Patti and I follow the CORE in Nest Egg Care (NEC). We Recalculate annually to see if our Safe Spending Amount (SSA) can increase by more than inflation. (I recommend you Recalculate at least every three years; see Part 3, NEC.) Patti and I

Our Safe Spending Amount (SSA) is the pretax amount we can withdraw and spend from our nest egg that ensures we have zero probability of depleting our portfolio for the number of years we have selected. Nest Eggers always take their full SSA. Patti and

Alice’s Recalculation date is October 31 (see Nest Egg Care, Part 3). She follows the CORE and recalculates each year. Returns in 2017 were terrific, and Alice’s Safe Spending Amount (SSA) calculated as +16% last year – well above the 2% inflation rate. Returns

I was not. The nominal decline in my portfolio was about 5.7% in the month. Your return would have differed if your portfolio weights (US vs. International) and mix (stocks vs. bonds) differ from mine. That decline was painful to see on the display of

This post discusses the basics of Roth and Traditional IRA or similar retirement plans and how we should think about them when we’re near retirement or retired. The big issue for me: should I convert some of our Traditional IRA to Roth? The answer is

Social Security always adjusts the amount of dollars it pays us so we closely maintain the same spending power over time. It announced last week that it will pay us retired folks 2.8% more dollars in 2019. And we Nest Eggers will also pay ourselves

I worked through my October tasks for our retirement plan last week. That included a rough picture of what my 2018 tax return might look like. This sunk in: I MUST use Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCD) from our retirement accounts for our donations. I

I work on my financial retirement plan two times in the year: early October and early December. I spend time in early October to get a good picture of the tasks for December. That’s my month of heavy lifting. The purpose of this post is

In Nest Egg Care, Part 3, I recommend that you recalculate at least every three years to see if you can increase your Safe Spending Amount (SSA) for the upcoming year. Patti and I recalculate annually. Your recalculation always leads to a greater real amount

I took my Social Security (SS) early, right after Full Retirement Age, currently age 66. That made perfect sense to me. Here’s a recent article/video that says the opposite: sell from your IRA rather than taking Social Security early. Many say, “Wait, and each