When clients discuss ideas for producing investment income, investing in rental property is – after bonds – among the first to come up. The idea of generating a steady stream of income from a tangible… Read More
How Federal Employees Can Plan a Successful Early Retirement
If you are a federal employee and are considering early retirement, this article will help you understand your options and how to determine if early retirement is feasible. We’ll examine how your FERS annuity and… Read More
Understanding Your Options and When to Withdraw from Your FERS Annuity
Federal government pensions are really pretty complex because they’ve become progressively less rich. The pensions for federal government employees that were employed before 1987, they had what was known as the CSRS or the Civil… Read More
The Best Time to Withdraw From Your TSP Account
If you’re a federal employee and are planning on retiring soon, you need to understand when you can and when you should withdraw from your Thrift Savings Account (TSP). In this article you’ll learn about… Read More
Humility and Patience – Characteristics of a Successful Investors
Years ago, I was sitting in on a conference call for a mutual fund that had done well for clients but had stumbled recently. The calls offered a chance for advisors to ask questions of… Read More
How to Handle Risk in Retirement With Income Layering
Two big risks in retirement are inflation and poor market returns, and in this article I’ll discuss how income layering can help cover those risks Inflation is an often overlooked risk to a successful retirement,… Read More
The Risks of Chasing Return over the Short Term
The Fed-driven era of low interest rates has certainly brought some advantages, but good returns on “safe” investments like isn’t one of them. Clients regularly ask me where they can invest cash they’ll need -… Read More
Realistic Investment Expectations
Bear markets are a preoccupation for many investors and they are one of the primary reasons that the idea of timing the market is attractive. But the reality is that bear markets are the exception… Read More
Alternatives to Market Timing
In last week’s post, I walked through the challenges of market timing strategies in investing. The buying low and selling high that characterizes an ad-hoc approach doesn’t work, and it can be tough to stick… Read More
Market Timing
I’ve begun reviewing what happens in market downturns in client meetings. It isn’t because I believe a bear market is just around the corner, but rather because it has been nearly 10 years since the… Read More