Mark, In addition to Bill Bernstein’s excellent books, I recently stumbled upon a trove of articles written (or co-written) by him. If you put the following address into a browser, it will bring up the articles: https://www.advisorperspectives.com/search?author=William%20Bernstein
William, I encourage you to read chapter 5: Annuities and Risk Pooling in: Retirement Planning Guidebook, 2nd edition 2025, by Dr. Wade Pfau for a very detailed and math based examination of the question you ask, comparing an annuity to investing the same $ and withdrawing at a planned rate (the “Sustainable Spending from Investments” planned rate decision being addressed in Chapter 4). Chapter 5 examines different types of annuities, including the types discussed in this HD discussion. Dr. Pfau does a fantastic job throughout the book of laying out the different options for the topic being examined, and comparing the math outcomes. He also adds in other influences including emotion and psychology, to allow the reader to consider all factors when reaching their own conclusions on the best path forward for them for the topic being examined. Chapter 5 includes his response to the “no COLA” in an annuity issue and a discussion of where an annuity may, for some people, fit into the entire plan. The entire book, and his podcast (Retire with Style), are similarly detailed and great (in my opinion). He is a great teacher who can clearly explain complex (to me) issues and math.
KT, I have found that my concerns about my planned retirement in 3 years have reduced as I have become more confident that I have considered and planned for, as best possible, all the issues. To try to not miss issues and possible solutions for them, I rely on learning from others, experts in the field and those with actual retirement experience, by reading as much as possible and studying what they say, and then, since there are differing viewpoints on many issues, determining what solution/approach appears best for myself and my spouse. Three great sources I suggest are: Humble Dollar articles and forum discussions; Christine Benz’s book “How to Retire: 20 lessons for a happy, successful, and wealthy retirement”; Wade Pfa’s book “Retirement Planning Guidebook: Navigating the Important Decisions for Retirement Success” 2025 edition. The table of contents of these books are a list of the major issues you need to be considering. Knowledge in these topics discussed will also allow you to be better able to engage with, and evaluate the advice received from, professionals you choose to work with, rather than blindly assuming they must know best.
Cammer Michael, Re: “Windows11 moved the button near the middle of the screen, but it moves depending how many items are in the bottom menu. 30 years of muscle memory cursor positioning with the mouse have been erased in a single update.”. That change drove me nuts, I like consistency for efficiency. Fortunately, I found I could align the task bar buttons back to the left corner. Go to: taskbar settings => Taskbar behaviors => Taskbar alignment => left.
Richard, There was a great HD article and discussion on dealing with dental and vision costs when in traditional medicare. It is at: https://humbledollar.com/2023/08/what-medicare-misses/
I was thinking about this topic last week because a recent Clark Howard article on 401(k) safety (https://clark.com/personal-finance-credit/investing-retirement/is-a-401k-safer-than-an-ira/ ) reminded me to look into whether my 403(b) retirement accounts have ERISA protections like a 401(k) does. It ends up my 403(b) does not have ERISA protection. Apparently some 403(b) providers do meet the requirements for ERISA protection, and some don’t: https://www.standard.com/brokers-advisors/retirement/in-the-loop/erisa-vs-non-erisa-403b-plans-primer ; https://blakeharrislaw.com/blog/retirement-income-and-protection-plan . State protection of tIRA and Roth IRA assets from creditors varies with state, as Jonathan provided a table of. Putting this together, for my combination of tIRAs, Roth IRAs, inherited IRA, non-ERISA 403(b)s, and non-retirement accounts, for my particular state, I found that the majority of my savings is not protected from creditors. I have some creditor protection from a high level of auto liability insurance, plus the liability insurance within my homeowners policy. I also have an umbrella liability policy, for additional coverage. But after reviewing my current numbers I realized I was far from adequately protected from creditors, so I tripled my umbrella liability coverage, largely to make up for the lack of ERISA protections on my 403(b)s. Fortunately, umbrella liability coverage is very cheap compared to many other insurance products.
William, Thank you for this information. With your knowledge, would you know the answer to the following question for inherited tIRA RMD rules? BACKGROUND: My wife’s mother passed 2.5 years ago, so her children all received an inherited tIRA. My wife’s brother just passed recently. He was in his 50’s, well below the age of required beginning date (RBD), and he did not take any distributions in the 2.5 years since he had the inherited IRA. (The mother had taken her RMD in the year of her passing). Now the bother’s inherited IRA is to be passed to the next generation, who are all far below the age of RBD. QUESTION: for the next generation, does the 10-year clock start again with the date of the brother’s passing? Or do they have 10 years from the date of their grandmother’s passing, 2.5 years ago, so they only have 7.5 years to empty the account? Thanks.
David, Rather than paying for a MS Office subscription, you could instead use the equivalent free open source LibreOffice <https://www.libreoffice.org/> , it works fine with MS office file formats, (or google docs is an option if you don’t mind web based software).
Jackie, This article and your question motivated me to go back and reread a prior HD discussion of dividend paying funds: https://humbledollar.com/2023/01/death-to-dividends/. While the author of the article argues against dividend paying funds to generate income, the many comments discuss that and alternate views, and include other suggestions of dividend funds to consider, such as VIG Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF: https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/etfs/profile/vig, and VYM Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF: https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/etfs/profile/vym. I found the discussion on the “death to dividends” article very educational.
Comments
Mark, In addition to Bill Bernstein’s excellent books, I recently stumbled upon a trove of articles written (or co-written) by him. If you put the following address into a browser, it will bring up the articles: https://www.advisorperspectives.com/search?author=William%20Bernstein
Post: The Seeming Irrationality of Unneeded Risk
Link to comment from August 25, 2025
William, I encourage you to read chapter 5: Annuities and Risk Pooling in: Retirement Planning Guidebook, 2nd edition 2025, by Dr. Wade Pfau for a very detailed and math based examination of the question you ask, comparing an annuity to investing the same $ and withdrawing at a planned rate (the “Sustainable Spending from Investments” planned rate decision being addressed in Chapter 4). Chapter 5 examines different types of annuities, including the types discussed in this HD discussion. Dr. Pfau does a fantastic job throughout the book of laying out the different options for the topic being examined, and comparing the math outcomes. He also adds in other influences including emotion and psychology, to allow the reader to consider all factors when reaching their own conclusions on the best path forward for them for the topic being examined. Chapter 5 includes his response to the “no COLA” in an annuity issue and a discussion of where an annuity may, for some people, fit into the entire plan. The entire book, and his podcast (Retire with Style), are similarly detailed and great (in my opinion). He is a great teacher who can clearly explain complex (to me) issues and math.
Post: Outliving Your Money? Let’s Do the Math on Annuities
Link to comment from August 15, 2025
KT, I have found that my concerns about my planned retirement in 3 years have reduced as I have become more confident that I have considered and planned for, as best possible, all the issues. To try to not miss issues and possible solutions for them, I rely on learning from others, experts in the field and those with actual retirement experience, by reading as much as possible and studying what they say, and then, since there are differing viewpoints on many issues, determining what solution/approach appears best for myself and my spouse. Three great sources I suggest are: Humble Dollar articles and forum discussions; Christine Benz’s book “How to Retire: 20 lessons for a happy, successful, and wealthy retirement”; Wade Pfa’s book “Retirement Planning Guidebook: Navigating the Important Decisions for Retirement Success” 2025 edition. The table of contents of these books are a list of the major issues you need to be considering. Knowledge in these topics discussed will also allow you to be better able to engage with, and evaluate the advice received from, professionals you choose to work with, rather than blindly assuming they must know best.
Post: The Fear of Letting Go
Link to comment from June 25, 2025
Cammer Michael, Re: “Windows11 moved the button near the middle of the screen, but it moves depending how many items are in the bottom menu. 30 years of muscle memory cursor positioning with the mouse have been erased in a single update.”. That change drove me nuts, I like consistency for efficiency. Fortunately, I found I could align the task bar buttons back to the left corner. Go to: taskbar settings => Taskbar behaviors => Taskbar alignment => left.
Post: Dealing With Tech Changes
Link to comment from November 10, 2024
Richard, There was a great HD article and discussion on dealing with dental and vision costs when in traditional medicare. It is at: https://humbledollar.com/2023/08/what-medicare-misses/
Post: Prefer the Original
Link to comment from October 27, 2024
I was thinking about this topic last week because a recent Clark Howard article on 401(k) safety (https://clark.com/personal-finance-credit/investing-retirement/is-a-401k-safer-than-an-ira/ ) reminded me to look into whether my 403(b) retirement accounts have ERISA protections like a 401(k) does. It ends up my 403(b) does not have ERISA protection. Apparently some 403(b) providers do meet the requirements for ERISA protection, and some don’t: https://www.standard.com/brokers-advisors/retirement/in-the-loop/erisa-vs-non-erisa-403b-plans-primer ; https://blakeharrislaw.com/blog/retirement-income-and-protection-plan . State protection of tIRA and Roth IRA assets from creditors varies with state, as Jonathan provided a table of. Putting this together, for my combination of tIRAs, Roth IRAs, inherited IRA, non-ERISA 403(b)s, and non-retirement accounts, for my particular state, I found that the majority of my savings is not protected from creditors. I have some creditor protection from a high level of auto liability insurance, plus the liability insurance within my homeowners policy. I also have an umbrella liability policy, for additional coverage. But after reviewing my current numbers I realized I was far from adequately protected from creditors, so I tripled my umbrella liability coverage, largely to make up for the lack of ERISA protections on my 403(b)s. Fortunately, umbrella liability coverage is very cheap compared to many other insurance products.
Post: When you retire, should you move your savings to IRA or leave it in 401(k) plan?
Link to comment from August 13, 2024
Bill, Thank you for your time and detailed response. You have given me good specific things to ask the custodian, and an IRS pub to look at.
Post: New Inherited IRA RMD final rules
Link to comment from July 20, 2024
William, Thank you for this information. With your knowledge, would you know the answer to the following question for inherited tIRA RMD rules? BACKGROUND: My wife’s mother passed 2.5 years ago, so her children all received an inherited tIRA. My wife’s brother just passed recently. He was in his 50’s, well below the age of required beginning date (RBD), and he did not take any distributions in the 2.5 years since he had the inherited IRA. (The mother had taken her RMD in the year of her passing). Now the bother’s inherited IRA is to be passed to the next generation, who are all far below the age of RBD. QUESTION: for the next generation, does the 10-year clock start again with the date of the brother’s passing? Or do they have 10 years from the date of their grandmother’s passing, 2.5 years ago, so they only have 7.5 years to empty the account? Thanks.
Post: New Inherited IRA RMD final rules
Link to comment from July 20, 2024
David, Rather than paying for a MS Office subscription, you could instead use the equivalent free open source LibreOffice <https://www.libreoffice.org/> , it works fine with MS office file formats, (or google docs is an option if you don’t mind web based software).
Post: Shouting Out
Link to comment from June 23, 2024
Jackie, This article and your question motivated me to go back and reread a prior HD discussion of dividend paying funds: https://humbledollar.com/2023/01/death-to-dividends/. While the author of the article argues against dividend paying funds to generate income, the many comments discuss that and alternate views, and include other suggestions of dividend funds to consider, such as VIG Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF: https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/etfs/profile/vig, and VYM Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF: https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/etfs/profile/vym. I found the discussion on the “death to dividends” article very educational.
Post: Foolishly Fixated
Link to comment from July 9, 2023