Retirement Answer Man

Investing in retirement is different than any investing you’ve ever done. The asset allocation that you’ve been doing your whole life won’t cut it in retirement. On this episode, you’ll learn what comes after asset allocation. You’ll also learn how to manage market risk. And BW joins us in the Coaches Corner to discuss how to survive bear markets in retirement. You’ll definitely want to listen in to hear my pie-cake analogy, don’t miss it!

What is asset-liability matching?

Have you ever heard of the term asset-liability matching? This is a term typically used in the pension management world but we can apply it to our own retirement. Asset liability matching is the process of investing in a pool of assets so that cash is available when you need it to cover consumption. It is when you take a pool of assets to cover the short-term but you also need that pool to cover expenses in the long-term as well. This is a good term to refer to how we must cover our retirement expenses. 

Asset allocation is not the only way of investing in retirement

You’ve been told your whole life that you need to focus on your asset allocation when investing. Asset allocation is so important to the accumulation stage of retirement planning. But in retirement, asset allocation is not the only thing to consider. Rather than sowing your seeds for growth, in retirement, you are now reaping the rewards from a lifetime of hard work. So now is the time to rethink your asset allocation strategy. 

The pie-cake analogy

We often refer to asset allocation as a pie. You’ve seen all of those pie charts with different percentages of stocks, bonds, and cash. But instead of a pie, in retirement, what you really need is a cake. One of those big, multi-tiered cakes, like a wedding cake. But the cake you need is actually made of pies. Yep, that’s it! A pie cake! You’ll want to create your cake with 3 or 4 layers and the pies will be made of different things. You really need to listen to hear how amazing this analogy is. 

What should your pie-cake look like?

So you’re all ready to build your pie-cake, but what should it look like? Sure there are layers, but layers of what?

  • Layer 1 - this bottom layer is full of funds that are to be used in the next 2 years so it needs to be made of cash or cash-like investments
  • Layer 2 - this second tier will be funding years 3-6 You’ll want some stability in this layer, but also some income. It could be made of bonds that will be maturing, stable value funds, and some cash.
  • Layer 3 - this layer will have a very different looking pie than the bottom layers. The time frame of this layer is 6-10 years. There will be growth but it will be moderate growth. The objective here is income. A good mix could include bonds, real estate equities, but also consider growth. 
  • Layer 4 - now we are talking 10-15+ years ahead. This is the pie where you can get aggressive. You’ll want this pie to be growth-oriented with more risk and less bonds and cash. 

Listen in to discover how you can build your cake-pie and eat it too!

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE RETIREMENT ANSWER MAN

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN SEGMENT

  • [2:12] Asset liability matching

PRACTICAL PLANNING SEGMENT

  • [3:55] Why asset allocation is not the only way to invest in retirement
  • [6:46] How to figure your asset-liability matching

COACHES CORNER SEGMENT

  • [12:50] How to survive a bear market in retirement
  • [16:26] How we live our life can reflect how we react to a bear market
  • [19:22] What can we do in a bear market?

TODAY’S SMART SPRINT SEGMENT

  • [22:00] Relisten to the pie-cake analogy and think about the tiered approach

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Rock Retirement Club

Roger’s YouTube Channel - Roger That

BOOK - Rock Retirement  by Roger Whitney

Work with Roger

Roger’s Retirement Learning Center

Direct download: RAM310.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am CDT

Protecting your retirement lifestyle is an important part of retirement planning. You want to know that if everything falls apart you’ll still be able to live the life you want. Well, unfortunately, nothing is absolutely certain and there is no way to protect yourself against everything. However, proper planning can help give you peace of mind. If you’re wondering what on earth you’ll do in the event of a bear market or market crash, listen to this episode to help you understand how to set yourself up for success in retirement.

Retirement is asymmetrical

The 4% rule looks great on paper, but it really isn’t practical when applied to life. Retirement is lumpy and asymmetrical and returns on investment are asymmetrical as well. There are always going to be unexpected expenses. Sometimes expenses will come in the form of opportunities and sometimes the expenses won’t be as much fun. The only thing that is certain is that life is always uncertain. So it is important to prepare for the unexpected. When planning your retirement, you need to remember that life will get in the way. 

It’s all about finding balance

In retirement, you need to find that balance. On one end of the spectrum, you have that near-term market loss and on the other end, you have a loss of purchasing power. 

Let’s learn how to keep the tension between the two of them. 

  1. Know what your spending forecast is. Understand your needs, wants, and wishes. Build a model retirement budget and then categorize your spending in those 3 different categories. 
  2. Determine your fundedness. Are you underfunded, constrained, or overfunded? Know where you fall on this spectrum. The strategies you take will depend on how funded your retirement savings are. Listen in to hear the different strategies to use based on your fundedness. 

The best way to protect your retirement lifestyle

How can you protect your retirement lifestyle? Try using your superpower longer. What is your superpower, you ask. Your human capital. The longer you can continue to bring in income the better off you’ll be. Retirement doesn’t have to be like a light switch. You don’t have to simply turn off the work button. Try pretirement to gain time freedom and flexibility while still maintaining a bit of an income. Pretirement is the best strategy you can use to protect yourself from whatever life throws at you. 

How much is enough?

A listener writes in with a question, how will he know when he has enough to retire? This is such an important question and one that we all struggle with, but it’s not only an external question of how much you have in the bank. You need to go through a process to determine the retirement that’s right for you. Here are some steps you can follow to help:

  1. Determine how much the retirement lifestyle you want will cost.
  2. Create a model retirement budget based on your needs, wants and wishes.
  3. Know what your resources are and strategize from there. 

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE RETIREMENT ANSWER MAN

HOT TOPIC SEGMENT

  • [1:06] Retirement is asymmetrical
  • [3:03] How do we balance near term market loss on one end with loss of purchasing power on the other end?
  • [10:28] Tips to protect yourself

LISTENER QUESTIONS SEGMENT

  • [13:44] BC is wondering whether he should pay off his mortgage
  • [16:50] How much is enough?
  • [24:02] Should gold be a part of your portfolio?

TODAY’S SMART SPRINT SEGMENT

  • [28:05] Revisit your premise that retirement is binary

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

BOOK - Stillness is the Key by Ryan Holiday

Rock Retirement Club

Roger’s YouTube Channel - Roger That

BOOK - Rock Retirement  by Roger Whitney

Work with Roger

Roger’s Retirement Learning Center

Direct download: RAM309.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am CDT

Market crashes are black swans. No, not those black swans, unpredictable events beyond what is normally expected with potentially severe consequences. You can probably name all of the market crashes in the past 100 years since they have had an impact on the way we invest. On this episode of Retirement Answer Man, we’re learning about market crashes and the lasting impact they can leave on our psyches. 

Market crashes can leave you with emotional scars

Even though market crashes are not as important to worry about in retirement as bear markets. The real problem with market crashes is the effects they leave behind. Whereas bear markets are long and drawn out, market crashes are sudden and devastating. Similar to a car crash, a market crash can leave emotional scars. We haven’t had many market crashes in recent history, but the ones we have had have left an imprint on our collective memory. 

Market crashes are certainly memorable

You may have seen the long-lasting effects of the 1929 market crash on your parents or grandparents. It changed the way people thought and behaved. The ‘Black Monday’ crash of 1987 drove the market down by 23% in one day. The NASDAQ fell from 5000 to 1000 during the bursting of the dot com bubble in 2001-2002. And of course, more recently, there was 2008 of which many of us still haven’t recovered. 

In retirement, market crashes can be even more traumatic

Does your retirement plan prepare you for a market crash? In retirement, we need to build a system to where a market crash won’t derail our lives. That system should give us enough emotional currency to help us understand that we will be okay no matter what. You don’t want to let a market crash derail your decision making. Does your financial plan account for market crashes?

How would I design a high school finance course?

One listener who is a high school teacher asks, how I would design a financial literacy course for high schoolers. This was a fun question to answer. I hope that financial literacy becomes a course that every high schooler can take. There are several fabulous resources out there that teens can enjoy and learn from. I don’t necessarily think that teaching stock market training is as important as building healthy financial habits. Find out which resources I recommend by listening to the Listener Questions segment of this episode.

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE RETIREMENT ANSWER MAN

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

  • [2:20] What is a black swan?

HOT TOPIC SEGMENT

  • [3:30] Let’s talk about market crashes
  • [9:37] In retirement market crashes can be even more traumatic

LISTENER QUESTIONS SEGMENT

  • [11:10] A listener correction about Social Security and COLA
  • [13:08] A question about all Roth contributions
  • [16:20] How would Roger design a high school course?

SMART SPRINT SEGMENT

  • [21:40] Increase your savings rate (or lessen your spending rate) by 5%

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

BOOK - Atomic Habits by James Clear

BOOK - The Richest Man in Babylon by George Clason

BOOK - The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Episode 306

Rock Retirement Club

Roger’s YouTube Channel - Roger That

BOOK - Rock Retirement  by Roger Whitney

Work with Roger

Roger’s Retirement Learning Center

 

Direct download: RAM308.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am CDT

The thought of bear markets in retirement can be so scary, but they can be a bit less frightening if you have a plan. That’s why we’re taking this month to discuss market downturns and how they affect retirement plans. Every couple of years there will be a 10% correction in the market but this isn’t a bear market. A bear market is at least a 20% decline in the markets. The more you learn the more you’ll be prepared for any eventuality in retirement. Listen in to learn more about bear markets and how they could affect your retirement investments. 

What is a bear market? 

You may have heard the term bear market thrown around loosely, so before we dive in to discuss how they’ll affect you we need to define what a bear market really is. A bear market is a condition or period of time when securities fall 20% or more from recent highs. There is usually a lot of negative sentiment surrounding bear markets. The stock market is usually what we’re talking about when we discuss bear markets but we could be discussing any kind of securities. 

There are 2 types of bear markets that we usually talk about. The cyclical bear market is the more common type. This signifies a short term downturn. There is also a secular bear market which refers to a long-term timeframe of below-average returns. 

A history of bear markets

We have had 12 bear markets since 1945. The average drop was 33%. The most famous bear market was during the great depression and suffered an 86% decline over a 34 month period. The most recent bear market is still fresh for many of us. The 2008 crash lasted 17 months and saw a 56% decline in values. Unfortunately, bear markets don’t all perform the same since past performance is not an indicator of future results. But there are some things we can learn by looking back at history. Listen in to find out what you can learn by looking at bear markets throughout history. 

Bear markets and investing for retirement

The 4% rule is talked about all the time as a retirement strategy. It’s popular because it works very well in a spreadsheet. On this episode, I’ll compare how the 4% rule holds up throughout different bear markets throughout history. Listen in to learn how the 4% rule holds up through various historical models. You’ll learn what you can do to reduce your risk and lessen the impact of a bear market in retirement. 

When to dial back risk

Cathy has an audio question for me. She has enough assets to cover her retirement expenses already, so she wants to know when is the right time to dial back her risk. Obviously, this is a matter of personal opinion and risk tolerance. But there are some things you can consider to gauge how much is enough. First, you should consider if you really have enough. Enough for what? Think about how you could live your best life. Next, you should isolate the excess. During the listener questions segment, you’ll hear the full answer to Cathy’s question as well as 2 more listener questions. Discover whether you should pay off the house or do a Roth conversion and how to assess when it’s time to consider a long term care facility. 

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE RETIREMENT ANSWER MAN

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN SEGMENT

  • [2:20] What is a bear market?

PRACTICAL PLANNING SEGMENT

  • [4:20] A history of bear markets 
  • [8:02] what does this mean for you in retirement?
  • [15:50] what lessons can you learn from history?

THE LISTENER QUESTION SEGMENT

  • [17:41] When to dial back risk
  • [25:14] Pay off the house or do a Roth conversion?
  • [29:35] Bill asks how to assess when to enter a long-term care facility

TODAY’S SMART SPRINT SEGMENT

  • [32:33] What is your asset allocation?

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Morning Star’s Instant X-Ray tool

WealthOfCommonSense.com

Rock Retirement Club

Roger’s YouTube Channel - Roger That

BOOK - Rock Retirement  by Roger Whitney

Work with Roger

Roger’s Retirement Learning Center



Direct download: RAM307.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am CDT

The way you invest changes in retirement. Rather than being in the accumulation stage of life, now it’s time for the decumulation stage. But how do you flip that switch? How should your investment strategy change to reflect this new period in your life? During this monthlong series, we’ll be learning how to deal with bear markets and crashes in retirement. You may be thinking, why should I worry about bear markets when 2019 was so hot? Well, that is precisely why you should begin to consider how you would handle a bear market or a crash in retirement. Learn to be prepared for any eventuality by listening to this episode of Retirement Answer Man now. 

Are you trying to fit a square peg into a round hole?

Certain decisions are larger and more important than others. Retirement is one of those high stakes decisions. You’ve got a lot to learn if you are going to get it right. 

Investment strategy is typically built on the idea of accumulating wealth. That’s what you’ve been trying to do your whole life, right? But investing in retirement is quite different than any other kind of investing. When investing in retirement people often try to fit a square peg into a round hole. Listen in to learn why investing the same way you have for your entire adult life won’t work in retirement. 

5 ways that investing in retirement is different than any investing you’ve ever done

  1. The math changes. You have had plenty of time to invest which has allowed you to outperform by investing your money consistently. Unfortunately, retirement turns the tables. Now, instead of investing systematically, you are taking money out of the market systematically. 
  2. You have lost your superpower. You no longer have the ability to earn income. This can really affect you psychologically. When you were working you could simply earn your way out of many financial missteps. 
  3. Fear of missing out. Do you feel like you're missing out on the next best thing?
  4. Statistics are good at lying. We tend to think in statistics, but unfortunately, statistics aren’t very good for decision making.
  5. You only get one shot at this. Unlike the accumulation phase of life, there are no do-overs. 

The Secure Act passed!

In a rare act of unity Congress actually got something done! We’ve discussed what the Secure Act might mean for you in previous episodes, but now it has officially become law. This means that there are changes coming to a retirement near you. This bill has changed RMD’s, IRA limits, 401K’s, and done away with Stretch IRA’s. Find out what the Secure Act could mean for your retirement by listening to this episode of Retirement Answer Man.

What does sequence of return risk mean?

When researching retirement you may have heard the term sequence of return risk thrown around. But do you really know what that means? You may plan on getting 5% returns, but steady returns on investment rarely happen. You could get 0% one year and 12% the next. Find out how bad returns at the beginning of your retirement can impact the viability of your overall retirement plans. Make sure you’re signed up for 6-Shot Saturday to see plenty of examples of sequence of return risk. 

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE RETIREMENT ANSWER MAN

HOT TOPIC SEGMENT

  • [4:28] 5 ways that investing in retirement is different than before 

PRACTICAL PLANNING SEGMENT

  • [18:05] Our words for the year
  • [23:06] The Secure Act passed!

LISTENER QUESTIONS

  • [27:48] How to maintain a balanced portfolio in a bear market

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

  • [34:43] Sequence of return risk

SMART SPRINT SEGMENT

  • [37:25] What is your word for the year?

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Rock Retirement Club

Roger’s YouTube Channel - Roger That

BOOK - Rock Retirement  by Roger Whitney

Work with Roger

Roger’s Retirement Learning Center



Direct download: RAM306.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am CDT

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