Retirement Field Guide

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The Medicare Part B Penalty Continued…

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A couple of weeks back, my friend Justin Castelli and I presented to the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Financial Planning Association. While he was in town, we shot a video discussing the recent article I wrote about the Medicare Part B Penalty for Late Enrollment so I thought I’d share the video with you. If you have questions about anything we discuss in the video, feel free to reach out,… Read More

The Problems With Behavioral Investment Advice

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In a recent Morningstar article titled, “Do Investors See Financial Advisors As Behavioral Coaches?“, Samantha Lamas discussed survey results regarding what investors find most valuable about financial advisors. What I found most interesting wasn’t what rated highly, but what rated poorly. In the survey, Morningstar asked individual investors to rank a specific set of attributes by order of importance. The list of attributes is here: In particular, many planners (myself… Read More

How to Avoid the Lifelong Medicare Penalty

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Most people seem to be aware that there is a penalty for late-enrollment into the Medicare program. Unfortunately though, most people are unaware of how significant the penalty is. It is actually one of the steepest penalties that the federal government imposes on retirees. Perhaps second only to the 50% penalty for failing to withdraw Required Minimum Distributions. Making matters worse, the Medicare penalty is not a one-time penalty. It… Read More

Spending Your Life Savings - Two Ideas For Overcoming the Fear of Spending in Retirement

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Retirement should be one of the most fun times of your life. But, generally, that’s only possible if you’re comfortable spending your life savings. I find that there are two psychological barriers that tend to restrict spending in retirement that I think are largely overlooked by the retirement community. If you intend to get comfortable spending in retirement, it helps to be aware of these barriers and find strategies to… Read More

You have to think really hard to be pessimistic right now

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As I insinuated in my post three weeks ago, the media has a dichotomistic (made that word up) way of looking at the market. We’re either nowhere near the top or it’s all going to hell in a handbasket. The middle ground is pretty much nonexistent because it doesn’t sell advertising. So, each day, they choose one of two templates - pander to fear or cater to greed. Given the typical information… Read More

What to do in retirement?

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You’ve been working hard for the last 40 years and saving diligently for the big day — the day you walk out of your office for the final time never to return again. For many people this is an experience that’s met with jubilation. For others, fear. After the initial honeymoon stage of unlimited free-time ends, many newly minted retirees begin to suffer an identity crisis. For so many of… Read More

Should You Ignore Financial TV?

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This one is a bit of a softball, and you can probably guess what my answer is. But given that the end of the year was yet another apocalypse du jour and that retirees often worry themselves into making poor portfolio decisions during that sort of event, I wanted to discuss it in more detail. During the final quarter of 2018, the S&P 500 declined almost 14%. Just prior to… Read More

How to Pay for Long Term Care

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If you’re like the majority of retirees, you are probably worried about your future health whether that’s simply needing help in your later years or Alzheimer’s. And there is a good chance that your worrying is well-placed as according to AARP, approximately 52% of people who turn 65 today will require some sort of long-term care (LTC). Not surprisingly, women are more likely than men to need care (58% vs… Read More

Should You Buy An Annuity For Retirement?

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Annuities get a bad wrap. Most of that bad wrap is justifiably earned. Annuity providers often reward the “salesperson” (yes, many times, that is what they are) with a big commission check. As such, they are incentivized to encourage (scare you into) putting as much of your money as possible into annuities. As a result of those sales antics, many advisors that take the other side of the annuity argument… Read More