Articles: Retirement

One of our primary focuses is helping people who are in retirement or are planning their retirement. Create your retirement plans by using the collection of retirement-related articles below.



Roth IRAs: To convert or not to convert
User Rating: / 53
January 04, 2010
As a financial advisor and CPA, I often receive tax questions from my clients.  One that has been coming up a lot in the past year is: “Should I convert my non-Roth retirement plan (401(k), traditional IRA, 403(b) or 457(b)) to a Roth IRA?”  The question isn’t surprising, given the new rules that took effect January 1 for Roth IRA conversions.

The short answer, which should not surprise you, is: “It depends.” 

What happens to your 401(k) when you leave your job?
User Rating: / 19
September 29, 2009

Whenever you leave a job, whether it’s your choice or not, there are many details and changes competing for your attention, and it’s easy to overlook the disposition of your employer-sponsored retirement plan such as a 401(k), 403(b) or 457.

Social Security as fixed income
User Rating: / 47
August 11, 2009

Retirees often ask us if they should consider their Social Security as part of their portfolios. It’s income, and it seems to many people as if Social Security should be in the fixed-income part of their asset allocation.  Though a lot of people take that view, we think this is a bad idea. For several reasons we discourage our clients from doing this.

Retirement planning in an uncertain world
User Rating: / 18
July 07, 2009

Because the past is known and fixed, it’s relatively easy to calculate the outcomes of various choices that investors might have made. But sometimes this analysis is too simplistic for making useful choices that will apply to the future.

Lessons from my favorite book
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June 15, 2009

When I mentioned the topic of this article to some of my colleagues, they were instantly curious about what book I call my favorite. Huckleberry Finn? The Bible? John Bogle’s Little Book of Common Sense?

Nope. All of those are excellent books. But in this case my favorite book is one you can’t read yourself because you can’t buy it or find it at a public library.

How much money can you prudently take out of your investments in retirement?
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June 09, 2009
When you reach retirement, four major decisions will determine the bulk of your financial future. This article is about two of those decisions:

•    How much income do you need or want from your retirement portfolio?
•    Do you need a fixed stream of income you can count on, or can you tolerate cash flow that goes up and down depending on the success of your investments?

Suze Orman - Should you listen to her advice?
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May 19, 2009

Suze Orman has become a familiar fixture on the financial beat, with many fans. Among those fans is Merriman financial advisor Cheryl Curran, who nevertheless believes Orman’s investment advice should not be followed. In the following article, she tells why.

Treasury yields and fixed-income investing
User Rating: / 48
March 16, 2009
The global financial crisis has led to a huge flight to safety, with one of the chief beneficiaries being U.S. Treasury bonds. So many investors have purchased Treasury bonds that the yields have declined to almost historic lows.
Bootstrapping: Another way to assess potential investment outcomes
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January 30, 2009
Bootstrapping is a robust method to quickly incorporate multiple hypothetical portfolio return scenarios to help evaluate the potential success of the accumulation and distribution phases of investing.
A ticking time bomb: Owning company stock
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October 30, 2008

A crisis that started in Seattle is likely to spread across the country in the coming months as thousands of Washington Mutual employees come to grips with the money they lost because they held the bank’s stock in their 401(k) accounts. That stock became worthless when the bank failed late in September.

 

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