According to this article, financial advisers and wealth managers are realizing that they are in the early stages of a huge paradigm shift. Baby boomers are less concerned about growing their retirement nest egg and more concerned about preserving what they have. More particularly, they want to be told what they can do to avoid [...] Read more »
Searching for New Retirement Income Products
WednesdayOct 7,2009
I read an interesting opinion piece today from the Retirement Income Industry Association. The author was noting how industry members thought only about the products they offer themselves to provide retirement income. Mutual fund companies think that their funds are the way to satisfy the need for retirement income. Insurance companies on the other hand [...] Read more »
10 Year TIPS Auction Next Week
FridayOct 2,2009
For those interested in adding some Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) to their retirement income plan, there will be a Treasury auction of TIPS with a ten-year maturity in Monday, October 5. The actual maturity is 9 years and 9 months. The interest rate (coupon) will be 1.875%. Remember that this is the permanent part [...] Read more »
Avoiding the Retirement Postponement Strategy
SaturdaySep 26,2009
A standard retirement planning recommendation heard these days from financial advisers is to postpone your retirement and work longer. Who wants to hear that? That “strategy” is almost as bad as unretirement. The folks who are telling you to delay your retirement are the same “experts” who put you in high risk investments to begin [...] Read more »
The Fear of Inadequate Retirement Income
TuesdaySep 22,2009
The Principal Financial Group conducts regular financial surveys of working adults and retirees to arrive at a “Well-Being Index.” The surveys are conducted quarterly and the results are then published for general distribution. The Well-Being Survey for the third quarter of 2009 was recently published and covers responses received between July 30 and August 11, [...] Read more »
Stock Picking Can Ruin Your Retirement Plan
SundaySep 20,2009
Many stock brokers, financial planners, and even DIY investors believe that picking individual stocks is the key to avoiding massive portfolio losses as experienced in 2008 and early 2009. That’s a variation on the theme that managed funds are superior to indexed funds. There is abundant evidence that disproves that notion. Even the experts are [...] Read more »
The Truth About Stocks and Retirement
ThursdaySep 17,2009
What an interesting coincidence that in the same week that I launch the FAILSAFE RETIREMENT™ System, Zvi Bodie is interviewed in Money Magazine. In an article entitled “You Can’t Handle the Truth About Stocks”, Prof Bodie makes the case once again that the risks inherent in equity investing do not decline over time. He sums it [...] Read more »
The FAILSAFE RETIREMENT™ System is Now Live and Ready for Download
WednesdaySep 16,2009
After receiving helpful feedback from several beta evaluators, I made a few adjustments to the formatting of the System Worksheets. I also updated and finalized all of the User Resources on this site that are accessed from links inside the System. I then uploaded the System file to e-Junkie, the service I am using to [...] Read more »
Welcome to the Home of the FAILSAFE RETIREMENT™ System
FridaySep 4,2009
This blog section of this site is where I – your humble developer, owner and publisher of the FAILSAFE RETIREMENT™ System – will periodically share thoughts and announcements about the System and about retirement planning in general. The System is currently in beta evaluation mode. Other folks who are knowledgeable in matters of personal finance [...] Read more »