement, falling home values, and falling stock market, and the weakening economy. One of the thoughts that entered my mind was based on a discussion I had with someone closer to retirement and that person was concerned about their retirement…

If you’re worried about inflation and worried about traditional inflation-busting investments (the stock market, since inflation risk should be priced into the market price of shares), you might want to give Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, or TIPS, a look. TIPS are simply treasury bonds that make adjustments because of the rate of inflation. The coupon rate…

If you’ve been reading about retirement number estimation, you probably have heard that the experts recommend you estimate your retirement spending at around 70-90% of your current salary. The problem with using 70-90% is that: That’s a huge range. Rules of thumb work for the masses, tailor it to your own situation. Since when was…