What’s a Safe Withdrawal Rate in Retirement?

What’s a Safe Withdrawal Rate in Retirement?

When we talk to our clients and others in the community about their retirement goals and plans, they often ask, “How much money will I need to accumulate before I retire in order to be able to live the lifestyle I’d like?” While this is an important question, more specifically what they’d really like to…
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What Can You Do If Your 401(k) Is Not Very Good?

401(k)s can be a great way to save for retirement. But how do you know how good your company’s plan is? How would you go about measuring it? And, once you find out, what can you do about it? On the measurement side, there is now a website, BrightScope.com, that rates 401(k) plans based on…
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When Rates Start Heading Upwards Is It Time To Bail Out Of Bonds?

For the last 30 years, beginning in the early 1980s, interest rates had been following a long-term downward trend, as can be seen in the chart below. Declining interest rates are good for bondholders – as rates drop, bond prices rise. Most economists predict that we are now entering a long period of rising bond…
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Is A College Degree Still Worth It?

The cost of higher education at both public and private colleges has grown 440% over the last twenty-five years, according to the National Center for Public Policy and Education. That’s nearly four times the rate of inflation and double the rate of increase of health care costs. Possibly as a consequence, total U.S. student loan…
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Why Expert Predictions Are Worthless

I wrote a blog last year about a McKinsey study that found that media analyst predictions about S&P 500 earnings growth have been significantly wrong almost every year out of the last 25. Now, thanks to a recent book by Dan Gardner, Future Babble, we can understand why. Gardner pulls together compelling evidence to explain…
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