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Retirement Planning: 8 Conservative Assumptions to Consider

May 13, 2013 By Roger Wohlner 8 Comments

According to the folks at PBS Frontline, retirement is a gamble at best. One way to increase your odds of success is to use conservative assumptions. As a financial advisor I generally use conservative assumptions in all aspects of client financial planning.

If you’re concerned about running out of money during retirement, you need to be realistic and conservative with your assumptions. Here are 8 conservative assumptions for you to consider:

Assume you will need 100 percent of your current income in retirement

Many rules of thumb suggest you’ll need between 70 and 100 percent of your pre-retirement income in retirement, but plan on at least 100 percent to be safe. Today’s retirees are active, they want to travel, pursue hobbies, and live a generally active lifestyle. This costs money. Even though you will likely slow down a bit as you age, medical costs later in retirement will likely rise and may replace what you were spending on activities and travel earlier in retirement.

Add extra years to your life expectancy

We are all living longer with advances in medicine and the like. Many factors come into play here including the history of longevity in your family.

Reduce your estimates of Social Security benefits

The youngest of the Baby Boomers can likely count on Social Security as we know it but I’m guessing that those younger than 50 may see reduced benefits. In the interest of being conservative, I suggest that you take your current estimate from Social Security and reduce it by say 25%. If things work out better that’s great, if not then you’ve planned and saved accordingly.

Cut back on your living expenses now

This not only frees up money to set aside for your retirement, but it helps you adjust to a potentially lower standard of living in retirement.

Be conservative with your investment expectations

We are four plus years into a stock rally and the stock market is at record levels. For investors nearing retirement it is a good idea to adjust your portfolio and expectations regarding investment returns accordingly.

Rethink early retirement

Saving enough to last from age 65 to age 85 or 90 is a difficult task. Trying to retire at age 55 or 60 is just not practical for most individuals, unless you’re willing to significantly change your lifestyle. Working a few more years can go a long way in helping fund your retirement. Those years are typically your highest earning years, so hopefully you’ll be able to save significant sums during that period. Also, every year you work is one year you don’t have to support yourself with your retirement savings.

Consider working during retirement

Especially during the early years of retirement, you should consider having at least a part-time job. Even modest earnings can help significantly with current retirement expenses help delay the need to withdraw money from your retirement accounts at least to some extent. Additionally this can be a great way to transition to “full retirement” especially for those retiring early.

Take conservative withdrawals from your retirement accounts

Don’t plan on taking out more than 3 to 4 percent of your balance annually. The “four percent rule” is a handy rule of thumb, but it is just that. Everyone’s situation is different. It is best to start with a detailed retirement expense budget and then determine what your investments and other sources of income can support.

The best retirement planning strategy is to have a financial plan in place. Monitor your retirement accumulation progress against the plan’s benchmark and make adjustments as needed in areas such as the amount you are saving, your investment allocation, and the lifestyle that your resources will support. Always be conservative in your planning, it’s much better to have more than you planned on than to hit age 80 and realize that you are out of money.

Please feel free to contact me with your financial and retirement planning questions. Check out our Financial Planning and Investment Advice for Individuals page to learn more about our services.

Please check out our Resources page for links to some additional tools and services that might be beneficial to you.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Filed Under: Retirement Tagged With: Baby boomer, Financial plan, Investing, retirement, Social Security

Stock Market Highs and Your Retirement

May 9, 2013 By Roger Wohlner 6 Comments

Over the past 13 years we’ve seen two market peaks followed by pronounced market drops. The S&P 500 peaked at 1,527 on May 24, 2000 and then dropped 49% until it bottomed out at 777 on October 9, 2002. The Dot Com Bubble and the tragedy of September 11 all contributed. The S&P 500 rose to a high of 1,565 on October 9, 2007 only to fall 57% to a low of 677 on March 9, 2009 in the wake of the Financial Crisis. Since then the market has rallied with the S&P closing at a record 1632 on May 9, 2013. As someone saving for retirement what should you do at this point?

Review and rebalance

During the last market decline there were many stories about how our 401(k) accounts had become “201(k)s.” The recent PBS Frontline special The Retirement Gamble put much of the blame on Wall Street and they are right to an extent, especially as it pertains to the overall market drop.

However, some of the folks who experienced these drops well in excess of the markets were victims of their own over allocation to stocks. This might have been their doing or the result of poor financial advice.

Regardless we are in the midst of a four year rally off of the 2009 lows and the past year’s gains have been especially torrid . This is the time to review your portfolio allocation and rebalance if needed. For example your plan might call for a 60% allocation to stocks but with the gains that stocks have experienced you might now be at 70% or more. This is great as long as the market continues to rise, but you at increased risk should the market head down. It may be time to consider paring equities back and to implement a strategy for doing this.

Financial Planning is vital

If you don’t have a financial plan in place or if the last one you’ve done is old and outdated this is a great time to have one done. Do it yourself if you’re comfortable or hire a fee-only financial advisor to help you.

If you have a financial plan this is a great time to review it and see where you are relative to your goals. Has the market rally accelerated the amount you’ve accumulated for retirement relative to where you had thought you’d be at this point? If so maybe this is a good time to revisit your asset allocation and perhaps reduce your overall risk.

Learn from the past

John Hancock has been running a commercial that shows nicely dressed middle-aged couples in their financial advisor’s office saying that maybe this is the time to get back into the market. As an advisor these commercials are nauseating to me.

It is said that fear and greed are the two main drivers of the stock market. The talking suits on shows like CNBC seem to feel that the market has a ways to run and might even be undervalued. Maybe they’re right. However don’t get carried away and let greed guide your decisions.

Manage your portfolio with an eye towards downside risk. This doesn’t mean the markets won’t keep going up or that you should sell everything and go to cash. What is does mean is that you need to use your good common sense and keep your portfolio allocated in a fashion that is consistent with your long-term goals and risk tolerance.

Please feel free to contact me with your financial planning and investing questions. Check out our Financial Planning and Investment Advice for Individuals page to learn more about our services.

For you do-it-yourselfers, check out Morningstar.com to analyze your investment holdings and your portfolio. Please click on the link to get a free trial for their premium services. Please check out our Resources page for links to some additional tools and services that might be beneficial to you.

Photo credit: Phillip Taylor PT

Filed Under: Retirement Tagged With: fee-only, Financial plan, Investment, retirement

Winning The Retirement Gamble: Step 1 Adjust Your Mindset

May 6, 2013 By Roger Wohlner 9 Comments

The PBS Frontline documentary The Retirement Gamble has sparked a lot of discussion, both pro and con. One thing that is clear, the show contributed to the discussion about the lack of retirement readiness among many in the United States. I’m hardly an expert in behavioral finance, but I do know that in order for investors to be able to focus on planning for their retirement they need to adopt the right mindset.

Lose the victim mentality

I saw a lot of this on the PBS special and see this written about frequently in the press. The last few years especially have been rough on many of us saving for retirement. Job losses; the financial crises; the Flash Crash; the realization that not all financial advisors have their client’s best interests at heart; the mutual fund scandals of the middle part of the last decade might all be good excuses to feel like a victim.

As my wife used to say to our kids on the soccer field (when they had a minor injury) “…suck it up and get back in the game…” If you feel like a victim you likely will end up as one. Right or wrong saving for retirement is on you, deal with it.

Drink your own flavor of Kool Aid

I love index funds and ETFs and use them extensively throughout my practice. They comprise the majority of the assets for which I provide advice. I don’t, however, use passive index products exclusively. There are solid actively managed funds that in my opinion warrant inclusion in some client portfolios.

There are some folks out there who have an almost cult-like devotion to indexing and John Bogle. Mr. Bogle deserves all of the respect and admiration that he gets and then some. My point is that no single way of doing things is always right in all cases. It’s OK to mix and match funds, ETFs, active, and passive strategies, as well as other vehicles as long as they fit your financial plan and your needs. Don’t let anyone put you down because you disagree with their way of doing things.

Focus on the future, don’t dwell on the past

The past is in the books. Maybe you didn’t save enough perhaps you invested in all of the wrong places. Perhaps you had a greedy “financial guy” whose focus was on selling you products that enriched their bottom line at your expense. Don’t forget your past mistakes, learn from them, but don’t dwell on them.

All you can do in the financial planning and investing world is move forward from wherever you are now.

Find a fee-only financial advisor who puts your interests first.
Get a financial plan in place with appropriate goals and strategies.
Review your investing strategy.
Beef up your retirement savings.
Manage your career.
Take charge

Our retirement savings system puts the responsibility for accumulating enough for retirement on us. Get in the game make sure you have the right mindset and attitude to be successful.

Please feel free to contact me with your financial planning and investing questions. Check out our Financial Planning and Investment Advice for Individuals page to learn more about our services.

Photo credit: Flickr

Filed Under: Retirement Tagged With: Exchange-traded fund, Financial plan, Index fund, John Bogle, Mutual fund, retirement

Call the Safe Money Guy: My Road Sign Epiphany

May 2, 2013 By Roger Wohlner 4 Comments

On a recent drive on the Tollway through the far South end of Chicago near the Indiana state line all of a sudden there it was the solution to all of the financial planning issues that I help clients deal with. There was my financial epiphany, a road sign urging drivers to “Call the Safe Money Guy.”

Call me cynical, but I generally want to check to make sure my wallet is still in my pocket when I see a sales gimmick on the order of “The Safe Money Guy” advertised.

Sadly I was moving too fast to get the name of the firm so I am forced to dig into my vivid imagination to offer my thoughts on this and similar financial services marketing approaches.

Using 2008-2009 market drop as a sales tool

I think the whole idea of using fear-mongering as an annuity sales tactic is reprehensible, which is what I’m guessing this guy is doing. The pitch often goes something like this:

Fed up with the volatility in the stock market? Tired of the guys on Wall Street making all of the money? Invest for peace of mind and protect your principal. Call us.

So what’s wrong with this? Far too often the annuity or insurance product being sold carries high ongoing expenses, onerous surrender fees, and returns that often don’t look all that great when you “peel back the onion” and take a hard look at the underlying product. This pitch is common for Equity Index Annuities, a product that prompted even FINRA to post a warning page on its site.

Leading with a product vs. a plan

My real beef with this approach and similar ones is that they lead with the sale of financial products instead of a financial plan. How can anyone recommend any financial product to a client without first understanding in great detail the client’s goals, risk tolerance, and their overall financial situation?

Safe from what?

Many investors would equate safety with having little or no chance of losing money on their investments. That’s certainly one definition. Let me offer a few other “safety” features you might find in some of the products sold in this fashion:

Safety from low cost investment vehicles.
Safety from the returns that might be needed to achieve your longer-term financial goals. Over the years I have stressed the point to those planning for their retirement that the biggest single risk they face is from the ravages of inflation eroding the purchasing power of their hest-egg. I’m not advocating that folks take more investment risk than is appropriate for them, I am advocating that they balance the need for growth to stay ahead of inflation against the bunker mentality being sold by some fear-monger financial sales types.
Safety from product transparency. Anyone who has ever read an annuity or insurance contract can attest to this.
Safety from advisor compensation that is clearly defined and based only on financial advice provided.

Look I’m not against either life insurance or annuities. They can both have a place in a well-constructed financial plan. There are many folks who sell annuity and insurance products who are diligent and who do a great job for their clients. Sadly there are others who use what I consider to be some questionable sales tactics.

The recent PBS Frontline documentary The Retirement Gamble served to highlight the high fees that are rampant in some retirement plans. The same diligence needs to be applied by retirement savers and all investors outside of their company retirement plans.

If working with a financial advisor is right for you, choose a financial advisor who puts your interests first, who understands your needs, and who can recommend financial strategies and products to implement those strategies that are right for you, not those that put the most money in their pockets.

Please feel free to contact me with your retirement planning and investing questions. Check out our Financial Planning and Investment Advice for Individuals page for more information about our services.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Filed Under: Annuities Tagged With: Annuity, Equity-indexed annuity, Financial plan, Financial Planning, retirement

Friday Finance Links April 26, 2013 – NFL Draft Edition

April 26, 2013 By Roger Wohlner 7 Comments

Its NFL draft time again. Let’s hope that UCLA’s Datone Jones, the first round pick of America’s team the Green Bay Packers pans out as well as some recent top picks such as Clay Mathews, Aaron Rodgers, and Randall Cobb.

Here are a few links to some great weekend financial reading.

Personal Finance Blogs

Julie shares 3 Big Problems with Your Retirement Savings and What You Can Do About Them at The Family CEO.

Jason discusses Seven Reasons Why Being Rich Isn’t Evil at Hull Financial Planning.

Andrea explains Women and Retirement Planning: What You Need to do Different than Men at Take a Small Step.

Miranda asks Are Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) Going Away? at Cash Money Life.

Posts from Fellow NAPFA Members

Kimberly Howard discusses The Current State Of Social Security at Figuide.com.

Claire Emory tell us that Monopoly Offers Lessons On Investing And Financial Planning at Figuide.com.

Investing: 7 Steps to Spring Clean Your Portfolio

April 16, 2013 By Roger Wohlner 9 Comments

Spring time is traditionally the time to clean the garage and to get the yard in shape. It’s also a great time to clean up your investment portfolio. Here are 7 steps to a cleaner, more efficient portfolio.

Think of your investments as a portfolio

This is the first key step. Many investors focus on each holding and fail to look at the sum of the parts. Nobody is saying that investing in quality mutual funds, ETFs, stocks, etc. is not important. Start with your overall portfolio and determine if you are properly allocated in line with your financial goals and risk tolerance. Ideally this would all be an extension of your financial plan. Even younger investors starting out should think in terms of their overall portfolio, even if this is only a few holdings at this point.

Find your most recent statements and organize your records

Make sure that you receive and review statements from ALL investment accounts every time one is issued. This might be monthly or quarterly depending upon your custodian and the type of account. Keep them all in a file (paper and/or electronic) and more importantly find a way to take a consolidated, overall view of your holdings as a portfolio. I enter all client accounts and holdings into a spreadsheet. I suggest categorizing your portfolio by account and by asset class (large cap, small cap, etc.). At a minimum, this will show you how well you are diversified across different asset classes. You might also be amazed at the number of individual holdings across all of these accounts, I call this financial clutter. This is common among folks who might have a number of old 401(k) accounts at their former employers. I had a client with almost 50 distinct holdings across multiple accounts when we started working together. This is hard for anyone to track and monitor efficiently.

Consolidate your accounts

To the extent possible, consolidate your accounts. Unless there is a compelling reason to leave an old 401(k) with a former employer, monitoring your portfolio will be much easier if you roll these accounts into a consolidated IRA or even into your current employer’s 401(k) if allowed and the plan is a good one. This also holds true if you have several IRA accounts with various custodians as well as for taxable accounts, annuities, etc.

Review your asset allocation plan (or develop one)

This should happen before reviewing your individual investments so you aren’t influenced by your current allocation. As I’ve advocated here many times you need to have a financial plan in place before you decide upon an asset allocation strategy. The financial plan should drive your investing activities, your allocation, and your choice of investments. A well-constructed financial plan will help you focus on your risk-tolerance and your goals for the money you save and invest.

Review your current investment holdings

Have your stocks hit their sell targets? How do your mutual funds compare to their peers? It is important to establish a monitoring process for your individual holdings, and to review your holdings against appropriate benchmarks on a regular basis. If needed, make changes to your holdings if they no longer fit.

Rebalance your portfolio

You may need to buy and sell holdings or perhaps you can allocate new investment dollars to do this. Once you have determined that this is needed, you should get your allocation back in line as soon as possible to ensure that your allocation is consistent with the risk and return targets in your financial plan. Remember your allocation should be reviewed across all of your various accounts.

Establish a regular process to review and monitor your portfolio

Getting your portfolio in shape once does no good if you don’t establish a process to review your portfolio and your holdings on a regular basis. This doesn’t mean looking at your investments daily or even weekly. Depending upon your needs and your interest in doing this quarterly or semi-annually is sufficient for most. At least annually this should be incorporated with a review of your financial plan to ensure that everything is in synch.

Please feel free to contact me with your financial planning and investing questions. Check out our Financial Planning and Investment Advice for Individuals page to learn more about our services.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Filed Under: Investing Tagged With: Asset allocation, Financial plan, Investing, Investment, Mutual fund

Friday Finance Links April 12, 2013 – Feels Like Winter Edition

April 12, 2013 By Roger Wohlner 4 Comments

I think that we’ve had spring here in the Chicago area and that winter seems to be back. It’s very cold for mid-April and rainy. I’m looking forward to a low-key relaxing weekend.

Here are a few links to some great weekend financial reading.

Personal Finance Blogs

Jason describes The Day after the Initial Diagnosis: MS and Financial Planning at Hull Financial Planning.

Phil shares The True Impact of 529 Plans on Attendance, Affordability, and Financial Aid at PT Money.

Mario explains that Bitcoin is a Bubble Worth Watching in a guest post at The College Investor.

Posts from Fellow NAPFA Members

Claire Emory discusses Retirement Planning After Losing A Spouse at Figuide.com.

Tom Posey tells us Retirement Hurdles: It’s Not Just The Money at Figuide.com.

5 Steps to a Lousy Retirement

April 10, 2013 By Roger Wohlner 13 Comments

I’ve written a number of posts on this site about saving for retirement. This time let’s turn it around and discuss 5 steps to a lousy retirement.

Invest in stocks at the top of the market

This tip is timely as major stock market indexes are at all-time highs. In fact one company, John Hancock recently ran a TV ad encouraging investors who had been on the sidelines during the current market rally to get in now. The commercial depicted upscale couples sitting in their financial advisor’s office with a sense of optimism about the markets and feeling like this is the right time to invest. Don’t get me wrong, I have no idea where the stock market is going from here, but four years into a major Bull Market is not the time to be thinking about just getting back into stocks. A better approach is to have a financial plan that includes an appropriate investment allocation for your situation through the market’s ups and downs.

Invest in high cost broker sold mutual funds

Whether proprietary mutual funds offered by your broker or registered rep’s employer or mutual funds with expensive loads, these funds are generally bad choices for most investors. While no financial advisor works for free, unless there is some overriding reason to the contrary it is generally a good idea to avoid these mutual funds. Rather look for a fee-only financial advisor who sells their advice and expertise and isn’t dependent upon commissions and trailers from the sale of financial products. This type of structure lends itself to utilizing low cost index funds and actively managed funds across the whole universe of fund families.

Make financial decisions based upon your emotions

It is said that fear and greed are the two most potent forces that drive the stock market. Many financial products, especially many annuities (including Equity Index Annuities) are sold by fear mongering sales types with retirees and Baby Boomers as their prime targets. An annuity might be the right answer for you, but don’t write a check until you review all the details of this or any financial product. Don’t buy into the doom and gloom scenarios pitched by many financial sales types, especially right after a market decline such as the one we experienced in 2008-09. Make financial decisions with a clear head, not out of fear, greed, or any other emotion.

Don’t take full advantage of your workplace retirement plan

Why contribute to a 401(k) plan, 403(b), 457, or similar retirement plan offered by your employer? It’s much more fun to spend the money on things you want now such as clothes, a new car, that vacation you deserve, etc. Besides, didn’t 401(k) plans let investors down in 2008-09? The reality is that your employer sponsored retirement plan is one of the best retirement savings vehicles going. Even a lousy 401(k) plan is generally worth funding at least enough to receive your employer’s full match if one is offered. Over the course of my years as a financial planner I can tell you that I have many clients who have accumulated (or are in the process of accumulating) significant sums in their retirement plan accounts that will play a key role in their retirement.

Don’t plan for retirement, just wing it

Why spend money on a financial plan? Retirement will just happen and I’ll be ready. Things have always worked out for me. The reality is that retirement is a financial journey, both accumulating enough for a comfortable retirement and managing your money during retirement. While you might win the lottery or inherit a princely sum from some long lost relative, the reality is that a successful retirement takes planning.

As the legendary golfer Gary Player once said, “… the more I practice, the luckier I get…” The same applies to preparing financially for retirement. Planning, preparation, saving early and regularly, and your good common sense are all key elements in engineering a successful and comfortable retirement.

Please feel free to contact me with your retirement planning questions. Check out our Financial Planning and Investment Advice for Individuals page for more information about our services.

Please check out our Resources page for links to some additional tools and services that might be beneficial to you.

This article was selected for the 404th edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance hosted by financial coach Adam Hagerman.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Filed Under: Retirement Tagged With: 401(k), Annuity, fee-only, Financial plan, Investing, Investment

Investing: John Hancock’s TV Ad – Brilliant and Disturbing

March 25, 2013 By Roger Wohlner 4 Comments

Throughout the NCAA tournament games I’ve noticed a new John Hancock advertising campaign showing upscale looking couples in their late 40s to mid 50s sitting in their financial advisor’s office with the theme of getting back into the markets. One ad in particular portrays a sense of optimism among these investors. As an ad this is brilliant. The sentiment depicted is, however, beyond disturbing to this financial advisor.

Why it’s brilliant

The current stock market rally has been in place since March 9, 2009. Of late the stock market has been creating headlines as the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit an all-time high and the S&P 500 has been flirting with its all-time highs. The ad depicts investors who have been out of the market totally or who have been underweight in stocks and are now looking to get back in. They feel better about things, the market has recovered. This commercial is catering to this sentiment and offering advice to those in this situation. I suspect this segment of the investing population is significant. This ad and the others in this series are brilliant in this regard.

Why it’s disturbing

The market is in record territory, we feel better about stocks, let’s get back into the market now. If you stop and think about this thought process it’s flawed on so many levels. While I’m not saying that the markets may not continue to go up for awhile, this is a great example of how many individual investors get hurt, they buy high and sell low. While you can’t expect to hit the exact bottom as an entry point or the exact market top as a point to sell, does four years into a rally seem like the right time to get excited about the stock market to you?

Tooting the horn of competent financial advisors everywhere, this is why a relationship with a trusted advisor is so critical to many investors. My clients had largely recovered from the last market downturn in mid 2010, some a bit later, some a bit earlier. Other advisors with whom I discuss such matters had the same experience. It’s not that we have some secret investing philosophy; it’s that we work with our clients and keep them invested in a manner consistent with their financial plan, risk tolerance, and their goals. In many cases the best thing we do for our clients is to keep them from acting on their own worst investing instincts, which for some might have entailed getting out of the markets in late 2008 or early 2009, incurring horrible losses which could have taken years to recover from.

Investing and financial planning go hand in hand

Sadly the couples depicted in the John Hancock commercials are probably more typical than we’d like to think. A financial plan is not the cure for everything, but it provides a blueprint to fall back on when things get tough in the markets.

What were my assumptions?
How are we progressing towards our goals?
Has the market drop thrown us off track?
Do we need to make some adjustments?

And make no mistake; we will have another down market again at some point. Investing only when things “feel good” in the markets is not a strategy, its insanity. Don’t be one of the couples that John Hancock is targeting. Get a plan in place, hire an advisor to assist you if need be. If you do hire an advisor, I suggest you seek out a fee-only advisor who doesn’t have the inherent conflict of interest that comes with the need to sell you financial products (full disclosure I am a fee-only advisor).

To be clear I’m not saying that investors shouldn’t be in the markets or that they shouldn’t commit any new money to stocks. What I am saying is that if you are asking questions of the sort depicted in the John Hancock commercial it’s time to get serious about your retirement and your financial future.

Please feel free to contact me with your financial planning and investing questions. Check out our Financial Planning and Investment Advice for Individuals page to learn more about our services.

Please check out our Resources page for links to a variety of tools and services that might be beneficial to you.

Photo credit: Flickr

Filed Under: Investing Tagged With: Financial plan, Investing, retirement

Friday Finance Links March 22, 2013 – Go Marquette Edition

March 22, 2013 By Roger Wohlner 2 Comments

March Madness is underway and my grad school alma matter Marquette pulled out an exciting opening round win over a tough number 14 seed, Davidson. Butler is up next tomorrow, should be a great game. I grew up rooting for Marquette as a kid in Milwaukee during the Al McGuire era. They won it all in his last game as a coach in 1977 and were National runners-up in 1974.

Here are a few links to some great weekend financial reading.

Personal Finance Blogs

Andrea explains Mutual Fund Turnover Ratio: What You Need to Know to Pick a Fund at Take a Smart Step.

Angie tells us about Herd Mentality: You Are Being Set Up to Fail in a guest post at Value Stock Guide.

Robert shows us How to Understand the Stock Market at The Collge Investor.

Jon explains What Is Preferred Stock? at Novel Investor.

Thanks to John at Frugal Rules for featuring my guest post Financial Advisor Compensation – Why it Matters.

If you are an aspiring blogger or an experienced blogger looking for a few tips check out Jeremy’s new page Guide to Starting a Blog at his blog Modest Money.

Posts from Fellow NAPFA Members

Tom Orecchio shares a Financial Planning Overview at Figuide.com.

Jim Blankenship discusses the Adoption Credit For Tax Year 2012 And Beyond at Figuide.com.

Assume you will need 100 percent of your current income in retirement

Add extra years to your life expectancy

Reduce your estimates of Social Security benefits

Cut back on your living expenses now

Be conservative with your investment expectations

Rethink early retirement

Consider working during retirement

Take conservative withdrawals from your retirement accounts

Review and rebalance

Financial Planning is vital

Learn from the past

Lose the victim mentality

Drink your own flavor of Kool Aid

Focus on the future, don’t dwell on the past

Using 2008-2009 market drop as a sales tool

Leading with a product vs. a plan

Safe from what?

Personal Finance Blogs

Posts from Fellow NAPFA Members

Other financial articles from around the web

Think of your investments as a portfolio

Find your most recent statements and organize your records

Consolidate your accounts

Review your asset allocation plan (or develop one)

Review your current investment holdings

Rebalance your portfolio

Establish a regular process to review and monitor your portfolio

Personal Finance Blogs

Posts from Fellow NAPFA Members

Other financial articles from around the web

Invest in stocks at the top of the market

Invest in high cost broker sold mutual funds

Make financial decisions based upon your emotions

Don’t take full advantage of your workplace retirement plan

Don’t plan for retirement, just wing it

Why it’s brilliant

Why it’s disturbing

Investing and financial planning go hand in hand

Personal Finance Blogs

Posts from Fellow NAPFA Members

Other financial articles from around the web

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