Six months before I retired I worked with a finical advisor from Fidelity. I was a telecommunications technician with ATT and they had contracted with Fidelity to handle retirement money payouts. Working with a Fidelity finical advisor was a free perk. At the time I was still up in the air as far as a lump sum or pension and what my retirement pay would look like. I was going to do a lump sum but was starting to lean toward a pension. The advisor asked for a lot of my finical information and ran a Monte Carlo simulation. The goal was to get a score of at least 100 and mine came in at 150. He also recommended the pension over the lump sum as the pension wasn't correlated with the stock market. The time spent working with him and his team was very worth while.
Since then I've read several finical books and am doing my own investing with index funds. I've also have been watching a PBS program WealthTrack, for years. Up to that point it had been my main source of investing information along with a subscription to Barron's. Jonathan Clements had been interviewed on one WealthTrack episode which is how I found out about his his book and newsletter.
During times of high inflation and low interest rates you'll get eaten alive with fixed income. The place to be is equities because they can raise their prices to keep ahead of inflation.
I would have to agree, there's nothing wrong with non-profit. When I was working, one of the best employer health care plans I ever had was a not-for-profit Blue Cross Blue Shield plan. That was before their new CEO made them for-profit. A non-profit is focused on patient care, a for-profit saving money. CEO's don't like non-profit because they can't pay themselves big salaries.
I would love to see more not-for-profit-healthcare, where companies care more for their customers than themselves. During my working life the best health care I ever experienced was from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois when they were not-for-profit. They had to spend any money above their expenses for health care. I never had anything denied and they were very generous with their coverage. Then they installed a new CEO, the first thing he did was to go for-profit, probably because he could pay himself more money. After the change they became cheap, and things they had covered before they started denying.
What's backing bitcoin? Just the fact that there's a limited number of them? Gold is a real physical thing, a valuable thing. It will never tarnish or rust, it has good electrical properties, it can't be created out of thin air. A limited amount is mined each year. Because of that, currency backed by gold (what we used to have) is hard to inflate, therefore it holds it's value over time.
I've found over the years that the higher your income, the less important a budget is, but the lower, the more important. The higher the income, the bigger the safety margin of not coming up short.
The lower a persons income is, the more important it is to have a budget. Every penny counts, and its easy to go over the edge into debt. A budget also gives a person with low income peace of mind that they can make their bills each month.
Having too much stuff can be like a boat anchor, I know, I have several. Now in retirement, one of my goals is to reduce the size and how many I have. Having less stuff is also less for other people to steal. Last year my garage was broken into and I loss over $2000 in cordless power tools and batteries.
I sent check thru the mail to missionary group down south who had an urgent need. I sent it certified with a return receipt. Over the years it was my experience that certified mail received special handling and usually arrived before first class. This time tracking showed it arrived at a post office close to the missionary offices and was just sitting there. I finally went down to the main post office here in Milwaukee and asked what was going on. The counter people gave me a local customer service number to contact. I talked to a very nice lady who said she would call down to the post office and ask them to send it along. It was delivered the next day. I was thinking, why couldn't they do that themselves? I've also given up sending magazine subscription renewal checks to anywhere in the New York/New Jersey area. They never arrive and are never cashed. It's like they disappear into a black hole.
I retired three years ago. A couple of years before retiring I thought about how much I needed to retire. I came to conclusion I needed to replace my take home pay, not my gross. By taking a pension instead of a lump sum and waiting until my full social security age I was able to replace 95% of my take home pay which is what you really live on. It worked because when retired you're no longer paying SS taxes, my state, Wisconsin, doesn't tax SS benefits, and federal taxes are lower also. I was lucky to have a pension option but for people who don't things are different.
Those big drops are the time to buy (stocks on sale). Portfolio diversity is the way to plan for large drops. It's very rare that everything is down at the same time. Even with index funds you need to diversify to funds that cover different market sectors and countries.
Comments
Six months before I retired I worked with a finical advisor from Fidelity. I was a telecommunications technician with ATT and they had contracted with Fidelity to handle retirement money payouts. Working with a Fidelity finical advisor was a free perk. At the time I was still up in the air as far as a lump sum or pension and what my retirement pay would look like. I was going to do a lump sum but was starting to lean toward a pension. The advisor asked for a lot of my finical information and ran a Monte Carlo simulation. The goal was to get a score of at least 100 and mine came in at 150. He also recommended the pension over the lump sum as the pension wasn't correlated with the stock market. The time spent working with him and his team was very worth while. Since then I've read several finical books and am doing my own investing with index funds. I've also have been watching a PBS program WealthTrack, for years. Up to that point it had been my main source of investing information along with a subscription to Barron's. Jonathan Clements had been interviewed on one WealthTrack episode which is how I found out about his his book and newsletter.
Post: Does My Sister Need a Financial Advisor?
Link to comment from November 8, 2025
During times of high inflation and low interest rates you'll get eaten alive with fixed income. The place to be is equities because they can raise their prices to keep ahead of inflation.
Post: The rules we didn’t follow
Link to comment from November 1, 2025
I would have to agree, there's nothing wrong with non-profit. When I was working, one of the best employer health care plans I ever had was a not-for-profit Blue Cross Blue Shield plan. That was before their new CEO made them for-profit. A non-profit is focused on patient care, a for-profit saving money. CEO's don't like non-profit because they can't pay themselves big salaries.
Post: About those US medical costs….
Link to comment from November 1, 2025
I would love to see more not-for-profit-healthcare, where companies care more for their customers than themselves. During my working life the best health care I ever experienced was from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois when they were not-for-profit. They had to spend any money above their expenses for health care. I never had anything denied and they were very generous with their coverage. Then they installed a new CEO, the first thing he did was to go for-profit, probably because he could pay himself more money. After the change they became cheap, and things they had covered before they started denying.
Post: Don’t make the wrong Medicare decision
Link to comment from October 25, 2025
What's backing bitcoin? Just the fact that there's a limited number of them? Gold is a real physical thing, a valuable thing. It will never tarnish or rust, it has good electrical properties, it can't be created out of thin air. A limited amount is mined each year. Because of that, currency backed by gold (what we used to have) is hard to inflate, therefore it holds it's value over time.
Post: Why Bitcoin?
Link to comment from September 27, 2025
I've found over the years that the higher your income, the less important a budget is, but the lower, the more important. The higher the income, the bigger the safety margin of not coming up short. The lower a persons income is, the more important it is to have a budget. Every penny counts, and its easy to go over the edge into debt. A budget also gives a person with low income peace of mind that they can make their bills each month.
Post: Budget, What Budget? (Know Thyself)
Link to comment from September 20, 2025
Having too much stuff can be like a boat anchor, I know, I have several. Now in retirement, one of my goals is to reduce the size and how many I have. Having less stuff is also less for other people to steal. Last year my garage was broken into and I loss over $2000 in cordless power tools and batteries.
Post: Frugality, Minimalism, and Aligning Values
Link to comment from August 30, 2025
I sent check thru the mail to missionary group down south who had an urgent need. I sent it certified with a return receipt. Over the years it was my experience that certified mail received special handling and usually arrived before first class. This time tracking showed it arrived at a post office close to the missionary offices and was just sitting there. I finally went down to the main post office here in Milwaukee and asked what was going on. The counter people gave me a local customer service number to contact. I talked to a very nice lady who said she would call down to the post office and ask them to send it along. It was delivered the next day. I was thinking, why couldn't they do that themselves? I've also given up sending magazine subscription renewal checks to anywhere in the New York/New Jersey area. They never arrive and are never cashed. It's like they disappear into a black hole.
Post: A Record Journey
Link to comment from August 23, 2025
I retired three years ago. A couple of years before retiring I thought about how much I needed to retire. I came to conclusion I needed to replace my take home pay, not my gross. By taking a pension instead of a lump sum and waiting until my full social security age I was able to replace 95% of my take home pay which is what you really live on. It worked because when retired you're no longer paying SS taxes, my state, Wisconsin, doesn't tax SS benefits, and federal taxes are lower also. I was lucky to have a pension option but for people who don't things are different.
Post: 100% Base Pay Replacement: What Does It Mean?
Link to comment from July 26, 2025
Those big drops are the time to buy (stocks on sale). Portfolio diversity is the way to plan for large drops. It's very rare that everything is down at the same time. Even with index funds you need to diversify to funds that cover different market sectors and countries.
Post: Going to Extremes
Link to comment from July 26, 2025