Category: Portfolio

  • The Majesty of Simplicity

    Perhaps like many of you, I recently filed my 2022 tax returns. I always try to itemize my deductions, and this year, as I was working on them, I was struck by how simple it was to do that. I use Intuit’s Turbotax product and have for many years. That enables me to import all…

  • Buckets and Ladders

    It took me a while to publish this last article (at least I think it’s the last one) in this series on bonds, bond funds, bond ladders, and Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS)—whew! As I worked through these topics and TIPS ladders, in particular, the path seemed clear. But then I had some concerns—not about TIPS…

  • Why a TIPS Ladder?

    So far, we’ve discussed bonds, bond funds, bond ladders, and TIPS in particular. In this article, we’ll look at TIPS ladders, which many retirement professionals consider the safest investment for the risk-free portion of a retiree’s portfolio. (reference past articles – safe income floor). To simplify things, I will use the term “ladder” to refer…

  • Why Invest in TIPS?

    The last three articles discussed why retirees might want to own bonds and possibly individual bonds instead of investing in a bond fund. Bonds come from many sources: governments, government agencies, blue chip corporations, and risky smaller companies (junk bonds). Municipalities also issue bonds (they’re called “munis”). Something is common to them all: the more…

  • To Ladder or Not to Ladder?

    In the last two articles, I discussed how retirees (and others) use bonds as part of a diversified portfolio because of their stabilizing effect in times of stock market volatility. Bonds can also be an excellent source of income and may provide capital gains under some economic scenarios (especially falling interest rates). We’ve also seen…

  • Individual Bonds or Bond Funds?

    Suppose you’ve decided to keep a portion of your portfolio in bonds, perhaps with a higher allocation percentage than stocks. In that case, you have another decision: Should you invest in individual bonds or a bond fund? With interest rates at higher levels than they’ve been in many years, some folks (including yours truly) wonder…

  • Do Bonds Still Belong in a Retiree’s Portfolio?

    An important preliminary note: Given what took place in both the stock and bond markets in 2022, I’m starting the new year with a short series of articles about “safe” retirement income and the roles that bonds and other instruments may play in providing it. But from the outset, I want to reiterate some important…

  • How Sequence Of Returns Affects Your Retirement

    I have written about the significant changes in the U.S. and the world economies and how they might impact our retirement portfolios. These changes are not all bad (for example, many people think it’s good that the Fed wants to take a more passive role in controlling the U.S. economy—after a round of quantitative tightening,…

  • Responding to ”Epochal Change”

    If you believe, as I do, that we’re likely in a period of “epochal change” (which I defined as the next few decades not being like they were for the last few), we’re left with the question I posed at the conclusion of my previous article: What to do? The most important thing Before I…

  • A Challenging Time for Retirement Investors

    (Note: We all have our eyes, hearts, and prayers directed toward what is going on in Ukraine. But with everything happening in the world—globally and domestically—I think part of good retirement stewardship is acquiring understanding so that we can make wise decisions about how to manage God’s money during difficult times (Prov. 1:5). If you…