“I’m sick of the scaring, the terror, the fright. I’m tired of being something that goes bump in the night. … Read more

See how Ron built a $4M portfolio and retired early to live as a nomad, spending less than his growing dividend income. Learn the DGI strategy that made it possible. The post Yielding the Dream: Ron’s Journey to $4 Million and Nomadic Retirement appeared first on European Dividend Growth Investor.

Your retirement is a unique endeavor. Don’t take a cookie-cutter approach to your strategy. Start to individualize your retirement plan by reading this week’s terrific links. Millionaires tend to live longer than everyone else. A Wealth Of Common Sense Why are Medicare choices so confusing? Stat10 You’re not supposed to remember every book you read. Horace Bianchon Assets come with hidden liabilities. P…The post I Don’t Like Mondays…..When Is My Retirement? appeared first on A Teachable Moment.

If you’ve already been planning around taxes in retirement, you’re in good company. Many retirees already manage withdrawals carefully, balancing tax brackets, Medicare premiums, and the taxation of Social Security benefits. But the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) has changed the landscape. With new provisions that link more tax rules to adjusted gross income (AGI), the familiar reference points that retirees once used now require a closer look. At first glance, the new law […]

When my wife and I started planning for retirement, it was confusing and complicated. We turned to a “financial advisor” who didn’t have our best interests at heart. He was more of a salesperson than an advisor. I wish I had access to some of the best retirement calculators available today. Tools like these make it easy to see exactly where you stand and how to reach financial independence on your own terms. Fortunately, there […]

FIRE killed my career, well at least the last part of it. I’m struggling to get it back. Not sure yet why I bother, but there are certain things I would like to do before we completely say goodbye to working life. Not to be overly dramatic, FIRE has had a positive impact (in the past), but is currently also having a negative effect on my working career. FIRE killed my career: not happy! What happened? Today another post about the (unintended) side effects of (the journey to) FIRE on one’s life. I’ve previously “complained” about FIRE in this blogpost. Which I was told actually also resonated with a few of you! Glad to hear that we all “suffer” together in this hard life of having money and being able to make (too many) choices. How did this all started? Well firstly I was bored at work, needed to change scenery. But due to external circumstances I could not. That is what triggered the whole search for FIRE. Because I had the feeling I was stuck in a golden cage. Then Mrs CF came to the rescue with an article about Early Retirement Extreme, and I went down the rabbit hole… Albeit switching at the time was indeed not possible due to external factors (job market had just gotten a hit, and potential employers I wanted to work for had hiring freezes). We restructured our finances, bought our first real estate and figured that we had in fact more freedom than we thought we did. Hence, we moved and thereby solved the job issue for the time being. Moving sideways But in the years following, I picked jobs that I thought were interesting and/or in other fields of expertise. Because why not?! Money was no longer the issue, job satisfaction and learning new tricks and trades was far more rewarding. And don’t get me wrong, I did fun stuff! Had very interesting & enjoyable experiences. Got to travel internationally, see different countries and try many new practical things and various fields. At first glance, not a bad career. FIRE killed my career: going sideways But the job hopping had one big side-effect, I was only moving sideways on, not up, the corporate ladder. So despite having a lot of hands on and broad experience, I started lacking (team) management experiences for my age and experience level. And as you guessed it, this started to bother me. Because I was done with mediocre or poor management / managers. I noticed issues before they did, did not agree (often also ethically) with choices that were made. Or how other people were treated. In short I got annoyed often, even leading to leaving certain jobs. So I’ve decided to give it a try myself and be a better team leader / manager. But that appears to be more difficult than I anticipated. Because: lack of experience… Keep trying or just give up? I’ve now tried several times to apply for

Before the article, check out the latest on my podcast, Personal Finance for Long-Term Investors: On Apple Podcasts On Spotify On YouTube Now, here’s today’s article: Reader Lisa wrote in this week, Jesse – my understanding is that both stock prices and stock valuations matter for long-term returns. So…with both pretty high like you mentioned last month, what are your returns expectations going forward? Is it something different than 10% per year? That’s what I’m using in my spreadsheet. Is there a “math-y” way to better find a % return number for the future? Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote this post: What Long-Term Stock Returns Should I Assume For My Plan? What Long-Term Stock Returns Should I Assume in My Plan? It’s a complicated answer, and I recommend you read that article. I ended that article with this statement:  If I’m doing literal back-of-the-napkin math for someone, my go-to numbers are 9-10% for diversified stocks, 4-5% for diversified bonds, 3% for inflation. But I know the limits of such simple assumptions, and I know when not to use them. I want to amend something. Specifically – I think my stock return assumptions of 9-10% per year were TOO OPTIMISTIC. I’ll tell you why today. I want to dive deeper on valuation and the equity risk premium today and suggest some reasonable math-based models for including them into our forward-looking return assumptions. These numbers matter because they trickle down into other areas of our financial planning. How much do we need to save for retirement? Should we invest in stocks or pay off debt? Etc. It’s all based on our assumed future returns. To truly understand this topic, we need to define a few terms first: Real returns (vs. nominal returns) Valuation The equity risk premium But First…The Usual Preamble Before the good stuff, please know this: I’m not predicting the future. I don’t know how the stock market will actually perform. I don’t have a crystal ball. For those keeping track – yes, Saruman two weeks in a row! Financial planning isn’t about predicting the future. It’s about preparing for it by narrowing the range of possible outcomes. Along the way, we make assumptions about the future, and then continually test, refine, and correct them as reality unfolds. That’s all we’re doing today. Refining some assumptions. Real Returns vs. Nominal Returns Hopefully, you’ve heard these terms before, and this definition makes sense to you. Real returns include the adverse effect of inflation, whereas nominal returns do not. Some quick, easy math might show you that a 10% nominal return minus 3% inflation leads to a 7% real return. Real returns are the metric of merit. Real returns explain how much your actual purchasing power has grown, or shrunk, over time. Source – Ashby Daniels / Retirement Field Guide

I met with my my colleagues recently for lunch who were all retired. They range in their 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. The one that has been retired the longest has been retired since 2011, or almost 14 years ago. The one in her 80’s said … Read morePF Blog Round Up: Retiree Edition The post PF Blog Round Up: Retiree Edition appeared first on Genymoney.ca.