AUTHOR: bbbobbins on 10/11/2024 FIRST: Ben Rodriguez on 10/11/2024 | RECENT: Billy McKelvy on 10/15/2024
Comments
I'm sure it's possible the Lambo adviser charges very modest fees and the reason he is able to afford one is that he is so tremendously successful at increasing clients' wealth that he has an enormous book yet provides highly personalised tailored advice to everyone. Or playing averages is he the archetype that is very good at marketing and selling himself while putting clients into what are effectively generic robo-portfolios and either maximising his cut through frequent churn or high AUM fees? The latter feels more likely, the former feels like they would see the crassness of driving a Lambo.
But you give the impression that you've always been obsessed by income - did you have a higher portfolio mix of equities at retirement (bearing in mind your pension and SS are bond equivalent anyway)?
Not in the same position but it's a fair question to be able to avoid too much property drag late in life. I can base my perspective on looking at my mother who still lives in our old family house of a very similar era to yours and which is almost certainly too big for her. It has a lovely garden (which has substantially recovered over the decades since 2 boys routinely destroyed grass and smashed floral borders with footballs and cricket/tennis balls) and while she has a contractor who helps out 2 X monthly in summer she still keeps active doing stuff there. Our overall family perspective is that there would be a lot of stress to declutter and sell/move to somewhere probably not as nice to probably release not much equity which she doesn't need anyway. Probably easier at this stage to just rent some skips when she is gone. And it is pretty future proofed thanks to a stairlift we put in for my dad in his final year, good neighbours who look out for her etc. My conclusion - even leaving it too late to move is not fatal. You are far too young IMV to proactively take a downsize yet unless your home was only ever a geographic convenience for work. You don't write about planning globetrotting 6 months per year nor moving to your holiday home permanently (which would be perfectly logical reasons to sell up now). I'd keep it going, perhaps with a commitment that you wouldn't spend on a major remodel (after all buyers like to have their own things to do to "add value" and if you don't need the stress why bother)? . But obviously opinions on these things vary.
Retirement can be a long time, with many unknowns and uncontrollable events. I say stick with the big picture and stop playing with the assumptions in your planning tool. It doesn’t know any more than you do.
You don't realise that that totally comes across as a manifesto, or recommendation for others. If you don't intend it to be for the benefit of others why do you keep repeating the same core biases every week - you just like proclaiming how you've made it "your way"? Don't worry everyone who reads this site by now knows you believe in income above all, never planning and never admitting your own self imposed rules are a budget. And that you think all of that is "simple".
Could my positions trigger thoughts of why didn’t I think of that or I wish I had. Even yikes, I wish I had an annuity.
Do you seriously think anyone seriously planning how to drawdown their 401k or IRA doesn't at least consider the pros and cons of annuities? There are some valid concerns about how the market is not very developed in annuity offerings and many plans don't easily offer the option and how people behaviourially aren't well equipped to make the "big" decision now they are retiring with a big pot of fund and a risk of "what if I die and lose all that because I'm taken the annuity?". The alternate risk is "what if I live a beyond average length life". You'd enjoy this recent podcast: https://www.humansvsretirement.com/podcast-1/episode/2b783b41/ep-84-solving-the-retirement-income-puzzle-with-dr-jeff-brown Psychologically it seems there is a big difference between just getting a DB pension and having no real sight of what the capital value is and having the capital and having to make an irreversible decision.
What's your cyber resilience if Fidelity experiences a major sustained outage? Wise move to keep a separate bank account but I think I'd want a bit more macro diversification in the big stuff for redundancy scenarios.
Absolutely. Post the US Election I ran a version of my modelling with extreme pessimism - what if Project 25 and US isolationism/move towards dictatorship severely hits world equity markets by depression type levels and then takes 20+ years to come back. Do I survive retirement, albeit at a more modest level? Knowing the answer to that helps me sleep better and prepares me emotionally for things that do happen like April. Better than hoping that it will never happen or as blind faith that it will all work out. Planning is not just nerds with spreadsheets it's a way of getting emoitional resilience around dozens of what ifs.
Nothing wrong with it if you're happy to accept sub-optimal outcomes for the sake of an easy life. Although I note that you do more ex post tracking and monitoring of everything from investments to spend than many people who have a more planning orientated approach to life. So I'm not sure your life is as "simple" as you project. But for the nth time try not to frame what would work for everyone in the light of your life experience. Quite a lot of people are likely to need to plan their resources and potential outcomes very carefully because they won't have the same surplus of resources that you have. Almost any financial advisor would be horrified by your concentration of stockholding in your former employer for instance and it would be extremely poor risk management for anyone else. Employer has a major problem - you not only lose your job but also your equity portfolio is heavily hit. I still think the best advice for anyone is to plan as early in life as possible and to get motivated and educated by the act of planning. Then you are aware of the issues and how law change, market change, life change, earnings change might affect you and adapt the plan. Because once you have a well tested plan a lot of the stress of all the uncertainty goes away - and the less vulnerable you are to all the sharks in the personal finance arena.
Comments
I'm sure it's possible the Lambo adviser charges very modest fees and the reason he is able to afford one is that he is so tremendously successful at increasing clients' wealth that he has an enormous book yet provides highly personalised tailored advice to everyone. Or playing averages is he the archetype that is very good at marketing and selling himself while putting clients into what are effectively generic robo-portfolios and either maximising his cut through frequent churn or high AUM fees? The latter feels more likely, the former feels like they would see the crassness of driving a Lambo.
Post: Quinn is intrigued by the Lamborghini-style of managing money
Link to comment from July 8, 2025
But you give the impression that you've always been obsessed by income - did you have a higher portfolio mix of equities at retirement (bearing in mind your pension and SS are bond equivalent anyway)?
Post: Quinn asks, is there anything wrong with keeping it simple?
Link to comment from July 4, 2025
Not in the same position but it's a fair question to be able to avoid too much property drag late in life. I can base my perspective on looking at my mother who still lives in our old family house of a very similar era to yours and which is almost certainly too big for her. It has a lovely garden (which has substantially recovered over the decades since 2 boys routinely destroyed grass and smashed floral borders with footballs and cricket/tennis balls) and while she has a contractor who helps out 2 X monthly in summer she still keeps active doing stuff there. Our overall family perspective is that there would be a lot of stress to declutter and sell/move to somewhere probably not as nice to probably release not much equity which she doesn't need anyway. Probably easier at this stage to just rent some skips when she is gone. And it is pretty future proofed thanks to a stairlift we put in for my dad in his final year, good neighbours who look out for her etc. My conclusion - even leaving it too late to move is not fatal. You are far too young IMV to proactively take a downsize yet unless your home was only ever a geographic convenience for work. You don't write about planning globetrotting 6 months per year nor moving to your holiday home permanently (which would be perfectly logical reasons to sell up now). I'd keep it going, perhaps with a commitment that you wouldn't spend on a major remodel (after all buyers like to have their own things to do to "add value" and if you don't need the stress why bother)? . But obviously opinions on these things vary.
Post: The Big Garden Dilemma: Aging in Places vs. Future Planning
Link to comment from July 3, 2025
Great. Thought it was a bit weird with your experience that you'd go all in with a single platform.
Post: Breaking Up 2
Link to comment from July 2, 2025
It's like when you say
You don't realise that that totally comes across as a manifesto, or recommendation for others. If you don't intend it to be for the benefit of others why do you keep repeating the same core biases every week - you just like proclaiming how you've made it "your way"? Don't worry everyone who reads this site by now knows you believe in income above all, never planning and never admitting your own self imposed rules are a budget. And that you think all of that is "simple". Do you seriously think anyone seriously planning how to drawdown their 401k or IRA doesn't at least consider the pros and cons of annuities? There are some valid concerns about how the market is not very developed in annuity offerings and many plans don't easily offer the option and how people behaviourially aren't well equipped to make the "big" decision now they are retiring with a big pot of fund and a risk of "what if I die and lose all that because I'm taken the annuity?". The alternate risk is "what if I live a beyond average length life". You'd enjoy this recent podcast: https://www.humansvsretirement.com/podcast-1/episode/2b783b41/ep-84-solving-the-retirement-income-puzzle-with-dr-jeff-brown Psychologically it seems there is a big difference between just getting a DB pension and having no real sight of what the capital value is and having the capital and having to make an irreversible decision.Post: Quinn asks, is there anything wrong with keeping it simple?
Link to comment from July 2, 2025
What's your cyber resilience if Fidelity experiences a major sustained outage? Wise move to keep a separate bank account but I think I'd want a bit more macro diversification in the big stuff for redundancy scenarios.
Post: Breaking Up 2
Link to comment from July 2, 2025
Absolutely. Post the US Election I ran a version of my modelling with extreme pessimism - what if Project 25 and US isolationism/move towards dictatorship severely hits world equity markets by depression type levels and then takes 20+ years to come back. Do I survive retirement, albeit at a more modest level? Knowing the answer to that helps me sleep better and prepares me emotionally for things that do happen like April. Better than hoping that it will never happen or as blind faith that it will all work out. Planning is not just nerds with spreadsheets it's a way of getting emoitional resilience around dozens of what ifs.
Post: Quinn asks, is there anything wrong with keeping it simple?
Link to comment from July 2, 2025
I can barley believe that. I celiac what what you did there ;)
Post: Quinn asks, is there anything wrong with keeping it simple?
Link to comment from July 2, 2025
Nothing wrong with it if you're happy to accept sub-optimal outcomes for the sake of an easy life. Although I note that you do more ex post tracking and monitoring of everything from investments to spend than many people who have a more planning orientated approach to life. So I'm not sure your life is as "simple" as you project. But for the nth time try not to frame what would work for everyone in the light of your life experience. Quite a lot of people are likely to need to plan their resources and potential outcomes very carefully because they won't have the same surplus of resources that you have. Almost any financial advisor would be horrified by your concentration of stockholding in your former employer for instance and it would be extremely poor risk management for anyone else. Employer has a major problem - you not only lose your job but also your equity portfolio is heavily hit. I still think the best advice for anyone is to plan as early in life as possible and to get motivated and educated by the act of planning. Then you are aware of the issues and how law change, market change, life change, earnings change might affect you and adapt the plan. Because once you have a well tested plan a lot of the stress of all the uncertainty goes away - and the less vulnerable you are to all the sharks in the personal finance arena.
Post: Quinn asks, is there anything wrong with keeping it simple?
Link to comment from July 2, 2025
Well done. You now have a new full time job of liberating your husband!
Post: Today’s the Day!
Link to comment from July 1, 2025