tman9999
Retired management consultant from the Midwest, now living in the SF Bay Area for last 20 years. Did a lot of modeling and analysis on internal operations costs and value of strategic improvements. Now a personal finance/decumulation fanatic, trying to figure out how to optimize our retirement spending for maximum enjoyment. Recently I’ve become a new Income Lab user and fan. If you’d like to talk about personal finance, Income Lab or skiing, feel free to send me a note: thedecumulator at gmail.
Comments
Why judge?
Post: The Wrong-Sided Man
Link to comment from May 10, 2025
I’m hearing a lot of geezering going on here.
Post: The Wrong-Sided Man
Link to comment from May 10, 2025
Agree. I think there’s a lot of old perceptions hanging around that came from the personal finance community about how bad annuities are. To be fair, many of those are still true - the industry did it to themselves with all the sales-driven commission chasing, high fees, and complex products. That all said, I’ve come to think of them as a tool. Annuities have a place in my financial plan as both longevity insurance (see comment about SPIAs below) and as part of my bond ladder in the form of MYGAs - multi-year guaranteed annuities aka fixed annuities.
Post: RDQ Sorry folks, I still see annuities, including deferred annuities, as a viable option for creating steady retirement income.
Link to comment from April 26, 2025
If you have longevity in your genes, a SPIA at 80 to generate enough income to cover your fixed expenses is cheap longevity insurance. At 80, the actuarial tables call for you living only 5-7 more years (M/F), so the effective rate of return becomes very favorable if you end up living another 5-10 years longer than that.
Post: RDQ Sorry folks, I still see annuities, including deferred annuities, as a viable option for creating steady retirement income.
Link to comment from April 26, 2025
Love Connections (and Spelling Bee). Play them every day, along with the mini-crossword. Fired up Wordle again after a long hiatus - the pressure of not breaking my streak began weighing on me. 🥴 Speaking of streaks, I had 11 in a row with Connections until today. Failed. I’m going to have to cry ‘foul’ on this one, though. It was a totally unfair puzzle today!
Post: Building Connections
Link to comment from April 26, 2025
Last year, we set up a “bond” ladder comprising some T-bonds purchased on the secondary market and some MYGAs purchased through an annuity broker. For those who aren’t familiar with MYGAs, they’re a type of fixed annuity called a multi-year guaranteed annuity. You buy them with a fixed period and guaranteed interest rate, and many allow for annual withdrawals of either accrued interest or a fixed percentage in the 5-10% range. They behave a lot like a CD in that accrued interest is taxable (even if it’s not paid out yet) and at maturity you get your principal and all accrued interest returned to you. One note of caution - if you’re under age 59-1/2 be sure to consult your state’s tax code regarding payments from an annuity, as in some states you could end up paying a penalty if you’re under that age.
Post: First Quarter 2025 by Ken Cutler
Link to comment from April 12, 2025
Post: Spreading Your Bets
Link to comment from April 12, 2025
Wilde was being his usual flippant, ironic self with that quote. In fact, education is the perfect place for learning facts and hard truths. Try learning your times tables through trial and error. Learn some facts, learn how to learn, learn critical thinking, and then go get experience. Your portfolio will thank you.
Post: Paying Your Tuition
Link to comment from March 31, 2025
Well said, @jack hannam.
Post: Detailed tracking expenses and spending. Is there real value?
Link to comment from March 8, 2025
Great perspective to hear from someone who’s done it and can speak with some hindsight around the merit of their decision. Thank you. I am curious, though, about your (and others’) comment about taxes not likely to be this cheap again. What is it that makes you believe that’s true? If you look back in the last 50 years it seems to me that taxes have trended down despite big technology breakthroughs, step-function changes in productivity that those changes brought about, and increased national debt.
Post: To Roth Convert or Not
Link to comment from March 8, 2025