Tom’s Blog

Have you started on your tax planning for 2021?

My tickler file tells me that this is the week to take my first draft cut on my tax plan for 2021. This post is to describes my steps. I get three things from this process: 1) a rough guess of our Safe Spending Amount

Will we really be able to travel across the pond?

Patti and I traveled this week to Denver (Patti’s sister and family) and to St. Louis (my brother and his wife and family of Patti’s brother who died last spring). So, this post is far lighter than normal. The good news this week for Patti

What mix of stocks should you have before retirement?

How do you set your mix of stocks and bonds before the start date of your retirement? Patti and I officially started our retirement plan in December 2014. That was the first year we took a full withdrawal from our nest egg for our spending

How do Fidelity index funds compare to Vanguard’s?

Every January, I complete the Morningstar nine-box display of returns for segments of the market: the box is a matrix of annual returns by company size category (Large, Mid or Small Cap) and investment style (Value, Blend, or Growth). I did not realize that Fidelity

How many years does it take for you to pay out 100% of today’s portfolio value as fees?

Many of my friends don’t have the inclination, confidence or basic spreadsheet skills to be self-reliant investors. They hire a financial advisor so they don’t have to deal with what are very simple tasks for us nesteggers. The time they’d invest to gain modest skills

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