Risk Free Yield with I-Bonds and Other Boomer and Retirement Readings

I am a fan of I-Bonds and use them in our retirement emergency fund and-with TIPS-as part of our plan for guaranteed retirement income. Now a “Boglehead” financial expert has written a series for Forbes, presenting his arguments for using I-Bonds to provide risk-free yield. Read more

Are You Ready to Retire?

Will this become the ultimate question for baby boomers: Am I ready for retirement? Most baby boomers would likely have a negative answer to this question in 2009. But that won’t prevent us from asking it, at least to ourselves, as economic conditions change. Read more

Retirement Tax Burdens

If you want to retire somewhere with a low cost of living, you need to consider the tax burden imposed in that location. Many people think only about state and local income taxes but the picture is much bigger than that. Read more

Gold Investing for Retirement

I often ask myself whether I and other baby boomers should be investing in gold or gold stocks for retirement. On the one hand, a good financial plan needs an inflation protection strategy and precious metals are favorites as an inflation hedge. On the other hand, gold is notorious for being volatile and strangely unpredictable. Read more

Understanding Taxes on Retirement Job Income

The government does a good job of making our tax system incomprehensible to the average citizen.  

Things are even harder to figure out for people who are retired, receiving Social Security, and working full or part-time.  Most retirees don’t have a clear understanding of how much they are taxed on job income they receive from post-retirement employment. Read more

Comparing Retirement Cost of Living in Different Locations

When baby boomers retire, many will consider relocating to lower their cost of living.  I think this strategy will take on more importance because of damage caused to retirement nest eggs in 2008-2009. Read more

Inflation and Retirement Investing

As baby boomers in the home stretch towards retirement, we have two major concerns about our retirement investing.  The first is recovering from the severe damage our retirement nest eggs suffered from the recession and market downturn that began in 2008.  The second concern is preparing for the threat of inflation that is likely to descend on our economy because of massive government budget deficits. Read more

Consumption Smoothing – Spend ’til the End

I have read (and continue to read) many books on retirement planning. Most of them have been on the money and financial aspects of retirement. Lately, I have taken more interest in the mental and emotional parts of retirement. I am reading a book now that addresses those specific issues. I will be reviewing that book here soon.

So far, my favorite book on financial planning for retirement is Spend ’til the End by Laurence Kotlikoff and Scott Burns. This book focuses on the application of consumption smoothing to a lifetime of spending, saving, and investing, all leading to retirement. Read more

Determining the Best Age to Start Social Security

Many baby boomers are in the home stretch toward retirement and thinking about what will be the best age for them to claim Social Security retirement benefits.  I have already written about this issue from several different angles but I thought it would make sense to pull all of that together and summarize the factors that I will considering when the time comes. Read more

Delaying Social Security after Stopping Work

Some baby boomers are asking the question of what happens to their Social Security retirement benefits if they stop working but do not claim benefits until later.

The answer to that question depends on how many working years you have in the system. Read more

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