The Retirement Digest is a collection of articles from around the web that I think members of the RFG community might find helpful. ***** Hers, His and Ours (humbledollar.com) There is a stark reality facing many retirees upon retirement – this is true for both spouses. This enlightening article offers a look into a few of the struggles as well as how to overcome them. ***** Solving A Bank Heist: Follow The Money (kc-roi.com) I read a 44-page disclosure from…
One of my favorite sources of information on retirement is the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. Last week, they released their Social Security Financial Outlook summary report of the 2019 Trustees Report. I’ve taken the liberty of extracting what I view to be the primary points of their article to share with you – a summary of a summary if you will. Here’s what I thought you might find useful to know: How does this year’s report compare…
I wanted to draw your attention to a few graphs, all of which come from OurWorldInData.org via this article, “The short history of global living conditions and why it matters that we know it” by Max Roser. I have a simple question for you at the end. Question to Ponder: Despite “what we think we know” about the world, these are the prevailing trends. For me, this begs the question – “If these are the trends, what do you think…
I’m writing this as I sit in a car dealership awaiting my wife’s vehicle. When we purchased the car, one of the advertised benefits of purchasing the car here was the free “car services” that were thrown in with the purchase of the vehicle. Essentially, free inspections and free oil changes. But, they’re definitely not free services. Because what seems to happen each time you bring the car in is they want to notify you of things that are either…
The Retirement Digest is a collection of articles from around the web that I think members of the RFG community might find helpful. ***** Biggest List of Senior Discounts 2019 (theseniorlist.com) This one’s ironic given my post this week, but I couldn’t help sharing it because WOW. I didn’t count them, but there are a ton of discounts available to seniors. Better get used to saying, “Can I have the senior discount?” ***** Your Financial Plan is a Compass, Not…
As investing has moved more from a narrative-based out-performance story to a commodity needed for effective financial planning, we’ve gotten to observe fund fees coming down across the industry. This is a great thing! The following table, from Morningstar’s annual fee study, I find to be particularly exciting. Every penny that you save on fees is another cent compounding toward your future. And as I state regularly, fund fees are one of the few things in your control. I encourage…
As I was sitting in traffic on my way to the office this morning, I thought of the opening scene of the movie Office Space. If you haven’t seen it, take one minute and watch the video, it’s so relatable! As I was watching the drivers around me weave from lane to lane, there appeared to be a very clear connection to “chasing performance” from an investment perspective. Chasing performance is the process of making investment decisions based on what…
The Retirement Digest is a collection of articles from around the web that I think members of the RFG community might find helpful. ***** This simple phone scam is stealing thousands from older Americans (considerable.com) Older people who fell for the scam—also known as the Grandparents Scam, because the scammers often call pretending to be a grandchild, usually in some kind of legal trouble—are likely to send cash, and those who did sent a median of $9,000. ***** Investing for…
The Medicare Trustees Report for 2019 was just released and the following table shows Medicare Part B premium estimates through 2028. You can see in the table below (page 189 of the report) that the current Medicare Part B monthly premium for 2019 is $135.50 per person and they anticipate this to increase to $226.50 per person by 2028. This is an estimated increase of almost 6% per year. See the table: These premiums are just the lowest tier of…
One of the biggest, and yet, least discussed risks associated with retirement is the issue of cognitive decline as we age – particularly how it impacts your financial decision making. Nobody likes to think about getting older. Even less so, nobody likes to think about the decline of their mental health. But the harsh truth is that as we get older, our cognitive abilities decline at some point. This is especially true with regard to personal finances. In fact, research…