In today's Five Question Friday (FQF) video, we look at these five questions:

1. Have we been lied to about our Social Security break-even age?

2. Is it ok to restart the 4% rule if the market goes up in early retirement?

3. I am nervous about the run up in AI stocks . . . Could it be a good idea to consider diversifying from VTI to an “equal-weighted index fund like Invesco S&P Equal Weight ETF or others like it?

4. I’m 64 and I would like to begin annual Roth conversions from my traditional IRA’s.  Can you review the rules surrounding these conversions in one’s retirement years?  I would like to know how soon I can withdraw converted funds and their associated earnings penalty free and tax free.

5. You’ve mentioned in the past that you transitioned from a six-fund portfolio to a simpler three-fund setup. I’m curious — was that change mainly about reducing complexity and streamlining your investments, or did it reflect a stage of investment maturity and confidence in a more minimalist approach?

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In today's Five Question Friday (FQF) video, we cover these questions:

1. How to invest $15 million?

2. For the 4% withdrawal rate devised by Bill Bengen, what measure of inflation did he use?  Are there other measures that you think might be more appropriate?

3. If you have a retirement portfolio with a 6% yield does the 4% rule apply?

4. Is a 7-year MYGA a better deal than a 7-year Treasury?

5. If the yield from a High Yield Savings account is paying out 3.8 to 4.0%, why would it ever be a good investment to buy bonds or bond ETFs with their recent volatility?

Bonus Question: Can you explain more about your choice to practice Bikram Yoga over other types of Yoga?

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In today's Five Question Friday (FQF), we cover five great questions and one tax calculator:

1. What is the Tax Triangle? (Traditional, Roth, and taxable accounts)
2. Is the Withdrawal Amount in FICalc the same as spending?
3. When should you sell an investment that's at a loss?
4. How far into the future should we plan?
5. When and how quickly should you change asset allocation as you near retirement?

Tool: Retirement Tax-Friendly States: https://smartasset.com/retirement/ret...

Resources
Blackrock Asset Return Map: https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/i...
FICalc: https://ficalc.app/
Boldin: https://go.robberger.com/boldin/yt-fqf
Perplexity Result: https://www.perplexity.ai/search/what...
Perplexity Tax Triangle: https://www.perplexity.ai/search/what...

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Many things change when we retire. There’s the obvious change–we stop working. And there’s a less obvious change–how we approach cash.

Before retirement, we might have an emergency fund of three to six months’ worth of living expenses. After retirement, we need cash for so much more. The ideal cash reserve depends on individual circumstances, including income stability, potential emergencies, and comfort level during market volatility.

In this episode, I’ll walk through the seven main reasons retirees hold cash. For each, we’ll look at how much cash one should have for each reason and the type of account best suited to hold the cash.

You enter your income, expenses, investments, and liabilities into your favorite retirement planner. You click a button, the software does some kind of calculation, and out pops a single number.

It may be 87%. Maybe it’s 72%. Or it could be 15%. Whatever the number, you’re told it represents your retirement plan’s “Chance of Success.”

What exactly does that mean? How is it calculated? And what “Chance of Success” should you aim for? We’ll tackle these and other questions in this video.

You'll find my article on this topic as well as links to the tools I use in this video in this article: https://robberger.com/decoding-the-ch...

The treasury department released the new I Bond rates today. They came in at 4.28%, which included a fixed rate of 1.30%, unchanged from the previous six months. https://treasurydirect.gov/savings-bo...

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Several years ago, I stumbled upon a quote from Dave Ramsey about credit card rewards. I’ll never forget those 11 words. :

“No one ever says they got rich off of credit card points.”

As I read his words, I knew immediately that he was wrong. One could build wealth through credit card rewards. In this sense, credit card rewards aren’t special. Saving and investing small amounts of money from any source over time will turn into piles of cash. We just need to allow compounding to work its magic.

It was then that the idea of Rewards Stacking was born. Over the past four years, we’ve saved and invested all our credit card rewards. Our balance now stands at $37,834.55.

While that doesn’t make us rich (yet), it’s an impressive sum, particularly when you consider that it required no sacrifice on our part. It wasn’t about cutting back or working harder—just saving and investing the free money credit card issuers send us every month.

In this video, I’ll share exactly how we did it and, more importantly, how you can do it, too.

Rewards Stacking: https://www.allcards.com/rewards-stac...
Robinhood Gold Card (Referral Link): https://robinhood.com/creditcard/?ref...

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In this episode, we'll look at three of the largest investing platforms, Fidelity, Vanguard, and Schwab. I'll share 7 things based on using these platforms for 20+ years.

Robinhood is promoting up to a 3% match on IRA contributions, and for a limited time, a 3% match on IRA transfers. A viewer asked me if I thought this was a good deal. In this video I'll share my thoughts on the program, some of the things to look out for, and why I ultimately decided not to transfer my IRAs to Robinhood.


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Retirement isn't always a sunny walk in the park. While I have no regrets that I retired in my 50s, it hasn't been without its challenges. Here are 7 lessons learned after four years of retirement.

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In this video we'll look at a portfolio a viewer sent in to me. It's from their investment advisor, and we will be asking 5 key questions about the portfolio that I would ask if an advisor put me in the same portfolio.

1. What's the target asset allocation?
2. Have you made any changes to the target asset allocation?
3. How do you pick the funds to implement the plan?
4. Why isn't a simpler, less expensive portfolio a better choice?
5. How do you invest your own money?

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Vanguard recently launched an FDIC-insured account called the Vanguard Cash Plus Account. We'll review this new account, compare it to other FDIC-insured options, and compare it to money market accounts.

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In a recent video answering a caller's question, Dave Ramsey described those promoting the 4% Rule as "stupid," "goobers," and "morons. He described the 4% Rule as stupid and said he's "perfectly comfortable" with an 8% withdrawal rate.

In this video, I'll describe his rationale and why I'm "perfectly comfortable" telling him he's wrong.

New Retirement: https://go.robberger.com/new-retireme...%
FICalc: https://ficalc.app/
Dave Ramsey Video: https://twitter.com/mbontrager5/statu...

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A viewer recently asked about bracket filling:

"I haven't heard you or other financial advisors say much about "bracket filling" in retirement. Is it reasonable to think that in retirement I should be filling a tax bracket up with pre-tax accounts, then using after-tax accounts for withdrawals that reach into the higher bracket? Is there a way to model this in Bolden?"

It's a great question that we cover in this video.

Resources Mentioned in Video

Boldin: https://go.robberger.com/boldin/yt-EN...

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Is buy and hold investing dead? A recent WSJ article suggests that the set-it-and-forget-it style of investing can't survive the current economic trends. I walk through my thoughts on the article, along with an important memo by value investor Howard Marks.

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Not long ago investors had to pay the U.S. government for the privilege of owning TIPS. The real yields, that is the yield after factoring in inflation, were negative. Last year, as a phoenix rising, real yields broke above 0%. Today the real yield on 10-year TIPS is about 2.50%. This offers some intriguing options for those in or near retirement.

Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, or TIPS for short, are U.S. government bonds whose principal amount adjusts for inflation. They are as close a sure thing as an investor can get. Of course, there is no free lunch. What an investor gives up with TIPS is the possibility of better returns with nominal bonds (should inflation end up lower than expected) or with more risky assets such as stocks. For many retirees, however, risk is a four-letter word.

So let’s explore two TIPS ladder strategies that retirees might want to consider. We'll walk through building a 30-year TIPS ladder and a 5-year TIPS ladder.

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A viewer emailed me asking how to buy gold. He knew I didn't personally invest in gold. But he asked how he might go about investing in gold.

So in today's video we'll look at five important questions you must answer when buying gold:

1. Should you buy gold in a retirement or taxable account?
2. Does a gold IRA ever make sense?
3. Should you own physical gold or gold ETFs?
4. What type of gold ETFs are best?
5. If you wanted to buy physical gold, where's the best place to buy it?

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7 simple steps anybody can take to address the fear of retiring. Video's Sponsor is New Retirement: https://go.robberger.com/new-retireme...

The Retirement Planning Tools I Use:

1. New Retirement (Retirement Planning): https://go.robberger.com/new-retireme...
2. Empower (Investment Tracking): https://go.robberger.com/empower/yt-f...
3. Tiller (Budgeting): https://go.robberger.com/tiller/yt-fe...

Other Tools/Resources:

1. Projection Lab: https://go.robberger.com/projectionla...
2. Low-Cost Advisors: https://robberger.com/low-cost-financ...

Investment fees rob you of your wealth. High investment fees, such as the industry standard 1% of assets under management AUM, can literally cost you hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars over a lifetime.

But what about investment fees once you retire? It turns out that a 1% fee in retirement can significantly lower the chance of success of your retirement plan and reduce your spending by 10% or more. In this video we look at 3 tools you can use to understand the impact of investment fees on your retirement plan.
 
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Morningstar Investor replaces the old Morningstar Premium subscription service for retail investors. It brings a much needed facelift to Morningstar's portfolio tracker. While it offers features that may be valuable to some investors, it still has a long way to go before being the type of tool most investors will find useful for the money.

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I seem to be fighting a never ending battle against "dividend investing." Don't get me wrong, dividends are an important part of the returns equity investors receive from stocks and stock funds. The problem comes when we misunderstand the nature of dividends and the role they should play in our portfolio.

One mistaken belief I see is that dividends are necessary for compounding, or that a higher dividend yield results in more compounding. Nothing could be further from the truth, as we discuss in this video.

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The debt ceiling crisis is taking us closer to the "X Date," the date the U.S. would start to default on its obligations. Many have asked me what would happen if the unthinkable occurred and the U.S. did in fact default. In this video I'll share four things:

1. A brief history of the debt ceiling
2. Ramifications of a debt ceiling crisis that gets resolved
3. Ramifications if the U.S. actually defaults
4. What, if anything, we should do to prepare

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We know that dollar cost averaging (DCA) underperforms lump sum investing (LSI) about two-thirds of the time. That's because stocks tend to go up more often than they go down. But does LSI beat DCA when stock market valuations are high compared to historical averages, as they are now? That's the question we cover  in this video.

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In this video, I ask ChatGPT some questions about sophisticated investing and retirement topics. Here are a few examples:

What is the 3-fund portfolio?
Is the 4% Rule still valid?
What Fidelity funds can we use to build the 3-fund portfolio?

The responses ChatGPT returned were amazing. It's not perfect, but it's very good. And while artificial intelligence won't replace financial advisors any time soon, it definitely can be part of our own research into financial questions.

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The passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act has brought us a number of changes to the tax laws. Some changes are "permanent," meaning it would take an act of Congress and the President to change them. Some are "temporary," meaning they expire at some point in the future. Almost all of them can affect how we plan for retirement, particularly when it comes to Roth conversion strategies, tax-gain harvesting, and even traditional retirement account distributions.

In this video, I walk through the key tax provisions of the OBBBA, and then cover how they may affect retirement planning.

NOTE: ProjectionLab has updated its software to account for the OBBBA tax changes
https://robberger.com/tools/projectio...

Resources
Andy Panko's article: https://static.twentyoverten.com/5d25...
U.S. Bank Tax Bracket article: https://www.usbank.com/wealth-managem...

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In this video I'll explain why bonds are a better, long-term investment than cash, particularly for those in retirement.

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Today we'll start by looking at my investment portfolio. Then I'll answer your questions.

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Saving for retirement can be a struggle in the best of circumstances. For those 50 or older who have saved little if anything, retirement can seem impossible. In this video I walk through seven concepts, strategies and tools to help those who have gotten a late start save for a comfortable retirement at a reasonable age.

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We'll start tonight with a discussion of how to manage uncertainty when it comes to retirement planning. Then I'll answer your questions.

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With the recent banking crisis, I've received a lot of emails asking me two related questions. First, what would happen to our investments at a broker if that broker failed. Second, what would happen to an ETF or mutual fund if the company behind the fund failed?

We cover both of these questions in today's video.

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We'll start by discussing the relative safety of FDIC-insured bank accounts versus T-bills in light of the debt ceiling. Then I'll take your questions.

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The banking crisis continues, with PacWest and other regional banks struggling in the stock market and to raise capital. The news prompted my mom to text me asking if she should be worried. In this video I answer her questions, covering the following topics.

1. How this banking crisis is different than 2008
2. Whether we should abandon small and regional banks and put all of our money in big banks
3. How to protect your cash wherever you bank
4. And a possible investment opportunity for those who believe in the future of regional banks.

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I'll start by sharing some excellent books I'm reading right now. Then we'll turn to your questions.

The Power Broker: https://amzn.to/3IF9woO
Convict Conditioning: https://amzn.to/3XTEeiA
Psychology of Money: https://amzn.to/3kgBjTd
The Perfectionist's Guide to Losing Control: https://amzn.to/3Kvvko2
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking: https://amzn.to/3kgoCYE

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You've found a bank with a great savings or CD rate, but it's in another state and you've never heard of it. Or perhaps you just want to know how safe your existing bank is.

In this video we'll cover four free tools you can use to confirm that a bank or credit union is federally insured (FDIC or NCUA) and whether it's financially stable.

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Avantis launched this year a global stock ETF called the Avantis All Equity Markets ETF. In one ETF it can cover the entire stock portion of a portfolio. In this video I'll discuss the pros and cons of this fund from my perspective.

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Here are the five questions we cover this week in Five Question Friday:

1. Should we park cash in a money market fund or a t-bill ETF?
2. Are Robo-Advisor Tax-Loss harvesting features worth it?
3. What is the Retirement Spending Smile?
4. What rate of return assumption should you use in retirement planning software?
5. Which IRA account types can be combined?

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A list of the best 0% APR and balance transfer credit cards: https://www.allcards.com/interest-fre...

In this video we'll walk through the strategy my wife and I used to get out of credit card debt many years ago. We used 0% balance transfer cards, which eliminated our interest payments and helped us get out of debt faster and for less money.

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Maxifi is retirement planning software designed by Boston University professor Larry Kotlikoff. I've spent several days trying out the software, and this video is my review of the tool.

There are several things I like about the tool. Data entry is easy. It doesn't require input of detailed investments or even a budget. Beyond housing, it asks for no spending details. Instead, it provides you with how much the tool calculates you can spend each year in retirement.

Its social security tool is also robust. For example, you can upload your earnings history from SSA, which the tool uses to calculate your best claiming strategy.

That said, Maxifi is not a tool I can recommend or plan to use. Its spending calculations do not account for the sequence of returns risk. It uses very conservative default settings, without explaining the consequences of these assumptions. And I found the tool overall not very transparent when it comes to understanding how the calculations were performed or how the various assumptions affect the results.

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Tonight we'll start by discussing what makes up a comprehensive retirement withdrawal strategy. Then we'll discuss your questions.

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The CBO released a report estimating that under current law, Social Security benefits will be cut by 23% in 2034. For those who can claim Social Security between then and now, the potential cut raises an important question. How should the potential cuts affect when you claim social security?

In this video we use the free tool Open Social Security to answer this question.

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We'll start by discussing what's called the SEC Yield of a bond fund. Then we'll turn to your questions.

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For those considering moving their TSP investments to an IRA, here are mutual funds and ETFs that mirror the C Fund, S Fund, I Fund and F Fund of the Thrift Savings Plan. We also look at the G Fund, which doesn't have an alternative.

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The Vanguard Dynamic Spending Rule is one of several retirement withdrawal strategies that use the guardrails concept. The idea, in theory, is to generate a spending plan that has some of the annual spending consistency of the 4% Rule, while at the same time remaining sensitive to market fluctuations.

I'll walk through how the rule works, its pros and cons, and a free tool that will enable you to test the Vanguard Dynamic Spending Rule for yourself.

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Warren Buffett just released his annual letter to shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway. Here 7 powerful lessons every investor can learn from the Oracle of Omaha's letter.

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We'll begin tonight discussing the upcoming battle over the debt ceiling, and how our nation's debt and interest payments may affect a retiree's future. Then I'll turn to your questions.

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Here are 8 action items I review at the end of each year. They help me make sure I'm not missing anything for 2022, and they prepare me for 2023.

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In today's Five Question Friday we look at the following questions:

1. How should the $6,000 senior deduction affect Roth conversions?
2. Are short-term bonds a reasonable alternative to intermediate-term bonds?
3. Are tax-managed balanced funds ok in a taxable account?
4. How should I invest money I'll use to pay the rent in retirement?
5. Boldin vs ProjectionLab for Roth conversion analysis?Join the Newsletter. It's Free:
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Must investors have multiple accounts. These may include 401(k) and 403(b) accounts, any number of IRAs, taxable accounts, and even HSAs. Multiple accounts raise an important question. Should you implement you replicate your asset allocation plan within each account or just make sure your portfolio as a whole matches your investment plan?

In this video will cover the following:
0:00 How to Invest With Multiple Accounts and Account Types
1:00 Simplicity
1:50 Investment Tracking Spreadsheet
2:30 Investment Options
3:15 Taxes--Asset Location
5:00 After-Tax Asset Allocation

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In this video I update my credit card rewards strategy, including our current balance we've accumulated just from credit cards. I also walk through a simple 3-card strategy you can use to generate on average 3% or more in cash back.

We'll also look at how one can build wealth with credit card rewards or improve spending outcomes in retirement.
————————————
Credit Cards Mentioned in this Video
————————————
Citi Double Cash: https://bit.ly/3SDoOwe
Chase Freedom Unlimited: https://bit.ly/3f7nDHs
Amex Blue Cash Preferred: https://bit.ly/3gLDnk3
Wells Fargo Bilt Card: https://creditcards.wellsfargo.com/bi...
Chase Business Ink Premier: https://bit.ly/3gyY56r

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A total international fund will include some exposure to emerging markets. The question we cover in this video is whether we should seek additional exposure through an emerging market ETF or mutual fund.

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