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Dandy

Ally Bank offers a 1.5% 11 Month NO PENALTY CD. I would divide you month in 4 parts. part 1 in checking account. Then buy 3 no penalty CDs from Ally for the rest. Cash the CDs in as needed for expenses or if better interest rates occur. Safe, flexible, penalty/fee free and better than most alternati...

Dandy

I am thinking 100K initially and then 10-15K per month over time for dollar cost averaging. Is this dollar amount too slow of a per month investment rate? Studies seem to indicate that lump sum works out better about 2/3 of the time vs DCA. Not sure how/if that would change if the investment of the ...

Dandy

That is a good deal. You may want to check what restrictions, if any, exist on the Stable Value Fund. e.g. sometimes their is a maximum amount, or a limited number of transactions, etc. You just want to make sure you have some flexibility to move money in and/or out on occasion without any penalty.

Dandy

We have about $230,000 in a checking account not making any interest. As far as this money you should keep it somewhat safe. Ally bank savings account pays 1.15% and their no penalty 11 month CD pays 1.5%. They also a checking that pays a bit. $230,000 x 1.5% = $3,450/year. All that is FDIC insured...

Dandy

I always found the calc of payback period to be misleading. I focused on how many years I would get more monthly income. That assumes I can fund the wait and support a nice lifestyle to collect a higher amount from pensions. The best deferred wait is to collect is Social Security so that should be a...

Dandy

How many years of safe assets are you trying to maintain? I try to maintain 10 years of expenses in bonds and other safe assets, and leave the rest of my assets in stock. My goal is to have enough "safe" investments to fund my residual expenses ($ needed to supplement pension and SS) to a...

Dandy

I am retired and don't track net worth. I track 2 things. 1. monthly running expenses. I have about 20 categories e.g. one for each credit card, utility etc. I exclude large discretionary expenses such as gifts to children. Want to see how much my current lifestyle costs and if it is increasing over...

Dandy

Tough to trash the whole lot but how do you trust firms when they fight the regulation that Advisors should recommend the best option not a suitable one. Tough to be an honest trustworthy advisor when often doing the right thing makes you and the firm less money and will likely result in you being s...

Dandy

The earlier you are in the accumulation stage the more sense lump sum investing makes sense. The smaller the sum involved the more sense lump sum investing makes sense. And about 2/3 of the time lump sum investing has worked better than DCA. But, all that being said risk tolerance, market values and...

Dandy

I feel your pain. We have very low interest rates but thankfully very low inflation. Chasing yields usually doesn't end up well and you don't get much performance advantage from short term bonds. This is especially a concern with the prospect of rising rates which will affect short term bond values,...

Dandy

I haven't looked at the funds but the difference is quite a bit. I'd compare each fund's duration. It might be that the Total Bond's duration is more than the index fund. A fund with a longer duration would have had a better performance since interest rates have been in a decline.

Dandy

For most it doesn't stop completely - maybe as people reach their goal and/or have a decent percentage of their income from pensions and social security it lessens. I think that is why a recent study found people with large cash balances were happier than those in a similar situation who did not. If...

Dandy

What are the odds that you will total a new car in 5 years? I don't know but it seems very unlikely. To me it is like appliance insurance or accidental death insurance i.e. you can self insure it (much more cheaply) or the odds are your (heirs/estate) won't collect. I guess you should consider if yo...

Dandy

I don't know whether to be happy or worried when the market goes up. I am retired with a conservative allocation. Hard to believe grid lock and polarization is good in the long run. You would think the market would be tanking. That is why you really can't rely much on predictions or "feelings&q...

Dandy

Good for you. Lots of hurdles to overcome. Had a few myself but was lucky to have a vested pension. Going forward job losses and no pensions seem to be in the cards. The message is save/invest early and keep your skills up to date because you are mostly on your own.

Dandy

Most financial reasons favor delaying RMDs to later in the year since markets usually go up and you would earn more on the RMD amount prior to withdrawal. Of course if the market goes down that plan for that year doesn't create a benefit. I face my first RMD next year. I am not worried about estimat...

Dandy

I would have little if any of her money in equities or even bond funds. I would favor a combination of high yield savings and CDs. Ally offers a no penalty CD I believe it is 1.5% and Savings above 1%. You can check depositaccounts.com for banks/credit unions offerings and promotions. I would be con...

Dandy

Yes, but if it was your primary residence for two of the past five years, all of that $350k capital gain is tax-free (if married; $250k would be tax-free if you were single). Can't say the same for a similar brokerage investment. That is a good point. I think my point is 5% compounded isn't a great...

Dandy

I believe in general that house ownership appreciates roughly along with inflation -- with notable exceptions on both ends of valuation. So, in most cases buying a house is not the investment winner some people think. What tends to be misleading is when you hold a house for decades and spend money t...

Dandy

There isn't much difference between 50/50 stock/bonds and 50/50 stock/cash. Intermediate bonds pay about 2% and you can get an FDIC Savings account for a bit over 1% (Ally 1.15% some banks even higher). You give up some income but avoid moderate declines if/when interest rates rise. It remains to be...

Dandy

Check depositaccounts.com for lots of good info on banks and credit unions -- including deals/promotions, reviews etc. I use Alliant Credit Union. Checking pays .65%, lots of free ATMs nationwide, reimbursement of $20/month of ATM fees out of network, Paying 1.10% on Savings accounts. No gotcha fees...

Dandy

The cap-weighted world market (global stocks and bonds) is considered the super-efficient portfolio, so the changes/departures referred to above are really active bets to potentially provide better returns or reduced risk. Departures from the world portfolio implied above may be reasonable for part...

Dandy

If you have sufficient income from the risky investments, as long as you have a long enough time horizon, doesn't that obviate the need to have 10-15 year super safe bonds/CDs/cash? If the income is highly dependent on a strong economy then that could be more of a problem. But if I'm not mistaken a...

Dandy

For many the main purpose of their fixed income is stability and safety so that the larger risk can be taken on the equity side of the allocation. If this is what your fixed income allocation goal is -- there is very little need for US investors to allocate much, if any, of their fixed income to int...

Dandy

A non cola pension (which I have 2) can be misleading. As an example suppose your current retirement living expenses are 100K and your non cola pension is 80k. You are sitting pretty. Assume an inflation rate of 2% and after 30 years you will need 181k to fund retirement expenses to the year 1 level...

Dandy

People who really have "enough" don't have a problem that needs solving other than to figure out what to do with all that money Not necessarily true. Having "enough" doesn't mean you know how to invest it -- I'm sure you have seen a lot of sports and Hollywood stars that made mu...

Dandy

As I recall Dr. Bernstein recommended for those who have enough to have 20-25 years worth of residual expenses ($ needed to supplement other income to fund a year's retirement living expenses) in "safe" (my word?) products e.g. individual TIPS, short term bond funds especially Treasury one...

Dandy

While there is some analysis offered it seems to be a lot of the push for a more global allocation in equities and fixed income is an overemphasis on diversification. No doubt diversification is good but it can be over sold or over hyped. If some is good than more has got to be better. eh? A recent ...

Dandy

I would keep to safe options e.g. Savings Accounts, CDs, etc. I would keep several years flexible e.g. Savings and the rest in CDs timed to mature when needed. The reason to keep several years flexible is with rising rates you don't want to tie everything up in CDs at current rates if rates are like...

Dandy

ally is good. I use Discover Bank and Alliant Credit Union. Savings rates are pretty much the same between the 3 but Alliant checking is better than Ally or Discover. Pays .65% on all balances vs Ally which I believe pays much less until you get to 15K and then it is .60%. Alliant has no tricky fees...

Dandy

I guess I would vote for combo and increase the loan repayment a bit when markets are relatively high (like now) and lower the repayments and invest a bit more when the markets have declined. But, I would always allocate some money to mortgage repayment especially to make sure you don't enter retire...

Dandy

Assuming an immediate annuity has been considered and rejected. Try to determine your allocation from the bottom up instead of guessing if 25/75 is too conservative etc. Ideally, you would have enough "safe" assets to fund your retirement income needs to say age 90. That would be 13 years ...

Dandy

I am not convinced global weighting of equities and fixed income is necessary especially for US investors in or near retirement. There is a certain logic to it but that isn't enough for me. If you go with Vanguard advisors you will likely get their current philosophy which has increased internationa...

Dandy

I would suggest investing a portion of your cash as a lump, say 25% and then implement your DCA plan by automating your monthly investments. That will take some of the emotions out of each month's decision. Also, when the market has a bad month I would double up on that month's investment. That will...

Dandy

Your pension -- if you get to collect one is an income stream. It is an asset, once vested, similar to having a college degree is an asset. It isn't a $500,000 bond--It allows you to take more risk, if you want, compared to if you didn't have it. It is a good thing. Unfortunately, it is under attack...

Dandy

I listen to business news and check how the markets are doing daily. The key is I don't act on these daily views-- just like to know what is going on and how that is translating into the markets. There is a danger that you could be lured into thinking you have some sort of edge and make trades becau...

Dandy

When I had ESPPs their was a period when if you sold, the discount I believe counted as income vs cap gain. The strategy was to sell as soon as any gain was considered a long term capital gain. I believe that period was 2 years. So I bought every year and held for 2 years and took the long term cap ...

Dandy

1. I've seen recommendations from anywhere between 10 and 25 years for the "safe" part. For those who have made the choice, did you base it on an empirically based number accounting for the time we should expect equities to recover after a long bear market? Some other sleep well at night ...

Dandy

However TimeLord (the OP) asked "If SS, pension and/or annuities will cover your basic living expenses in retirement . . . . ?" Good point. I wasn't really addressing your post although it seemed to. I recall hearing Buffet's 90/10 batted around as if that was a general recommendation vs ...

Dandy

About Buffet. As I recall that is the portfolio he left for his wife vs one that he recommends for most people. I'm sure he will leave enough money that she will never have a problem no matter what the market does. That isn't the case for most of us.

Dandy

An HELOC is a nice source of emergency financing but not a stand alone emergency fund. It is like having a credit card but with a larger credit limit and lower interest rate. It is good to also have a credit card but that would not be a good stand alone emergency fund. Liquid or kind of liquid asset...

Dandy

I think it is somewhat difficult as you get later into retirement to continue implementing your own glide path. You mental acuity fades and your are likely to make mistakes of action or inaction. So, at some point you might consider some canned glide path or Life strategy solution. I agree that peop...

Dandy

One factor to consider is are income streams always going to be there. I have 2 pensions from large financial companies. I fully expect that at least one will decide to buy out the pension. Just a guess since pensions are unloved by business. As earnings and profit issues emerge pensions are low han...

Dandy

I'm fortunate that my taxable equities have large cap gains. The downside is that my overall equity allocation is near the top of my limit. So, I have the taxable equity distributions set to cash to avoid further equity risk. If that were not the case and I was in the accumulation stage I would have...

Dandy

I never had a pot of money specifically designated as an emergency fund. I did always have a decent amount of liquid or easily liquidated assets to meet sudden, unexpected expenses. Sudden needs some clarification -rarely is the emergency something that is needed in a manner of hours -- usually you ...

Dandy

Building you retirement allocation from the bottom up seems a better idea. Taylor - money he can't afford to lose is kept "safe" and the rest in mutual funds Dr. Bernstein - (for those who have enough) 20-25 years in "safe" products and the rest anyway you want. Rather than stick...

Dandy

The purpose of most people's fixed income allocation is for safety and stability with most of the risk/reward taken on the equity allocation. So, most intermediate/short term bond funds or FDIC products will fill that bill. They may suffer some declines if/when interest rates rise or lag moderate in...

Dandy

1. Any reason to pay down the mortgage other than feeling more secure? It's locked at 3% for 14 more years. I think the goal should be to pay off the mortgage by the end of the 14 years at a minimum. I would pay down a smaller amount now to maximize you investments and increase the pay down each ye...

Dandy

1. I have and am funding the wait to collect SS at age 70 with Savings, CDs and taxable distributions to supplement my pension and wife's SS. 2. I have pension and SS sent to a online Savings account and do 2 transfers per month to our checking account - mimicking former salary type timing - to fund...

Dandy

The way the question is proposed is problematic to me. There seems to be some bias on the fixed income side of the allocation to be all or nothing. e.g. in this case 100% Treasuries or 100% CDs. For most retirees the fixed income is to provide safety and stability with the risk taken on the equity s...

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