My wife and I are both 60 and fully retired, and are blessed to be fully capable of self funding. Back when we were in our mid-40s we didn't know how things would turn out and we purchased long term care insurance. Our annual premium is fixed at ~$2,500 per year each and it pays out ~$10,000 per month. We continue to pay the premiums and pray we will never need this, and fortunately the premiums are a small expense in the big picture. Generally I lean to the side of self-insurance, but I have seen first-hand how long term memory care can burn through cash reserves. My mother in law spent 5 years in memory care and the fact my father in law had purchased LTC insurance for her years before enabled her to not have to sell a farm or two to pay for her extended care. I had a close friend who had a father get Alzheimers at around 60 and he spent greater than 10 years in memory and skilled nursing care. They burned through well over a million dollars in that time. Self funded. Unforturnately virtually all of us will be faced with situations like this -- for a parent, sibling, spouse or self. There is no one-sized answer that fits all of our situations or needs, and it is something every person needs to build a plan to address.
On Schwab — go to building a treasury ladder then select the TIPS among the options for each rung. It will have several Treasury bonds and 1 TIPS to select from at each maturity rung. They are only visible during trading hours.
S -- I agree that reading about TIPS or a TIPS ladder is not always clear or straightforward. TIPS are a specific subset of the bond market. I had experience with CD ladders and treasury ladders but still didn't understand TIPS until recently. There is a YouTube video titled "How and Why To Build a TIPS Ladder In Retirement" by a guy names Rod Berger. I found it to be a good reference that explains how the bonds function and how to go about setting up a bond ladder. It does not address the current market or any specific situation. Just content for learning that I found helpful. I do not know who your broker is, but executing the trades to build a ladder at Schwab is very simple and straightforward. Disclaimer -- no endorsement on Rod Berger or any other content he has created. I just thought this video was well done and I learned more about the bonds and he addressed the process for setting up a bond ladder.
I’ve been reading Humble Dollar for about two years, and this is my first post. I’ve used direct indexing for about five years, and given my situation and results, I’m a strong believer. I’m 60 and retired from Corporate America 15 months ago. I’m in the highest federal tax bracket, live in a state with a relatively low flat tax, and expect to remain in the top federal bracket for the foreseeable future. My equity allocation is roughly two-thirds index funds and one-third actively managed funds (Capital Group and Dimensional), with no individual stocks outside my direct-indexing accounts. I don’t trade actively, and in a typical year, I sell funds only to rebalance in tax-deferred accounts or to harvest losses during major market pullbacks. I use direct-indexing accounts for the S&P 500 and MSCI EAFE (international). Each direct account is about 20% the size of my index-fund holdings in that area. In my experience, the direct-indexing accounts have outperformed the underlying indexes by about 40–50 basis points per year, net of incremental costs, even after five years. It’s essentially hands-off on my end...trades are executed automatically. If I transfer new money into an account it is invested the next trading day with no effort from my side. I track everything daily in Quicken, and dividends post almost daily and once or twice a month there’s a batch of tax-loss sales and reinvestments. Doing this manually in spreadsheets would be overwhelming. And the first 1099 you receive for a direct-indexing account can be eye-opening—mine was more than 150 pages. This approach isn’t for everyone, but it’s been a good fit for me. I’ll keep monitoring whether the advantage fades over time, but so far it hasn’t in the current market environment.
Comments
My wife and I are both 60 and fully retired, and are blessed to be fully capable of self funding. Back when we were in our mid-40s we didn't know how things would turn out and we purchased long term care insurance. Our annual premium is fixed at ~$2,500 per year each and it pays out ~$10,000 per month. We continue to pay the premiums and pray we will never need this, and fortunately the premiums are a small expense in the big picture. Generally I lean to the side of self-insurance, but I have seen first-hand how long term memory care can burn through cash reserves. My mother in law spent 5 years in memory care and the fact my father in law had purchased LTC insurance for her years before enabled her to not have to sell a farm or two to pay for her extended care. I had a close friend who had a father get Alzheimers at around 60 and he spent greater than 10 years in memory and skilled nursing care. They burned through well over a million dollars in that time. Self funded. Unforturnately virtually all of us will be faced with situations like this -- for a parent, sibling, spouse or self. There is no one-sized answer that fits all of our situations or needs, and it is something every person needs to build a plan to address.
Post: How do you prepare for the long term care cost as retiree?
Link to comment from September 2, 2026
On Schwab — go to building a treasury ladder then select the TIPS among the options for each rung. It will have several Treasury bonds and 1 TIPS to select from at each maturity rung. They are only visible during trading hours.
Post: Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) are a Generational Bargain Right Now
Link to comment from July 28, 2026
S -- I agree that reading about TIPS or a TIPS ladder is not always clear or straightforward. TIPS are a specific subset of the bond market. I had experience with CD ladders and treasury ladders but still didn't understand TIPS until recently. There is a YouTube video titled "How and Why To Build a TIPS Ladder In Retirement" by a guy names Rod Berger. I found it to be a good reference that explains how the bonds function and how to go about setting up a bond ladder. It does not address the current market or any specific situation. Just content for learning that I found helpful. I do not know who your broker is, but executing the trades to build a ladder at Schwab is very simple and straightforward. Disclaimer -- no endorsement on Rod Berger or any other content he has created. I just thought this video was well done and I learned more about the bonds and he addressed the process for setting up a bond ladder.
Post: Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) are a Generational Bargain Right Now
Link to comment from July 28, 2026
I’ve been reading Humble Dollar for about two years, and this is my first post. I’ve used direct indexing for about five years, and given my situation and results, I’m a strong believer. I’m 60 and retired from Corporate America 15 months ago. I’m in the highest federal tax bracket, live in a state with a relatively low flat tax, and expect to remain in the top federal bracket for the foreseeable future. My equity allocation is roughly two-thirds index funds and one-third actively managed funds (Capital Group and Dimensional), with no individual stocks outside my direct-indexing accounts. I don’t trade actively, and in a typical year, I sell funds only to rebalance in tax-deferred accounts or to harvest losses during major market pullbacks. I use direct-indexing accounts for the S&P 500 and MSCI EAFE (international). Each direct account is about 20% the size of my index-fund holdings in that area. In my experience, the direct-indexing accounts have outperformed the underlying indexes by about 40–50 basis points per year, net of incremental costs, even after five years. It’s essentially hands-off on my end...trades are executed automatically. If I transfer new money into an account it is invested the next trading day with no effort from my side. I track everything daily in Quicken, and dividends post almost daily and once or twice a month there’s a batch of tax-loss sales and reinvestments. Doing this manually in spreadsheets would be overwhelming. And the first 1099 you receive for a direct-indexing account can be eye-opening—mine was more than 150 pages. This approach isn’t for everyone, but it’s been a good fit for me. I’ll keep monitoring whether the advantage fades over time, but so far it hasn’t in the current market environment.
Post: Direct Indexing Anyone?
Link to comment from May 11, 2026