I use the 12 months ending November 30 to calculate our Safe Spending Amount for the upcoming year (SSA, Chapter 2, Nest Egg Care [NEC]): that’s what we can safely sell from our portfolio for our spending and know that we will not

My sister-in-law called and wanted me to help her understand how close she and her husband might be to crossing an IRMAA tripwire. I said I would send a spreadsheet. She said she did not know how to use a spreadsheet. I gave her the

Popular press reports and indicators of value like the Shiller’s analysis of P/E ratios say the US stock market is way overvalued. Some experts are predicting a crash due to massive government debt, over-hyped AI expectations, Trump’s tariffs and trouble in the lending markets. We

Patti and I are one month away from our calculation date of our Safe Spending Amount (SSA, Chapter 2, Nest Egg Care [NEC]). October returns were about 1.5% for our portfolio. We hit a new high-water mark. We’re on track for about a

Inflation has not started to bite. Inflation reported today shows September inflation was not much different that the last six months. It’s not pointing to the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%, but we can’t conclude that it’s increasing.

I display a table and five

The stock market hit a peak this week. At the end of September, our portfolio is ~19% greater in real spending power than it was more than ten years ago despite our withdrawals for spending that have added up to more than 60% of our

A friend, age 62, asked me, “When do I start Social Security?” I didn’t give a concise answer. Here is what I should have said.

The pain of traditional IRAs is IRMAA. It’s important to work to beat IRMAA – not pay it. The top 10% of retirees have large RMDs that cross an income level that triggers IRMAA. The typical retiree paying IRMAA crosses two tripwires and pays

The most commonly reported measure for inflation for August was roughly double that of July and was the in the top three of the last 12 months. Inflation does not aim at the Federal Reserve’s target of 2% annual rate. It will be a tough