Protecting the Downside, while Participating in the Upside A couple of months ago in “Lifecycle investing” I, superficially touched, upon Zvi Bodie’s view that diversification is not the only way to reduce investment/market risk. In fact, according to him, it may not even be the best way. In a reference that I quote in that […]
The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb (The Impact of the Highly Improbable) Just finished reading Nassim Taleb’s “The Black Swan” and I enjoyed it even more than his previous good book “Fooled by Randomness” (not that it wasn’t a good read). Taleb defines a Black Swan is an event which: 1. Is an outlier, i.e. […]
Pension/Retirement Plan Reform One of the interesting topics at the CFA conference that I recently attended was the topic of required pension changes to be implemented urgently with the accelerated unraveling of the defined benefit (DB) plans, the misapplication of the defined contribution (DC) plans and the often mentioned inadequately funded Social Security liabilities. At […]
What’s in the budget for retirees? Well not a great deal more than the reaffirmed pension splitting announced last Halloween. The additional goodies included here are mostly covered in Chevreau’s FP article “Retirees: two more years for saving”: • RRIFs start date moved from age 69 to 71, adding opportunity for a further two years […]
“How to Retire Happy, Wild and Free” by Ernie J. Zelinski While this website is focused on the financial aspects of retirement, I could not resist sharing with you a book that I just read, about a completely different dimension of retirement. In fact the book is subtitled as “Retirement wisdom that you won’t get […]
Withdrawal Strategies in Retirement (expanded) 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 […]
Withdrawal Strategies in Retirement Suppose that you just retired and you are trying to figure out how much can you withdraw per year from your accumulated asset base. Traditionally people used to say “never touch the principal, only withdraw the interest” and that retirees should be invested in guaranteed fixed income instruments only! The problems […]
Changes Needed for Pensions-Make Your Voices Heard Changes are brewing in the how companies have to account for pension liabilities (affecting shareholder equity) and how long they will have to make up the shortfall (ten versus five years). Requiring explicit balance sheet recognition for the pension liability may encourage companies to reduce the liability by […]
(Mostly) Great News for Retirees/Pensioners Welcome to the first issue of RetirementAction. I hope you wil return to help evolve and improve this periodic communication on how to take control of our financial future. Mr. Flaherty, Canada’s Minister of Finance showed up on Halloween with a trick and a treat. Much ink has been spilled […]
Florida Property Tax: State rejects proposed compromise on SOHA Constitutional Challenge – Is Florida missing an opportunity for renewal? There are currently several lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of Florida’s discriminatory real estate taxation laws. At the heart of the cases is the fact that owners of properties with similar market value are charged vastly different […]
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