Many people wonder if they are at risk to outlive their money. Nobody likes the idea of running out of money in old age. Based on 91 years of market history and some reasonable assumptions, if you have been doing a good job of saving for retirement, you should be fine. Reasonable assumptions for investors …
investment
How am I doing on retirement savings?
“How am I doing on my investment or retirement goals?” is a question I get pretty often, most often from acquaintances, not clients. The questioner is usually looking for a comparison to other people her age to gauge whether the she’s ahead of or behind her peers. And my answer is typically some variation of, …
What Should I Know About My Family’s Money?
I was talking with a client recently and she mentioned a dear friend who had recently lost her husband. While the friend was working to settle the estate, to her surprise she found that she was not listed on some accounts and that she had almost no personal financial history of her own. This was …
What Should I Do About the Market Decline?
Sometimes I get asked by friends and clients, “What should I do about the market decline?” I often tell them that, unfortunately, by the time the markets have declined, it’s too late to do much. Imagine you just bought a new car. If you don’t have a garage and it’s sitting in your driveway when …
Roth IRA vs. Traditional IRA
The Roth IRA is turning 20 this year. For some of us, it’s still a new idea while for others, it’s been a fixture of their entire investing life. Whatever your perspective, it’s a great tool and it’s been used a lot. Roth IRAs currently hold more than $660 billion in assets, according to the …
A Tale of Two Investors
Imagine a client who is very conservative–a risk-averse investor. It’s 1999, and she has watched from the sidelines as tech stocks have skyrocketed. Year after year, she’s seen tech equities beat cash and bonds like clockwork. The client grows convinced that there’s no risk to investing in tech stocks — they only go up. In …
