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I have a small balance in TIAA Traditional and just did an online quote to turn it into a single lifetime annuity starting at age 63 and a payout rate of 9.45% was quoted. I've been with TIAA for over 35 years so I think I'm getting some uplift for having an old contract, but this seems amazing...

I'm 59 and have been retired for 7 years. I've become comfortable with my retirement finances and now I'm worrying about wills, estate planing and inheritance. I'm single and don't have any children so I will be leaving money to my nieces and some charities. I have a basic will from a long time...

So I've reached the goals of FIRE and now I'm thinking about estate planning. I have enough income from rent and a DB plan to cover my expenses and so my investments and DC pensions are left to compound. I don't expect to have to worry about Federal IHT, but I'm already over the $1M estate tax...

So goal one of being FIREd is achieved and I'm all set while I'm alive. But now I'm thinking of inheritances and how to organize my estate which is a few million (still less than $5M) with the biggest single asset being a $1M mortgage free home. I live in MA, I'm divorced in my mid 50s and have...

So goal one of being FIREd is achieved and I'm all set while I'm alive. But now I'm thinking of inheritances and how to organize my estate which is a few million (still less than $5M) with the biggest single asset being a $1M mortgage free home. I live in MA, I'm divorced in my mid 50s and have...

Is there a size of portfolio that makes it sensible to employ a Financial Adviser? My response was always "NO"......but as I get older and my portfolio increases I can see asking for advice on estate planning....but not investing.

Wellesley is the "dirty secret" of many passive indexers and many of us own it. So going into retirement can it be a useful part of a lazy portfolio......or would you just go with full on indexes for better diversity? So would 25% Wellesley 25% Total Bond Index 25% International Stock Index...

Vanguard has recently expanded in the UK to sell directly to regular retail UK investors. This is producing downward pressure of UK fees. https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/home However I also notice that MetLife is selling something that looks like a Guaranteed Investment Contract through...

This is interesting and funny.

I was just going over some old, old accounts and saw that between 1987 and 1990 I contributed $2.2k and my employer contributed $6.4k to TIAA-Traditional deferred annuity. This was the default place to put retirement funds and I didn't think much about it. Over the years I've learned a bit more...

I recently read this article in the Guardian about UK retirement saving and income. It gives a few figures that seem pretty ridiculous to me and the projections don't follow any of the standard dogma...

Do you have access to a "Stable Value" fund in a retirement account and if you do do you use it? I'm retired and even though I have a pension I keep just over 10% of my assets in a 457 stable value fund (@2% return) just in case of an emergency. My 20% bond allocation is from Wellesley and I...

The Pound continues for fall against the Dollar and with PM May to give a speech in which she will say that controlling the borders is more important that staying in the EU Single Market I think we'll see soon see one dollar buying one pound. So the UK is ridiculously inexpensive for Americans...

I ER'ed two and a half years ago at age 52. I just turned 55 and received my first pension check from my ex-employer and started retiree healthcare. It feels official now.

Here is an article from The Guardian about how UK DB pensions are valued. The usual discount rates used are UK Government bonds, or gilts, which have fallen from 1.3% to 0.6% on the 10 year gilt since BREXIT. There has been a trend in UK BD pensions to use Liability Driven...

Here is an official UK Government life expectancy calculator. The good news is that people in the UK are living longer......and so the retirement income needs to be planned for out past 95. For me, as a 55 year old male, it looks like I'd have an average life span of 86 and a 10% chance of...

So the big day has arrived when I apply for my pension. I have two income options: 1) Life time pension of $19813 / year with a 2% COLA starting at 55 with no death benefit. 2) Life time pension of $19615 / year with a 2% COLA starting at 55 with a lump sum payment to a named beneficiary of...

I'm frustrated by the fall in equites and the lack luster performance on intermediate bond funds so as an experiment I'm thinking of putting a small amount into closed end muni funds....what do you think.....I worry about the leverage, but though a few grand would be a useful experiment.

My state is allowing a one time transfer of contributions made to the DC state pension plan to the DB state pension plan. It was initiated by the teachers union as many of their members lost a lot of money in the 2007 recession. It's controversial because of the "moral hazard" involved and the...

There have been recent posts on TIPS ladders and a 50/50 Wellesley/Wellington portfolio to produce retirement income. There are lots of tools in the retirement income toolkit and here is a good post from Kitces that covers quite a few of them and I think honestly explains their pros and cons...

At the beginning of 2015 (at age 54) I took a lump sum payment from a pension. The amount was $35k. The pension would have paid $5.6k per year starting at age 65. I decided to do a long term experiment to see if taking the lump sum ended up as the best choice. So I deposited the money in...

No one should invest in an SPIA, they should buy one to insure against catastrophic loss of income knowing that inflation will reduce its buying power. VAs are not even worth considering.

There's a widespread feeling that it's bad to be careful with money, mean, frugal.....to be like Scrouge in Christmas Carol. Of course it's bad to treat others unfairly and I see generosity to others as a positive character trait. But is it bad to be frugal when it comes to your own spending...

Well it looks like my buy in to my state pension might not be the amazing deal that I thought I had once engineered. Because of some poorly conceived legislation and accounting issues I found a loophole in the buy in and after a large volume of emails with the pension administrators I was...

Lots of ER folks finesse their income to qualify for ACA subsidies, but do you also use your low income status to get other benefits like fuel assistance or even food stamps?