AUTHOR: Kevin Lynch on 1/22/2025 FIRST: mytimetotravel on 1/22 | RECENT: Charles Moser on 1/23
Comments
Liz: While I can appreciate your concerns for doctors and dentists, etc., regarding limits on student loan debt, for many other graduate students this is a blessing in disguise. After spending 40 years in financial services and 15 years in academia, i assure you,a great numnber of "graduate students" have no business being in school. This is especially true for PhD students. During my doctoral studies, which I started and completed in my 60's, I was surrounded by 20 year old and 30 year old students, "finding themselves." Many of their dissertations were garbage, and merely "checked the boxes" for graduation. Considering the number of faculty positions available annaully is roughly 1/3 of the number of graduatung PhDs, for most of these students, universities are simply taking their money, or more correctly, Government Student Loan money, and producing unemployable graduates. I am actually encouraged by the recent realization that college educations for many are no tthe answer...and that pursuing careers in the trades makes much more sense, intellectually and financially. Take a guess which of the following individuals, on average, chieves greater financial success and actually contrubutes to the ecomnmy of the US... A master plumber, electrician, HVAC installer/repairman....or a PhD, in any non-STEM field?
Mark: You are fortunate to have a working spouse who will listen to your concerns regarding her portfolio. I am glad she has taken the steps necessary to begin to transfer her accounts to Vanguard. I can guarantee you that there is no way a "wealth manager" of any kind, from anywhere, can beat Vanguard (or Fidelity, or Schwab) when they are gouging their client for 2% in fees annually. Having been intimately involved in training 1000's of CFP, ChFC, CLU, and RICP candidates for over 15 years, the math is the math. As a few others mentioned, planning for your financial future with your portfolio being separately advised is absolutely suboptimal. Good luck getting it all combined under one roof. Even if you choose to use Vanguard's PAS Program, the 30 basis points vs. 2% alone will enable your wife to increase her returns, to say nothing about stopping the endless bleeding in fees.
"My advice: Amass a healthy sum in your financial accounts, and quietly enjoy the peace of mind it offers. Not having to worry about money is, I believe, a great privilege." Absolutely, 100% Correct! A privilege, indeed. Despite the advice of most financial gurus, I made the decision to spend a considerable sum of my portfolio on a series of annuities, 2 years before I retired. I also made the decision not to file for my social security benefits until age 70. These two decisions have resulted in my wife and I having the peace of mind knowing that 1. We will never run out of money in retirement 2. We currently have guaranteed income that is twice the amount of our current retirement expenses 3. Our remaining portfolio is invested for the long term, 100% in equities, as we are not presently using it for income. Guaranteed Income for life, no debts, no mortgage payments, fairly decent health...life is good! Thank you Lord!
A number of years ago, I made the decision to stop looking for "the answer" in investing. I discovered, as Adam mentioned, that there is no one answer, and that, in fact, "there are many paths to the top of the mountain." Instead of trying to determine what the next Apple or Amazon would be, I would simply own everything in the market, and that way, although I would never beat the market, I could match it. So I purchased VTI and VXUS. Had I not also made the decision to maximize my social security benefits by delaying claiming to age 70 and supplementing those benefits with additional guaranteed lifetime income, through annuities, I would have also include BND and BNDX. By owning these four Vanguard ETFs, you basically own everything from everywhere. No more need to worry about FOMO...which is a very real issue...because you aren't really missing out on anything. Remember, you own everything from everywhere. Of course then you'll have to find something to do with all the time you use to waste trying to figure out how to beat the market, before you finally faced the reality that Jack Bogle told us about years ago, that you can't and neither can anyone else, on a regular basis.
Adam: As usual, a great article from you! One thing I predict is that AI will make good financial advisors even better financial advisors. I spent the last 15 years of my financial services career as an academic, teaching, training, and educating financial services professionals. Over those 15 years I came to understand that the real value provided by a financial advisor is to stopping people from acting stupid, when they get scared and confused by the market's volatility. That's it! Everything else advisors do can be done yourself, if you choose to devote the time and effort to learning how. Fortunately, for advisors, the vast majority of people will not take the time, nor make the effort. Yesterday I happened to "discovered" claude.ai and I put it to the test. I discovered quickly that value of the answers you get from AI are directly related to the quality and clarity of the wording of the questions you ask it. I asked claude.ai a series of questions regarding my taxes for 2025 and got interesting and accurate results. I had to correct it, by restating that my spouse and I were over age 65 and filing jointly, to have the standard deduction corrected to reflect the additional deductions available to those over 65. Once that was done, the results were updated to reflect the correct numbers. I then asked it to consider whether I should consider making a Roth Conversion in 2025, and ifs, in what amount. Again, after clarifying that my annuity income is 72% income tax free, the resulting answer correctly stated the tax implications of the Roth Conversion, and the benefits of doing it. I then moved on to a series of questions related to whether or not I should consider an investment in MYGAs vs. remaining invested in the market. Again, after clarifying a number of points as I went along, I received a response that, had I been grading it as a response from a CFP candidate, on an exam, I would have given them an A! It was well organized, well reasoned, and provided pros, cons, and suggested alternatives to consider, based on whether Income was needed currently, or not. All in all, I foresee AI being a valuable tool to those who are good at their jobs, and using AI to make them even more productive and valuable to their clients.
I attended the BH conference in Chicago, a few years back. I enjoyed meeting and chatting with the folks whose blogs and books I had been consuming, as I readied myself for retirement. The tracks were excellent, with one for beginners and another for older, experienced BH members. The presentations were first class and the speakers were all good to excellent. At the time, in 2022-2023, as a newer BH, I was still absorbing ideas, and strategies, trying to figure out how best to fund my retirement and remain invested for growth and total return. Those days are behind me. Today I am 100% invested in VTI and VXUS, @ 80/20. My portfolio is 25% Taxable, 43% Tax Deferred and 32% Tax Free. We also own a small number of BRK-B shares, "just because," as well as few shares of Ford (my first employer) and Harley-Davidson (because I owned one for many years.) Our income consists of primarily Social Security (partially Taxed and with COLA) Annuity Income (72% Income Tax Free and w/o COLA) and 4% withdrawals from our Vanguard Portfolio (Income Tax Free because LTCGG bracket is Zero.) Our Income exceeds our expenses by @ $55,000 annually. We have no real need for Bonds or Bond ETFs, as our Annuities provide the income and safety bonds would be providing. This year I opted to attend the Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders Meeting instead of BH again...but maybe I will attend BH in 2026, depending on where it is held. I wouldn't hesitate to attend this year and San Antonio is a nice place to visit.
Not really advising you to do it, but in August, we are going to Germany. Both my wife and I were Army Brats. I actually grew up in Germany from the age of 3 until I was 16. My wife of 51 years lived in Germany from age 6 until age 9. We are visiting Bavaria, specifically Munich and Stuttgart, and taking a side trip to Bad Tolz, the town I actually lived in. In addition, we are traveling to Berlin, where I lived in 1955-1957, and where my step mother was born. The only other foreign travel we will most likely go in is planned for next year, when we will visit Ireland, Scotland, and England. While in England, I plan to take a two day trip to Normandy France, to visit the sites of D-Day. My father was a member of the 82nd Airborne and he landed in Normandy on D-Day, in a Glider, when he was 18 years old. Once our European travel is completed, the remaining travel we are planning will be in the US, and possibly a trip to Canada's far eastern proveinces.
May I ask where you are located? I visited The Villages Florida in May of 2024, shortly after retiring. I loved it...but unfortunately, my wife did not. I would rather take your route than the CCRC route, if that were an option.
Dennis: Our circumstances almost mirror yours. I am 74 (75 in October) and my wife is 70 (71 in September.) Our kids, 47 and 41, live in MD and TX...we are in NC. We have no grandkids and we do not plan to move again in retirement. I have an excellent LTCI policy which I obtained as an employment fringe in 2005. It costs $1,695 annually. My wife doesn't have LTCI, and couldn't qualify for a hybrid life/LTC policy either. We do have 4 annuities however, each of which has a "doubler"attached to it for a period of 5 years. It would increase our $36,562 to $54,843 annually, if either of us qualified for LTC. If Rachel can qualify for a policy, get one. You might consider looking at the hybrid life/LTCI policies, if you are concerned about "what happens if we never beed it..." My favorite policy in that category comes from OneAmerica. (That's the one I tried getting for my wife.) We built our "forever" home in 2018, in anticipation of retirement. We have 36 in wide doors, no stairs anywhere, wooden floors, walk in shower with a built in bench, (we have a jacuzzi bath tub and regular tub as well) and it is built such that if we needed a live in aide, their is a bedroom, bath, and sitting room separated from the main home area, by a pocket door. It was built with the idea of retiring in place. I may consider the CCRC option later on, but my wife is not enamored of the idea. She has not yet embraced the fact that we are old, and says she doesn't want to live with "a bunch of old people." My step dad lived with us for 5 of the last 6 years of his life. His final year was in a memory care unit. He lived until 93. He would have reached 100 this year. The assisted living facility he lived in cost $6,150 a month and he was a self pay resident. As you mentioned if I were to consider a CCRC, I would want the guaranteed care option, and the financial strength and stability of the facility would be foremost in any considerations. Your article is an important one, because as you said, we are living longer, and there will be a shortage of health care aides in the future, worse than the one we are experiencing today.
Comments
Liz: While I can appreciate your concerns for doctors and dentists, etc., regarding limits on student loan debt, for many other graduate students this is a blessing in disguise. After spending 40 years in financial services and 15 years in academia, i assure you,a great numnber of "graduate students" have no business being in school. This is especially true for PhD students. During my doctoral studies, which I started and completed in my 60's, I was surrounded by 20 year old and 30 year old students, "finding themselves." Many of their dissertations were garbage, and merely "checked the boxes" for graduation. Considering the number of faculty positions available annaully is roughly 1/3 of the number of graduatung PhDs, for most of these students, universities are simply taking their money, or more correctly, Government Student Loan money, and producing unemployable graduates. I am actually encouraged by the recent realization that college educations for many are no tthe answer...and that pursuing careers in the trades makes much more sense, intellectually and financially. Take a guess which of the following individuals, on average, chieves greater financial success and actually contrubutes to the ecomnmy of the US... A master plumber, electrician, HVAC installer/repairman....or a PhD, in any non-STEM field?
Post: What to Know About The One Big Beautiful Bill
Link to comment from July 12, 2025
Mark: You are fortunate to have a working spouse who will listen to your concerns regarding her portfolio. I am glad she has taken the steps necessary to begin to transfer her accounts to Vanguard. I can guarantee you that there is no way a "wealth manager" of any kind, from anywhere, can beat Vanguard (or Fidelity, or Schwab) when they are gouging their client for 2% in fees annually. Having been intimately involved in training 1000's of CFP, ChFC, CLU, and RICP candidates for over 15 years, the math is the math. As a few others mentioned, planning for your financial future with your portfolio being separately advised is absolutely suboptimal. Good luck getting it all combined under one roof. Even if you choose to use Vanguard's PAS Program, the 30 basis points vs. 2% alone will enable your wife to increase her returns, to say nothing about stopping the endless bleeding in fees.
Post: The High Cost of Financial Advice: A Tale of Two Portfolios
Link to comment from July 9, 2025
"My advice: Amass a healthy sum in your financial accounts, and quietly enjoy the peace of mind it offers. Not having to worry about money is, I believe, a great privilege." Absolutely, 100% Correct! A privilege, indeed. Despite the advice of most financial gurus, I made the decision to spend a considerable sum of my portfolio on a series of annuities, 2 years before I retired. I also made the decision not to file for my social security benefits until age 70. These two decisions have resulted in my wife and I having the peace of mind knowing that 1. We will never run out of money in retirement 2. We currently have guaranteed income that is twice the amount of our current retirement expenses 3. Our remaining portfolio is invested for the long term, 100% in equities, as we are not presently using it for income. Guaranteed Income for life, no debts, no mortgage payments, fairly decent health...life is good! Thank you Lord!
Post: Let’s Get Happy
Link to comment from June 28, 2025
A number of years ago, I made the decision to stop looking for "the answer" in investing. I discovered, as Adam mentioned, that there is no one answer, and that, in fact, "there are many paths to the top of the mountain." Instead of trying to determine what the next Apple or Amazon would be, I would simply own everything in the market, and that way, although I would never beat the market, I could match it. So I purchased VTI and VXUS. Had I not also made the decision to maximize my social security benefits by delaying claiming to age 70 and supplementing those benefits with additional guaranteed lifetime income, through annuities, I would have also include BND and BNDX. By owning these four Vanguard ETFs, you basically own everything from everywhere. No more need to worry about FOMO...which is a very real issue...because you aren't really missing out on anything. Remember, you own everything from everywhere. Of course then you'll have to find something to do with all the time you use to waste trying to figure out how to beat the market, before you finally faced the reality that Jack Bogle told us about years ago, that you can't and neither can anyone else, on a regular basis.
Post: Eyes Forward
Link to comment from June 28, 2025
Adam: As usual, a great article from you! One thing I predict is that AI will make good financial advisors even better financial advisors. I spent the last 15 years of my financial services career as an academic, teaching, training, and educating financial services professionals. Over those 15 years I came to understand that the real value provided by a financial advisor is to stopping people from acting stupid, when they get scared and confused by the market's volatility. That's it! Everything else advisors do can be done yourself, if you choose to devote the time and effort to learning how. Fortunately, for advisors, the vast majority of people will not take the time, nor make the effort. Yesterday I happened to "discovered" claude.ai and I put it to the test. I discovered quickly that value of the answers you get from AI are directly related to the quality and clarity of the wording of the questions you ask it. I asked claude.ai a series of questions regarding my taxes for 2025 and got interesting and accurate results. I had to correct it, by restating that my spouse and I were over age 65 and filing jointly, to have the standard deduction corrected to reflect the additional deductions available to those over 65. Once that was done, the results were updated to reflect the correct numbers. I then asked it to consider whether I should consider making a Roth Conversion in 2025, and ifs, in what amount. Again, after clarifying that my annuity income is 72% income tax free, the resulting answer correctly stated the tax implications of the Roth Conversion, and the benefits of doing it. I then moved on to a series of questions related to whether or not I should consider an investment in MYGAs vs. remaining invested in the market. Again, after clarifying a number of points as I went along, I received a response that, had I been grading it as a response from a CFP candidate, on an exam, I would have given them an A! It was well organized, well reasoned, and provided pros, cons, and suggested alternatives to consider, based on whether Income was needed currently, or not. All in all, I foresee AI being a valuable tool to those who are good at their jobs, and using AI to make them even more productive and valuable to their clients.
Post: The Jevons Paradox
Link to comment from June 28, 2025
I attended the BH conference in Chicago, a few years back. I enjoyed meeting and chatting with the folks whose blogs and books I had been consuming, as I readied myself for retirement. The tracks were excellent, with one for beginners and another for older, experienced BH members. The presentations were first class and the speakers were all good to excellent. At the time, in 2022-2023, as a newer BH, I was still absorbing ideas, and strategies, trying to figure out how best to fund my retirement and remain invested for growth and total return. Those days are behind me. Today I am 100% invested in VTI and VXUS, @ 80/20. My portfolio is 25% Taxable, 43% Tax Deferred and 32% Tax Free. We also own a small number of BRK-B shares, "just because," as well as few shares of Ford (my first employer) and Harley-Davidson (because I owned one for many years.) Our income consists of primarily Social Security (partially Taxed and with COLA) Annuity Income (72% Income Tax Free and w/o COLA) and 4% withdrawals from our Vanguard Portfolio (Income Tax Free because LTCGG bracket is Zero.) Our Income exceeds our expenses by @ $55,000 annually. We have no real need for Bonds or Bond ETFs, as our Annuities provide the income and safety bonds would be providing. This year I opted to attend the Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders Meeting instead of BH again...but maybe I will attend BH in 2026, depending on where it is held. I wouldn't hesitate to attend this year and San Antonio is a nice place to visit.
Post: Boglehead Conference
Link to comment from June 27, 2025
Not really advising you to do it, but in August, we are going to Germany. Both my wife and I were Army Brats. I actually grew up in Germany from the age of 3 until I was 16. My wife of 51 years lived in Germany from age 6 until age 9. We are visiting Bavaria, specifically Munich and Stuttgart, and taking a side trip to Bad Tolz, the town I actually lived in. In addition, we are traveling to Berlin, where I lived in 1955-1957, and where my step mother was born. The only other foreign travel we will most likely go in is planned for next year, when we will visit Ireland, Scotland, and England. While in England, I plan to take a two day trip to Normandy France, to visit the sites of D-Day. My father was a member of the 82nd Airborne and he landed in Normandy on D-Day, in a Glider, when he was 18 years old. Once our European travel is completed, the remaining travel we are planning will be in the US, and possibly a trip to Canada's far eastern proveinces.
Post: Trips in your “go go” years?
Link to comment from June 12, 2025
4%...just so there would actually be an increase, after average inflation...or to offset the 4% withdrawal ratio most advisors use.
Post: “Most Revealing Question in Personal Finance”
Link to comment from June 5, 2025
May I ask where you are located? I visited The Villages Florida in May of 2024, shortly after retiring. I loved it...but unfortunately, my wife did not. I would rather take your route than the CCRC route, if that were an option.
Post: Who Will Care for Us? by Dennis Friedman
Link to comment from June 5, 2025
Dennis: Our circumstances almost mirror yours. I am 74 (75 in October) and my wife is 70 (71 in September.) Our kids, 47 and 41, live in MD and TX...we are in NC. We have no grandkids and we do not plan to move again in retirement. I have an excellent LTCI policy which I obtained as an employment fringe in 2005. It costs $1,695 annually. My wife doesn't have LTCI, and couldn't qualify for a hybrid life/LTC policy either. We do have 4 annuities however, each of which has a "doubler"attached to it for a period of 5 years. It would increase our $36,562 to $54,843 annually, if either of us qualified for LTC. If Rachel can qualify for a policy, get one. You might consider looking at the hybrid life/LTCI policies, if you are concerned about "what happens if we never beed it..." My favorite policy in that category comes from OneAmerica. (That's the one I tried getting for my wife.) We built our "forever" home in 2018, in anticipation of retirement. We have 36 in wide doors, no stairs anywhere, wooden floors, walk in shower with a built in bench, (we have a jacuzzi bath tub and regular tub as well) and it is built such that if we needed a live in aide, their is a bedroom, bath, and sitting room separated from the main home area, by a pocket door. It was built with the idea of retiring in place. I may consider the CCRC option later on, but my wife is not enamored of the idea. She has not yet embraced the fact that we are old, and says she doesn't want to live with "a bunch of old people." My step dad lived with us for 5 of the last 6 years of his life. His final year was in a memory care unit. He lived until 93. He would have reached 100 this year. The assisted living facility he lived in cost $6,150 a month and he was a self pay resident. As you mentioned if I were to consider a CCRC, I would want the guaranteed care option, and the financial strength and stability of the facility would be foremost in any considerations. Your article is an important one, because as you said, we are living longer, and there will be a shortage of health care aides in the future, worse than the one we are experiencing today.
Post: Who Will Care for Us? by Dennis Friedman
Link to comment from June 5, 2025