Great retirement investment advice at the bottom of this article!

[nun]

the-new-realities-of-retirement: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance

[Nords]

Quote:

However, Burrows concedes, attempts to turn average workers into accomplished investors have failed. "The focus should be on making people professional savers, not professional investors," he says. "Picking the best funds is not the key to retirement security. Contribution rates have the biggest impact."

But as usual, the best part of the article is the reader's comments...

[donheff]

I wish people who post a link with a title like this would take the time to summarize what the important points are so the rest of us can decide whether it is worth reading. In this case, Kiplinger's is recommending a bucket type withdrawal approach starting 5 years before retirement. Set aside 22% of your stash in a CD or 5 year fixed annuity. At retirement, convert that cash into a 5 year CD or fixed annuity (aim for 4% yield). At the same time convert 26% of the remainder to a 5 year CD or equivalent. Diversify the rest at 50% equities, 40% bonds, 10% other. Five years later rinse and repeat.

[donheff]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords But as usual, the best part of the article is the reader's comments...

Wow. I didn't read those comments until after I made my post. Are those commenters representative of the lumpen proletariat outside of this ivory tower board? I'm baring the doors.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by donheff Wow. I didn't read those comments until after I made my post. Are those commenters representative of the lumpen proletariat outside of this ivory tower board? I'm baring the doors.

Scary, isn't it?

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by donheff I wish people who post a link with a title like this would take the time to summarize what the important points are so the rest of us can decide whether it is worth reading.

I understand what you are saying, but in my opinion all that does is impose the entire cost onto the person who finds the story and points to it. Clearly he implicitly thinks it is worth reading, he just read it and decided to pass it on. He should additionally be required to write a brief?

Why should that be? Personally it would just cause me to think, well some might be interested in finding out about this, many will likely find it themselves, and those who don't-lo siento, but not exactly my responsibility.

I really cannot see the work involved in clicking on a link and finding out for oneself whether he does or does not want to read it. Is a retirees time so valuable that he feels entitled to executive summaries?


Ha

[M Paquette]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo Scary, isn't it?

Those wacky Yahooligans. They are also valued contributors to pretty much every Yahoo message board. Fun place.

[RunningBum]

Quote:

Originally Posted by haha I understand what you are saying, but in my opinion all that does is impose the entire cost onto the person who finds the story and points to it. Clearly he implicitly thinks it is worth reading, he just read it and decided to pass it on. He should additionally be required to write a brief? Why should that be? Personally it would just cause me to think, well some might be interested in finding out about this, many will likely find it themselves, and those who don't-lo siento, but not exactly my responsibility. I really cannot see the work involved in clicking on a link and finding out for oneself whether he does or does not want to read it. Is a retirees time so valuable that he feels entitled to executive summaries? Ha

Not everyone here is retired. Plus there are so many people (not here so much, but some) that post links to "joke" articles--look, this guy says to invest in dryer sheets! Isn't that hilarious? I don't think it's much to ask someone for a sentence or two summary of why they posted the link or enough about the link to give the gist of it.

[travelover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RunningBum ............ I don't think it's much to ask someone for a sentence or two summary of why they posted the link or enough about the link to give the gist of it.

Especially when you can copy and paste a key paragraph in a couple of clicks.

[Westernskies]

Quote:

Originally Posted by donheff Wow. I didn't read those comments until after I made my post. Are those commenters representative of the lumpen proletariat outside of this ivory tower board? I'm baring the doors.

Wow, reading these comments certainly answers the question many of us here on E-R.org were wondering:

Where did E******s go?

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RunningBum Not everyone here is retired. Plus there are so many people (not here so much, but some) that post links to "joke" articles--look, this guy says to invest in dryer sheets! Isn't that hilarious? I don't think it's much to ask someone for a sentence or two summary of why they posted the link or enough about the link to give the gist of it.

Again, retired or not, the OP is not on your payroll, and clicking or not clicking is your sole responsibility.

Ha

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by haha Again, retired or not, the OP is not on your payroll, and clicking or not clicking is your sole responsibility.

Yeah! And while you're at it, tell those kids to get off your lawn!

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo Yeah! And while you're at it, tell those kids to get off your lawn!

Clearly a few of the posters have forgotten (or not been around long enough to remember) the NewGuy888 era...

If I want a headline-scrolling service I'll go hang around Times Square.

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo Yeah! And while you're at it, tell those kids to get off your lawn!

Point taken. It's a lifelong issue for me. I strongly prefer being paid for services.

[Bestwifeever]

I've learned to not click on a link if there's not some info there about what it's about. But that's just me.

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bestwifeever I've learned to not click on a link if there's not some info there about what it's about. But that's just me.

As I see it, the OP did do this.

"Great retirement investment advice at the bottom of this article! "

Additionally, the link itself tells more. IMO, anything beyond this is more likely to reflect an OP's preferences and tastes than rather anything objective. What could be objective, other than violating copyright laws and quoting the whole thing?

I have read enough book reports and article summaries here and elsewhere to realize that very often I would have a completely different interpretation of the material than the summarizer expressed.

Ha

[Bestwifeever]

I don't know, I guess I think if someone doesn't want to take a couple of minutes to pound out a short summary (especially some of us who have no trouble whipping out paragraphs of stuff when we want to), then the link probably isn't worth the effort. I've also fallen victim to the (softball alert!) naked video link, in which a talking head drones on for 45 minutes and I have no idea what the point is or where it might be made. Those are especially fun to moderate.

I know you're a very courteous man, Ha, so I wouldn't suggest to you that it would be a little courteous to provide a dab of information or more importantly in some cases, a whisper of where one might stand on an issue when posting a link (which otherwise to me seems to be like tossing in a hand grenade just to see how the lumpen lumps will react to it).

[W2R]

(Edited to add: It took me so long to write this that I hadn't yet read BestWifeEver's post just above this one, when I posted it. So this post pretty much says the same things. +1 to her post.)

I guess I have lived too long in the South, because to me a post consisting of only a link without any discussion seems, well, impolite. This is a discussion board, so the only purpose of posting a link would be for discussion, yet one possible implication of such a post is that that the originator feels he/she is above all that. If it is worth others' time in discussing, then I would imagine that it is worth posting more than a plain link and starting the discussion.

Also, like BestWifeEver, I am reluctant to click on links when I don't know what is there.

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by W2R This is a discussion board, so the only purpose of posting a link would be for discussion,

Assuming that you are saying this as a poster, and not as a moderator, I really don't think that this is necessarily true. (If you are posting as moderator, please disregard my comments.) Another purpose of posting a link would be to alert others of an event, a change, or an impending action- such as the heads up about the impending demise of SS do-overs. This enabled me to do get in under the wire. Would my benefit have been greater if the OP had written at length about his attitude to do-overs, their efficacy, social benefits vs. costs, or anything else other than "this is what I read"?

Quote:

... one possible implication of such a post is that that the originator feels he/she is above all that. If it is worth others' time in discussing, then I would imagine that it is worth posting more than a plain link and starting the discussion.

perhaps, but it is only one out of many possible reasons- only one of many others being that the OP does not feel that he understands the issue enough to state a possibly premature conclusion or opinion, and is hoping to learn more by others comments and attitudes. Another might be an ingrained tendency to respect others' ability to decide for themselves.

I guess everyone will have to decide for himself/herself if this is discourteous, or merely respectful. I admit that I am the kind of person who watches football with the sound off -unless Chris Collingsworth is on.

I am not sure if I personally have tended to be a practitioner of insufficient discussion (at least in some eyes) of links, since I don't think I was aware of this issue until the last couple days.

Quote:

Also, like BestWifeEver, I am reluctant to click on links when I don't know what is there.

Of course, and that is what is nice about freedom, we can click or not, as we desire. Perhaps I am adverturous with my promiscuous clicking, but I cannot remember a time when I thought- "should I click on this, even though OP has not given me his opinion or a summary? "

Ha

[REWahoo]

Ha's response to W2R and Bestwifeever