You may remember these lyrics from the now famous 1971 song “Imagine” that was written and performed by former Beatle John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono: Imagine there’s no heaven It’s easy if you try No hell below us Above us only sky Imagine all the people living for today… It’s a simple, melodic song…
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Help—I Think Too Much About My Retirement Savings!
I was recently part of a book study with a group of men who happened to all be younger than me. During a discussion, one of them candidly commented in passing that he thinks too much about his retirement savings. It may have been a confession of sorts, but there wasn’t time to discuss it…
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Social Security Claiming Strategies—Which “Camp” Are You In?
I recently had a conversation with a friend who is a few years from retirement. He said he is planning to claim benefits at his full retirement age (FRA) of 66 regardless of whether he is still working or not. He is in what I call the “take the money and run” camp—those who want…
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Stock Market Volatility and “The Prudent Man Rule”
In case you haven’t noticed, after a relatively “quiet” first half of 2019, volatility has returned to the financial markets in a big way. The stock market was down about 3 percent just the other day. As I understand it, uneasiness about a trade war with China, a global economic slowdown, and increasing tensions with…
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Your Coming Weakness and Retirement Stewardship
One of the hard realities of life in our fallen world is aging. Although we live in a culture that celebrates—and sometimes idolized—youthfulness, ironically, everyone is getting old. Some are just older than others. The young may feel as though they will stay young forever, but they won’t. And older people who have been blessed…
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Should I Include Annuities in my Retirement Plan (Part 3)?
In this, the third and final article in this series on annuities, I am going to look at variable annuities. Although sales of fixed index annuities have recently outpaced variable annuities, they remain very popular among new annuity purchasers. Also, since you may be pitched one by your friendly insurance rep or financial advisor, I…
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Should I Include Annuities in my Retirement Plan (Part 2)?
In my last article, I looked at immediate fixed-income annuities and discussed whether I might want to include them as a part of my overall retirement income plan. Guaranteed payments for life are their strong suit (helps mitigate “longevity risk”). But, as I noted, one of my major concerns about immediate fixed-income annuities is that…
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