Live on $60,000 per year.

Stocks ? Part XIII: The 4% rule, withdrawal rates and how much can I spend anyway?

This would allow one to pay $0 in taxes.

https://www.gocurrycracker.com/never-pay-taxes-again/

Allocate your portfolio as follows:

75% - Total Stock Market Index Fund
20% - Total Bond Market Index Fund
5% - Money Market Fund

Stocks ? Part VI: Portfolio ideas to build and keep your wealth

Next question?

Stocks ? Part IX: Why I don?t like investment advisors

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadepfa.../#f8847e76fcf3


This isn't rocket science. If you are smart enough to do a weight and balance you are smart enough to manage your own financial affairs.

Moreover, if yu have so fouled up your retirement that you are unable to manage it, you certainly won't be helped by paying out 2% a year for someone else to take over the sinking ship.

 

Forbes?

And my retirement is just fine, thank you very much for your concern.

Nor do I care much for financial advisers. But this idea that this is a simple process is going to end disastrously for a majority of people.

 

We are in a world where CAPE is at 32.99 and the 10 year treasury is at 2.94%. 4% for anyone nearing retirement is extremely optimistic.

I am not a fan of financial advisors, but neither am I a fan of simplistic financial advice.

I suggest that you look to academic papers on this subject. Pfau is a good starting point.

 

I have.

For instance, the following study is linked in the first link I posted:

https://www.onefpa.org/journal/Pages...he%20Line.aspx

Everyone should read it.

 

The problem with the Trinity Study is that it is based on historical data. Which would be fine, except that there is no historical precedent for today's high valuations/low interest rates.

We are all in uncharted territory.

 

I would love to know the annual fees you pay for his service, and more importantly, if you even know.

Many are 1% advisors and that is an annual fee of $15,000 on a 1.5 million dollar portfolio

For that amount of money, he should be making. Monthly trips to see you

As for returns, a good return is only good if it is appropriate for the risk taken in the underlying investments. Getting a 20%. Annual return with a portfolio that should return 30% given the risk profile is not a good thing

Furthermore, many advisors put you into high fee funds that could easily milk you out of tens of thousands of dollars

Having an advisor on a per hour charge to do a gross error check once a year is a great idea
Do it quarterly and spend a grand

Buy extra time for estate ideas, SS optimization and longevity issues

Much better than paying them a percentage age of assets and get expensive funds

We receive complaints annually from pilots using advisors that charge rediculous fees and underperform

Understand your performance benchmarks, and always compare net of fees

 

Pleased to hear your retirement investing is doing fine. So's mine. And investing for retirement actually IS a simple process, that most often goes awry because people either don't do it at all do it inadequately, or trust it to a "financial advisor who has my best interests at heart."

This ain't rocket science guys, if you can fly an aircraft you can damn sure manage your own finances without giving up 1-2% of your annual investments to someone who can only make his/her money by taking it from you.

 

OK, lets try this one more time.

Investing FOR retirement is easy, but it is very different from investing IN retirement. Sequence of returns risk is everything in the later case, and I suspect that the majority of those who are confident about their investing ability don't even know what it is. I also suspect that the majority of those who are confident do not know what CAPE is, let alone what where it is currently (hint -- at a point with no historical precedent). Add bond ladders to the list.

It is difficult to find a good adviser, but they are out there and they are fee based, not percentage based.

Blogs, general web sites and news letters are very much like percentage based advisers. They need your business/clicks, and they get it by telling you what you want to hear. They can do as much damage to a portfolio as a Northwestern Mutual Financial Representative.

There are good reasons for people to be seeking competent financial advisers. Index funds are simple and great during the accumulation phase, positioning yourself for income when entering retirement is another thing. Disparaging people who seek such guidance, while maintaining that all of this is "easy", does not come across well and does a great disservice to your fellow pilots.

I do my own financial management, but it has taken a lot more than a few books on overnights to get to the point where I feel that I can manage it into retirement. I also do my own automotive maintenance (all of it), but the same thing applies. I do not criticize those who seek professional service in both areas. At the same time I seek professionals in those areas that I don't have interest/experience with.

I am sure that there are people who will tell me that replacing the electrical breaker panel in my house is easy. Maybe it is. But given my skill set and the risks involved, I gladly paid an electrician.

 

Even were I to accept your assertion that good financial decisions are somehow beyond the competence of most pilots (which I do not) then I would need to accept your assertion that these same "incompetent" pilots ARE somehow competent to discern which of the many financial advisers out there is one of the "good" advisors that you yourself say are "difficult to find." Do you perhaps begin to detect the inherent circular flaw in the logic of your assertion?


I understand. You can do YOUR own investing, and scatter pearls to the rest of us swine, but anyone else saying different is doing people a "disservice" because, gosh, who else out there could be as bright and as knowledgeable as you.

Yet you are admittedly ignorant enough that you feel incompetent to handle single phase 240 volt AC current wiring in accordance with widely published wiring codes, even though the city, county, or state electrical inspector will personally check it before it is energized. Go figure.