Author Archives: peter benedek
How much do you need in retirement?
How Much Will You Need in Retirement? One reads that required retirement income is 60-80% of pre-retirement income. However, given the increased time available for leisure and travel, it is not difficult to imagine income requirement equal to or greater than pre-retirement. Clearly there is a difference between essential and discretionary expenses. The traditional approach […]
Withdrawal strategies in retirement
Withdrawal Strategies in Retirement Clearly, unless you are in the fortunate position of having been a longtime employee with an employer providing a guaranteed, generous and indexed pension plan (e.g. you’re a retiree from a government job), withdrawal rates from your accumulated assets will be one of the more stressful decisions that you’ll have to […]
Is retirement past its prime?
Is Retirement Past its Prime? Last week I attended an interesting and informative CFA Institute sponsored talk by Michael Falk of ProManage on the above topic. He points out that, while the nature of retirement is an individual choice, societal implications and fiscal viability of these individual choices will be determined by demographics in the […]
Pension or lump sum
Pension or Lump Sum? Reading Theo Francis’ “Pension tension: figuring out when to lump it” in the WSJ, reminded me of the time when I had to make the decision, about five years ago. For what it’s worth, I’ll later give you some of my rationale for choosing to go with a pension, rather than […]
Vanguard GLWB vs. other decumulation strategies
Vanguard’s GLWB: Credit to Vanguard for delivering on the promise (Originally posted November 7, 2011 and re-hosted in March 2012) In a nutshell Vanguard’s GLWB finally meets the promise of the value inherent in GLWB/GMWB-like strategies. We can only hope that Vanguard will also offer this product eventually in Canada. Vanguard’s GLWB is a great compromise […]
Articles on selecting an advisor
Articles on selecting an advisor Choosing an Advisor and Bang for the Buck from Your Advisor (a couple of blogs I did on the subject over the last few years) “Where to find a true fee-only planner” “Getting advice in a rough market” “Three questions for your financial advisor” “Fee-only then, fee-only now” “Fee-based accounts […]
blog16sep2007
Hot Off the Web First, there were a couple of interesting articles on Florida’s discriminatory two-tier property tax front; one is potential good news and the other, is bad news materializing, as expected. BusnessWeek’s “Shaky times for munis” reports that the U.S Supreme Court is expected to rule on the constitutionality of the State of […]
blog09sep2007
Hot Off the Web This is a somewhat belated September 9th blog, as we got in after midnight last night from a week in the magnificent Canadian Rockies. We got in lots of great scenery, food and hiking! In Financial Post’s “Use your home’s equity, but don’t forget the debt” , Jonathan Chevreau discusses the […]
blog02sep2007
Hot Off the Web WSJ’s Ruffenach in “Don’t count on your house for retirement” reports that in a California area survey, 68% of 60 year olds were counting their home as part of their retirement assets. He suggests that this is not a good strategy, not just because real estate prices are now falling, but […]
blog27aug2007
Hot Off the Web Financial Post’s Richard Croft in “Picking the right benchmark” tables the importance of benchmarks in investing (you can read more about it at this website at Benchmarks ). He gives two reasons for their importance: comparison with a passive alternative and because of focus on portfolio rather than individual securities. He […]
RetirementAction.com 