Let's Make A Deal! (With your R&S Pension)
Let's Make A Deal! (With your R&S Pension)
The Emotional Cycle Of The Average Investor
The picture associated with this blog shows what the average investor not working with an advisor often does.
Should You Sell? Should You Buy? Should You Invest More?
It depends on your goals, your long term financial plan, your age even factors into things here. Let's just run through these options real quick.
Retirement Has Two Doors. Which One Will You Choose?
Retirement has two doors. One leads to a chance of success. One leads to certain failure. Which door will you choose?
Cooperative Retirement Decisions
Many of you are blessed to be employed at a cooperative that offers a defined benefit pension plan that provides you with a lump sum payment or a monthly pension payment for life when you retire. Congratulations! Such plans are uncommon today. Many of you will face a challenging decision at retirement. Should you take the lump sum payout or should you take the monthly annuity payment for the rest of your life and, in some cases, the life of your spouse and beneficiaries as well?
Don't Listen To The Serpent
In the Book of Genesis, God gives Adam and Eve authority over the earth, forbidding them of only one thing. They are forbidden from tasting the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. And for a few moments, their innocence is perfect. Then it happens. They taste the fruit and commit the original transgression. And after that, everything bad and wrong with earthly life suddenly enters the world: sin, shame, struggle, sickness and death. They only made one little mistake, but it was the only mistake they couldn't afford to make.
The Biggest Misconception In Retirement
As I write this blog in February 2023, the last 14 months have given us a master class on how inflation can affect retirement planning and your purchasing power in general. Probably the biggest misconception I see when talking to retirees or soon to be retirees is that they worry about losing their "money" in retirement but they don't worry about losing their purchasing power.
3 Tips For A Recession Proof Retirement
It's January 23, 2023 and all the media pundits are trying to predict a recession as if they have any idea about anything at all. In my opinion, and by definition, the American economy was and is already in a mild recession. Let's define what a recession is and what the Gross Domestic Product is and what this means to you. Then we will talk about tips to help you through a recession. And before we start, I urge you not to panic. Recessions are common and often they are exactly what can cure a struggling economy. They are NOT to be feared!
How Long Do Bear Markets Last?
Since 1948, there have been 10 Bear markets U.S. excluding the one we are in right now. The average number of years from the peak of the Bear market to the recovery, meaning the time it took for the S&P 500 to climb back to its previous highs was 3.9 years and the median/midpoint was 2.7 years. On five of those occasions, the market recovered in 2 years or less! In other words, market downturns feel much longer than they actually are.
Why Does The Average Investor Consistently Underperform His Own Investments?
In a society that has basically turned outperformance into a religion, the average investor is not only underperforming the markets, he is consistently underperforming his own investments!
Would You Work The Next Two Years For Free?
The co-ops are a great place to work, no doubt about it, and I'm sure you love your job but would you do it for free? Because if you are considering retirement soon and wondering if you should retire this year or next year that may be exactly what you are doing. One thing I've found that people totally disregard when they think about retirement is interest rates. Interest rates directly affect your R&S Pension amounts and the dollar amount between retiring this year versus next year could mean that you end up working for free when you could have retired.
Why All Of Us Should Embrace Temporary Market Declines
What a wild year so far in the in regards to the market. We've seen volatility like we haven't seen since March 2020 which was the beginning stages of the pandemic. Today I want to discuss why you should actually embrace temporary market declines rather than fear them. Notice I said, temporary market declines. I said temporary because they all are temporary and always have been temporary and will always be temporary. But the good news is:
Tax Implications Of A Lifetime Monthly Pension Versus A One Time Lump Sum Cash Payment
Many of you will contemplate retirement this year and despite what the news is telling you, if you have a pension plan sometimes referred to as a defined benefit plan at your current employer, this could be a great time to retire. Most pension/defined benefit plans give you the option of taking a series of lifetime monthly payments or a one time lump sum cash payment. This is not a decision to take lightly or a decision to make quickly. This decision will affect you and your family for decades and even generations to come. And it has tax implications!
The Financial "News" Cycle
As if we don't have enough to worry about in our day to day lives, along comes the 24/7 financial "news" cycle to fan the flames and magnify any fears we have about our retirement money and our investments. They are relentless with their clickbait and flat out false narratives. So what are we to do? First let's understand the function of the financial "news" cycle.
Investing Can Be Scary Especially During Scary Times
The past two years have been the most terrifying years for investors since the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-2009. First the pandemic, next a bitterly partisan presidential election and most recently a 40 year high inflation spike. You wouldn't be human if you haven't experienced market volatility fatigue and exhaustion at some point. I know I have. You might also not be human if after two years of this chaos you didn't want to ditch your financial plan and move all your investments to cash for "safety" and to get some rest from the constant volatility.
Could You Retire Now?
Without a doubt this is the number one question and concern I hear from people in regards to retirement. So let's talk about this and see if you can retire and have enough money to retire without running out. I think these are questions I can answer with a certain amount of confidence and hopefully I can give you some clarification in the process.
