Retirement

[supthecreek]

Here's my retirement plan... so I guess, it's also my book on the subject... eerrr, short story.

"Have nothing, need nothing"

so far it's working pretty well.

[Subber]

Here's my retirement plan... so I guess, it's also my book on the subject... eerrr, short story.

"Have nothing, need nothing"

so far it's working pretty well.

I've noticed you've been pretty diligent at pruning your portfolio......
....of SUPs!
 

[starman]

I thought this new story interesting and fits in with your quest;

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-pension-advisory-rules-20150416-story.html

The amount of money being siphoned from retirement accounts for "advise" is staggering. As always it's a game only won by the insiders.

[PonoBill]

The book is coming along pretty well. Here's the table of contents. I'd appreciate any advice on a topic I might not be covering. Not all of the topics have content yet, I'm bouncing around a bit to keep my ADD brain engaged.



Here's the link to the book.  http://retirement.pressbooks.com/

[pdxmike]

It's nice to see the health and fitness section in there, along with the whole premise of writing about retirement in regard to things beyond the financial.  So much advice, and so much focus of people, goes strictly to finances, leaving being happy, or being alive for that matter, up to chance. 

Plus, making efforts to remain healthy and alive is justifiable purely from a financial standpoint.  Especially in regard to things like social security, where someone who lives to collect it for 10 years gets 10x the return of someone who dies after collecting in for one year. 

The one thing I don't see in the table of contents (although you may be working it into other chapters) is who you're going to be with when you retire.  Having the right spouse or partner, and being sure they stay alive and healthy, too, may be the most important thing is retirement.  I was reading how everyone knows that half of marriages end in divorce, but of the half that don't, many aren't very happy--not a great situation to retire into.  Plus good relationships with children, relatives, friends, etc. tie in with this also.

Obviously that's a big topic--too big to handle with a checklist--but it did strike me that there's advice out there for choosing a partner (the "hot-crazy matrix") staying married, splitting up, etc. but I don't know if it's ever been woven into retirement advice.  Like health, it's a central issue with happiness, but it also is a central financial issue. 

[spookini]

What happens if you click the ADD button?
Hold on, gotta check out another thread.

[PonoBill]

I wrote and rewrote a chapter on Exchange traded funds, index funds and actively managed funds until it's starting to read like babble to me. I think I've made it reasonable clear, but it would be great to have your perspective.
http://retirement.pressbooks.com/chapter/exchange-traded-funds/

[maxsonic]

The book is coming along pretty well. Here's the table of contents. I'd appreciate any advice on a topic I might not be covering. Not all of the topics have content yet, I'm bouncing around a bit to keep my ADD brain engaged.

PonoBill,

I've enjoyed going through your draft...might I suggest a section addressing Debt...how to manage/eliminate debt prior to retirement, and stay out of debt while in retirement. 

MAX






 

[PonoBill]

Great suggestion, thanks. I think one of the most important elements of retirement is that you can't have any debt, unless it's in the rare circumstance of debt delivering a high enough return to justify it. I'll add a chapter about that.

[standuped]

The one thing I don't see in the table of contents (although you may be working it into other chapters) is who you're going to be with when you retire.  Having the right spouse or partner, and being sure they stay alive and healthy, too, may be the most important thing is retirement.  I was reading how everyone knows that half of marriages end in divorce, but of the half that don't, many aren't very happy--not a great situation to retire into.  Plus good relationships with children, relatives, friends, etc. tie in with this also.

Obviously that's a big topic--too big to handle with a checklist--but it did strike me that there's advice out there for choosing a partner (the "hot-crazy matrix") staying married, splitting up, etc. but I don't know if it's ever been woven into retirement advice.  Like health, it's a central issue with happiness, but it also is a central financial issue.

This is an issue that can wipe out a life time of good financial planning.

[covesurfer]

Great suggestion, thanks. I think one of the most important elements of retirement is that you can't have any debt, unless it's in the rare circumstance of debt delivering a high enough return to justify it. I'll add a chapter about that.

True enough. Not sure that using some well thought out debt to get a solid return is that rare but I'd agree it requires careful consideration.

Leveraging an investment, in particular, a home, can be beneficial even after you're retired. Let's say you can afford not to have a mortgage but the tradeoff is using cash that could be invested elsewhere to likely return a greater or equal gain to what borrowing money costs you. With mortgage rates from 3.5 to 4.5%, leveraging money on your home can make some financial sense.  Your cash (usually a significant chunk) stays invested to grow, you might be able to afford a larger real estate investment than what you otherwise might have considered, potentially giving you a higher eventual return, and you get a tax break on the interest. With a fixed rate mortgage, you know your costs for the life of the loan, whether it's 15 or 30 years, and you can tailor how much 'leveraging' you can afford to comfortably do if you have a decent idea of your income stream - which you pretty much need to know if you're going to retire in the first place.

[Subber]

When you are older, if you lose some bucks,
you probably can't earn them back.

So probably wiser to take risk off the table and
deleverage if possible (unless there is a raging inflation).

[headmount]

My opinion is that what PDX said, about who you choose to ride out the remainder of your life with, is your biggest choice and highest priority.  You'll be miserable no matter how much dough you have if your partner is giving you grief.  And if it's wrong, remember the old saying Johnny Carson always quoted, "Too much ($) is never enough."   If anyone was an expert at bad marriages, it was him but I know I didn't do too much better until I was 48.  Lucky to have found the right one at such a late age.  Usually if you've struck out by then, you're on your own... which isn't always such a bad thing but men generally self destruct on their own.

 A friend of mine said that if you have a good relationship around an 80% of the time, you're killing it.  Asked him what his was and he said 30%.

As for money this is my favorite quote from Moby Dick.  "The urbane activity with which a man receives money is really marvellous, considering that we so earnestly believe money to be the root of all earthly ills, and that on no account can a monied man enter heaven. Ah! how cheerfully we consign ourselves to perdition!"

[SuppaTime]

Great suggestion, thanks. I think one of the most important elements of retirement is that you can't have any debt, unless it's in the rare circumstance of debt delivering a high enough return to justify it. I'll add a chapter about that.

This is debated endlessly but I think the prevailing opinion is that debt may not be a bad thing, depending on circumstances. As covesurfer says, interest rates are such that home equity debt may be costing you only 3%. Fold in the tax deduction you get on the interest payments, and the fact that it is not hard at all to get a greater than 3% average return on an investment, and it is not so bad. And the real kicker is that this is the one time that inflation is your best friend since it is eroding the real value of the principal that you owe against. The longer you sit on it, the less it is costing you in real dollars.

But obviously, credit card and other debt that has a high interest rate is not a good thing in retirement. And if you are going to sleep better at night with no debt, than that is probably more important in the long run than trying to lever your investments.

[stoneaxe]

My opinion is that what PDX said, about who you choose to ride out the remainder of your life with, is your biggest choice and highest priority.  You'll be miserable no matter how much dough you have if your partner is giving you grief.  And if it's wrong, remember the old saying Johnny Carson always quoted, "Too much ($) is never enough."   If anyone was an expert at bad marriages, it was him but I know I didn't do too much better until I was 48.  Lucky to have found the right one at such a late age.  Usually if you've struck out by then, you're on your own... which isn't always such a bad thing but men generally self destruct on their own.

I always marvel at how lucky I was to find Sue so young. By that measure I'm the wealthiest guy I know.....