John Yeigh

IN HINDSIGHT, MY WIFE and I made a mistake by over-saving in tax-deferred accounts. It’s not that we saved too much overall. Rather, we ended up with retirement savings that aren’t diversified among different account types. In fairness, this was caused by the limitations of our work-sponsored retirement plans, coupled with the stock market’s handsome appreciation in recent years.
The classic approach is to build a three-legged stool for retirement—Social Security, a pension if available,

THIS PAST YEAR marked my 50th anniversary of driving. Over that time, our family has owned 19 cars and driven them roughly 1.9 million miles. While latte purchases frequently evoke financial debate, cars seem less discussed, despite being Americans’ second-largest expenditure after housing. The purchase, ownership, maintenance and sale of cars can all get pretty complicated.
Cars are considered a depreciating asset, but not always. My first car was a 1967 Mercury Comet, which I bought for $400 in 1973.

A 2021 SURVEY by the Employee Benefit Research Institute found that three-quarters of retirees said the value of their financial assets was the same or higher than when they first retired. This finding was consistent from the poorest respondents to those with the most wealth. The typical time in retirement for the respondents was seven to 10 years.
One implication: Retirees may be underspending their accumulated wealth. EBRI examined five reasons for this possible underspending:

Saving assets for unforeseen costs later in retirement
Don’t feel spending down assets is necessary
Want to leave as much as possible to heirs
Feel better if account balances remain high
Fear of running out of money

The first two reasons—”saving for tomorrow” and “no current need to spend”—were reported by almost half of respondents.

INTEREST RATES HAVE been low for years, with 10-year Treasury notes now yielding some 1.4%. How about dividend-paying stocks instead? Many pay twice what Treasurys currently yield, though obviously with more risk. My strategy: Instead of a classic 60% stock-40% bond mix, I’ve landed at roughly 70% stocks, with another 15% to 25% in individual stocks against which I’ve written call options.
By selling call options, I give the buyers the right to purchase the underlying stock from me at a specified price—the so-called strike price—at any time between now and when the options expire.

ONE WAY TO MAXIMIZE long-term family wealth is through a teenager’s summer or after-school job. How do these small paychecks add up to serious money? Probably the best investment we can make for our children and grandchildren: Stash their earnings in a Roth IRA.
A teenager’s Roth has three things going for it: little or zero taxes owed on the small bits of income earned, 70 or 80 years of investment compounding, and zero taxes owed when those gains are withdrawn.

SOME FAMILY MEMBERS recently asked me to help them find a financial advisor. As luck would have it, soon after, Barron’s published a perfectly timed article, “America’s Best RIA Firms,” which listed 100 highly ranked registered investment advisors (RIAs). Similar lists are available from CNBC and the Financial Times.
It was time for me to get to work. Who wouldn’t want to recommend a “top” firm to his or her family?

IN RECENT WEEKS, my wife and I have seen scheduled activities for the next few months come crashing down. Two long-planned vacations with friends, our various volunteer work and our son’s college semester have all been cancelled.
It appears we’ll be effectively quarantined at home for the next two or three months. That means plenty of time to worry about—and work on—our investment portfolio. But it’s also a great chance to bring greater order to our household assets:

Every year,

IN EIGHT YEARS, my wife and I will be age 72—and we’ll be locked into required minimum distributions from our retirement accounts for the rest of our lives. Nearly all of our savings are in tax-deferred accounts.
At that juncture, we’ll also have begun Social Security payments. The upshot: Our tax rate will jump significantly and, thanks to the combination of required minimum distributions (RMDs) and Social Security, our income will easily exceed our expenses.

CNBC ANCHOR BECKY Quick recently summed up today’s retirement investing dilemma in one sentence: “You’re never going to make enough money if you have 40% of your money in bonds.” She, along with many pundits, believe the old standby recommendation to invest 60% in stocks and 40% in bonds—the classic balanced portfolio—is dead. Google “60/40 asset allocation” and the majority of recent articles have titles that include such words as “eulogy,” “endangered,” “dead,” “the end of” and “not good enough.”
Likewise,

I HAVE NEVER BROKEN a New Year’s resolution—because, until this year, I’ve never made one. But now that I’m retired, with time on my hands, I figure my wife and I ought to challenge ourselves with 10 financial resolutions for 2020:

We’ll continually monitor routine spending with the goal of reducing or eliminating at least half-a-dozen expenses this year. That’s one every two months. Phone companies, internet providers and insurers, be warned: Here we come.

TAX-DEFERRED ACCOUNTS are great, until they aren’t—when we have to pay taxes on our withdrawals. Millions of Americans have tax-deferred accounts, pundits laud them, companies help fund them, institutions service them and markets help them grow. But when it comes time to empty them, often the only person to guide us is Uncle Sam, who’s patiently awaiting his cut.
Efficiently managing 30 years of retirement withdrawals from a 401(k), 403(b), IRA or other tax-deferred account is just as important as the 40 years of accumulation.

SAVE FIRST FOR THE kids’ college or for your own retirement? Pundits generally recommend that parents put themselves first. But I’d argue the question demands a more nuanced answer. The tax code offers numerous tax-savings opportunities for families with dependent children—and those tax breaks shouldn’t be overlooked.
To be sure, for cash-strapped parents, the top two financial priorities should be building up an emergency fund and putting at least enough in their 401(k) or 403(b) to capture the full employer match.

MY LAST CLOSE relative—other than my kids—recently experienced major health issues. That prompted me to reflect on my own potential longevity. I’ve got 7,000 days to go, more or less, or at least that’s what the Social Security Administration’s life expectancy calculator tells me.
It seems like a big number, but it’s less than 20 years and just a quarter of a U.S. male’s average 29,000-day lifespan. Each day in retirement, we get to decide how to utilize one of those precious remaining days—whether to use it wisely or possibly fritter it away.

WE HIT THE RENOVATION snooze button for years. We were put off by the hassle and the expense, plus we were concerned that as little as 50% of a remodeling project’s cost ends up reflected in a home’s value—and that assumes you sell within a year. On top of that, we rented out our house for three years, making renovations difficult.
The watershed moment: My wife indicated—very firmly—that she was through putting out pots and bowls to catch all the drips inside our house every time a heavy rain occurred.

WE ARE ALL VICTIMS of continually rising costs. Here’s the oft-repeated drill: The service provider sends the yearly renewal bill by mail or email, or the new annual cost is simply posted to our credit card account or deducted from our bank account.
Assuming we even notice the charge, the head-scratching starts. What the heck was the cost last year anyway? The new fee may have increased just 3% or 5%, which doesn’t seem like a lot.