Life is lumpy
“I made my first retirement spreadsheet right out of college. I made a bunch of assumptions about savings rates, market returns, asset allocation, etc. That was roughly 20 years ago. None of it played out like that retirement spreadsheet. Spreadsheets are linear but life is lumpy.”
– Ben Carlson, in a 9/26/24 post on his blog, A Wealth of Common Sense. He says retirement planning is important, but plans must be updated regularly. Read more at bit.ly/3ZJLp1h.
Even pros make mistakes
“I didn’t move any of my money from a traditional 401(k) to a Roth 401(k). Neither did my husband. So we have to take more withdrawals than we need right now and pay the taxes. Someone should have said, ‘If you’re going to work until 82, you might not want to put all your savings into a traditional 401(k). Put some into a Roth.’”
– Alicia Munnell, who retires soon as director of Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research, in a 10/12/24 Wall Street Journal article. Read more at bit.ly/40mQCMH.
The market is rarely average
“An investor’s long-term returns may reflect [the] averages we talk about. But that’s only because they’ve experienced a combination of many strong years, many lackluster years, some negative years, and a small handful of average years.”
– Sam Ro, in a 10/13/24 post on his TKer blog. He says the market’s average annual return masks the many ups and downs that lead to the average. Read more at bit.ly/3YDPt2f.
Ignoring the elephant
“We pretend the elephant in the room does not exist and is not likely to start stomping about crushing whatever is in its path.”
– WORLD Opinions columnist Hunter Baker on the failure of either major political party to address the growing crisis of the U.S. national debt. Read more at bit.ly/4eSlGZb.
