Retirement Watch Weekly
Have You Paid for Government Retirement Benefits?
Ezra Klein of The Washington Post periodically writes provocative columns about Social Security and Medicare. One of his basic points is that seniors haven’t really paid for the benefits they’re expecting to receive during retirement. Most have paid less in Medicare payroll taxes than they’ll receive in benefits. For Social Security, it’s more of a […]
Trouble for Baby Boomers Retirees
Each generation in the U.S. has a higher standard of living than the previous generation. It isn’t always true from family to family, but as a nation that’s been the case. That trend is about to stop, according to a number of studies reviewed by The Washington Post. For many years there has been concern […]
Searching for the Next Stock Market Bubble
After being burned by tech stocks in the late 1990s and real estate and stocks again in the first decade of the 2000s, investors are trying to be alert for bubbles. This post argues that the way to spot a bubble is to follow the quantitative analysts and investors. He thinks he’s found the next […]
Does Warren Buffett Like Variable Annuities?
Berkshire-Hathaway, Buffett’s investment vehicle, recently entered into a deal with the insurer Cigna to reinsure some variable annuity guarantees of Cigna. No doubt this will be viewed as Buffett entering the annuity, especially the variable annuity, market and be used as a sales tool for variable annuities. Don’t fall for that line. There are a […]
A Few Words Against Investing in Gold
Gold investors generally give several reasons why they like the yellow metal. A new research report by a couple of serious researchers casts doubt on those reasons. Claude Erb, formerly of TCW, and Campbell Harvey, professor at Duke, took the five reasons people generally give for owning gold and tested gold’s historic performance against them. […]
Understanding Stock Market Returns
I don’t spend much attention to discussions in the financial media of stock market returns, especially forecasts of them. They’re so misbegotten it is almost comically. On those occasions when I find a good discussion of equity returns, I refer it to you. This piece from PIMCO explains how the fund firm analyses equity returns […]
The Real Retirement Planning Problem
Our focus most of the time is on the financial aspects of retirement and planning for it. But there’s an ultimate goal involved. Yes, we want financial security and freedom. But the ultimate goal is to be happy or satisfied. That’s why periodically I report on surveys of people’s happiness and what makes people happy. […]
Evaluating Inflation-Adjusted Annuities
A lifetime stream of guaranteed income is a goal for many people. Even better is to have that income stream increase with inflation. You can have a lifetime stream of guaranteed income that increases with inflation. You must study the options, plan, and shop carefully. An immediate annuity is the prime way to receive guaranteed […]
