Retirement Watch Weekly
5 Medicare Myths
Americans, even those participating in Medicare, are remarkably uninformed and misinformed about the program. Most don’t realize that the program pays only about half the medical costs of the average beneficiary and doesn’t cover a range of care. The Washington Post tackles some of the myths about Medicare. I don’t agree with everything in this […]
The Latest BerkshireHathaway Letter
Each year Warren Buffett issues his shareholder letter, and I always recommend it as worth reading. This year I again recommend the 2011 Chairman’s letter to Berkshire shareholders. Unlike his other public discourses in recent years, in the shareholder letters Buffet still hews to comments about the company, its operating subsidiaries, and investments. Even if […]
Social Security’s Looming Problem
It’s interesting how policies have unintended effects. Last year commodity prices shot up. Some people think this largely was due to central banks’ pumping up their money supplies. Others think the main culprit was the disruption from the Arab Spring turmoil. Whatever the reason, there was a temporary surge in commodity prices that translated into […]
An Unusual Asset Protection Strategy
There are a lot of ways to protect your assets from potential creditors. The key to success for the most part is to take action before the creditors claims are real. If you wait, as too many people do, most of the actions you can take will be viewed as a fraud on the creditors […]
Systematic Withdrawals vs. Buckets Strategy
There are two competing strategies for taking withdrawals from a portfolio after retiring. One is known as systematic withdrawals. This is when you set a formula for taking money from the portfolio. The most common formula is a percentage of the original value (usually around 4%) the first year, plus an inflation factor for each […]
The Cost of Holding Cash
A bull market mantra was “cash is trash,” meaning that investors shouldn’t have any of their portfolios in cash when stocks are rising by double digits each year. That was the mantra even when money market funds were yielding 4% and higher. Now, there’s an even stronger argument to limit your cash holdings. Money market […]
More Perils of Yield Hogs
Closed-end funds are one place investors are looking to earn higher income. They’re also paying up for this yield and taking on much higher levels of risk, risks they might not realize. Bloomberg recently surveyed the market and found investors are paying hefty premiums for yield. Six of the 10 closed-end funds with the highest […]
Taking a Close Look at Enhanced CDs
The Fed’s zero interest rate policy causes safety-first, income-seeking investors to consider investments they wouldn’t have paid any attention to a few years ago. One of those is the derivative CD, which goes under a number of different names. Basically it promises to give you a return, if any, tied to an investment or index. […]
