Bill Kosar

Comments:

• Jonathan, I and I know many others have enjoyed and learned a lot from your columns for many years. Many people have benefited from the sound advice presented here. I will be keeping you in my thoughts and hoping you are lucky in spite of your prognosis. Bill Kosar

  Post: The C Word

  Link to comment from June 15, 2024

• I understand the "smart market" hypothesis which says that stock and bond prices reflect millions of investors digesting all available information and making their investment decisions accordingly. That may hold up in the very long run but if you are investing today with a 10 to 20 year outlook (assumes you are retired) and you don't have any significant guaranteed income it is hard to justify the risk associated with a 70% allocation to stocks. I tend to agree with Troutbum52's comment that we don't know what the effect of the continuing growth in US debt will be, it cannot continue indefinitely. I think John Bogle said your investment allocation should be whatever helps you sleep well at night! Good thought-provoking article as always! Bill

  Post: Not Scared of Bears

  Link to comment from April 27, 2024

• Richard, I strongly agree with your plan to replace 100% of your income. I have been retired 7 years and for various reasons our out of pocket expenses have stayed the same or gone up compared to what we were spending before I retired, the boogeyman of inflation is also part of this. I also agree that you should not have to "shrink" your lifestyle when you retire. Your comments to JC are a good example of how rules of thumb are good to look at and think about but are not necessarily correct for everyone. Thanks Bill

  Post: He Asked, I Answered

  Link to comment from March 9, 2024

• Robert, I enjoyed your article, it is a good reminder that no one is always perfect in their investing. Way too many investment decisions are based on hindsight, not foresight. One of my favorite sayings from John Bogle is that he wants to be able to sleep well at night with his investment allocation. I remind people of this a lot when discussing the topic, I sleep well at night. Particularly important as we get a little older! Glad to hear you are birding in Mexico, I have birded in Colorado, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. The species change as you move south is amazing! Bill

  Post: For the Fun of It

  Link to comment from February 21, 2024

• Good article and I totally agree with your point about managing for income after 7 years in retirement. I use a very simple system, I just add up my assets once/week, check the totals, and very closely track any changes. This system addresses several concerns:

  1. I check my accounts for any sign of fraud or unusual transactions
  2. I can quickly see if the assets are growing or shrinking realtive to my spending and investment performance and think about why these changes are occurring
  3. Managing retirement asset withdrawals to minimize taxes is important for many of us who have most of our retirement assets in 401k/IRA type plans. Each person's situation is different but you do want to minimize how much tax you pay over the long haul, especially when looking at the total tax associated with the combo of Federal and state income tax. I used to think you should avoid spending any Roth assets in the near-term vs. taking money out of an IRA but the immediate taxes on IRA withdrawals are so high I am not sure this is really a good strategy.
  Bill

  Post: Horse Then Cart

  Link to comment from February 14, 2024

• Nicholas, I found your comment about getting into bird photography interesting. I got into it about 20 years ago mainly because I had just gotten a digital SLR camera and wanted to learn how to be a good photographer, I figured birds would be a good challenge. Along the way I got very interested in the birds and now have pictures of about 330 species from various parts of the US. I always enjoy looking at a slideshow of my good pictures, it's a great way to relax and I remember where I took many of them and the associated circumstances. It's a great hobby, even if you are not retired! \ Bill

  Post: Things I’ve Picked Up

  Link to comment from January 31, 2024

• 2% of current value is a good number, some years are lower and some much higher. We bought our house 23 years ago and have put a lot of money into various renovations, re-landscaping, etc. We love the house and neighborhood it is in. But there is no way it would qualify as a good overall investment! Remodels and updates of kitchens and bathrooms with reasonably good materials and appliances are very expensive but are are very important in homes that were built originally (50 to 70 years ago) as tract homes. My builder will not even talk about let alone estimate the cost per square foot for this kind of work because custom remodeling work can be very expensive. Bill

  Post: Our Money Pit

  Link to comment from January 21, 2024

• I agree with your 2nd rule of thumb strongly. Very few people recognize the true all-inclusive cost of home ownership. Homes are an expense where you get tremendous pleasure out of owning them but if you are truly honest when figuring what they really cost you in dollars in most cases I think they barely keep up with inflation. This is after owning 5 homes over a span of 45 years. Bill

  Post: Our Money Pit

  Link to comment from January 20, 2024

• I think a human connection is important wrt having an advisor as we age but at this time I am not happy with Vanguard. The international funds they pushed me to invest in have performed very poorly compared to the market and they pushed a relative of mine very hard to keep her money with them in spite of their anemic performance. I want to find an independent advisor to do this kind of work, I am willing to pay for independent advice. tx Bill

  Post: A Time to Spend

  Link to comment from January 13, 2024

• Michael, I can relate to your comment about discussing my pre-retirement work with others quite well because I worked on computer chips where we had to figure out why atoms did weird, unexpected things at times, most people have no clue about how tough it was to understand and solve these challenges. I won't ever forget the various war stories I can tell. Bill

  Post: More Than Money

  Link to comment from January 3, 2024