Author Archives: peter benedek
blog04nov2007
Hot Off the Web Jonathan Clements has a must read article in the WSJ for the do it yourself-er entitled “Make it to the end with money to spare” that covers just about all the mechanisms for decummulating your assets in retirement. His list covers: (1) cash-equivalents over the next 3-5 years and perhaps target-date […]
blog28oct2007
Hot Off the Web In “Minimizing the pain of withdrawal” the Financial Post’s Chevreau writes about the complicated (usually means expensive) new products becoming available in Canada like Income Plus (Manu Life), a variable annuity with downside protection and participation in the stock market returns; also TSWP (Fidelity), TFLEX (AIM Trimark) and Series T (Franklin), […]
blog21oct2007
Hot Off the Web Short selling has arrived to Canadian mutual funds as reported in “Mutual funds add short selling to their arsenal” . While new in Canada, this is seen a growing trend, though here it comes with many restrictions (maximum short position 5% and must be kept in cash rather than additional equities). […]
blog14oct2007
Hot Off the Web WSJ’s “New funds for retirement payouts” reports the arrival of ground-breaking funds from Fidelity and Vanguard. What is different in these funds is that the annual payout is variable. Fidelity family of funds with target dates of 2016 to 2036 have payouts that are an increasing percentage of the investors’ remaining […]
blog08oct2007
Hot Off the Web Arne Alsin of the Financial Times reminds readers about the difference between price (what something costs?) and value (what is its value?) in “Pitfall that awaits the emotionally motivated ‘blind investor’” . To determine the value is the more difficult of the questions. Often, when the price drops, investors panic and […]
blog30sep2007
Hot Off the Web Rob Carrick in the Globe and Mail lists mutual funds which despite their Canadian sized management fees beat the indexes over the past 15 years in “Give a cheer for these index-beating mutual funds” . (These funds are certainly would be preferred ones to consider if you were planning to buy […]
blog23sep2007
Hot Off the Web Jonathan Clements in “Harder than building wealth: Keeping it” he takes concern about retirement finance to a new level, including a factor not usually discussed in retirement finance articles. (Of course you read many reports about whether the old 70% of pre-retirement income target may be obsolete, given the younger, healthier […]
Time Diversification: Stocks are less risky over the long-term??? (Not!)
(Originally posted August 6, 2010) The myth of “time diversification” promises that if you invest (in risky assets) for the long-term you can eliminate risk, i.e. time reduces/eliminates risk. Tell that to somebody who was invested for 20 years with a 100% stock allocation (e.g.S&P500) and was planning to retire in the spring of 2009; […]
What Now? (October 13,2008)
What Now? (October 13,2008) In a Nutshell The impact of the recent market drop must be assessed on our financial health and corrective action may be required: -review current annual spending in detail, and set budget for next near -estimate expected “must” and “want” expenditures in retirement -identify the known (secure) pension sources of income […]
Are “target-date” funds or age-independent “fixed-asset allocation” right for you?
Are “target-date” funds or age-independent “fixed-asset allocation” right for you? In “Target-date funds I” and “Target-date funds II” I discussed some of the advantages and disadvantages of target-date funds and some simple methods for doing a low-cost implementation. In my May 11, 2008 Hot Off the Web blog I referred to a recent article in […]
RetirementAction.com 