Nevin's Data "Points"

  Mother’s Day tends to come packaged in the usual ways — cards, flowers, reservations, and a few familiar phrases about gratitude. There’s nothing wrong with any of that. But it also flattens something that, in real life, is anything but simple: the steady, unglamorous work that holds everything together long before anyone thinks to acknowledge it. A recent driving trip out West brought that into sharper focus for me. Now, my wife and I had been talking about making this particular trip for years. We had specific things we wanted to see, and a rough idea of their proximity to each other. And, thanks to a speaking engagement, we had a departure date, and a “jumping off” point.  Now, on paper, a road trip sounds straightforward enough — pack the car, set the route, go. In practice — and especially when you’re traveling with two dogs who are very much part of the family structure (and not very accustomed to travelling), it becomes something closer to project management. Timing, ...

   It’s an odd thing to admit in Financial Literacy Month — but I’ve been a financial literacy skeptic.  Not always, of course. Once upon a time I was one of those industry voices decrying the burden placed on employment-based retirement plans. Employers (and advisors) who — in the course of a 25-minute workshop — had to convey the range of concepts required to make knowledgeable investment decisions to an audience of adults who had never been exposed to any of that prior to that session. Considering all the (relatively) useless things that ARE mandated in school curriculums, some basic finance concepts seemed like a pretty reasonable “ask.” State Steps And though it’s been a long time coming, a number of states [i]  now do require students to take a financial literacy course for high school graduation — and that number continues to climb. That said, what constitutes complying with that requirement — varies. And, if it’s like a lot of the classes I was required to ta...

  I’ve written previously – albeit just a couple of times – about my decision to “retire.” Not that I don’t have stories to share, and perhaps even insights to impart. [i]   I’ve mostly held off because (a) people keep telling me I “suck” at retirement, and (b) I have come to believe that every retirement experience is unique.  That said, of late, I have become aware of just how many folks write and counsel about retirement – who are actually well short of that milestone. I’m not saying that guidance is irrelevant – I’m just saying that I have found that the reality is… different. My good friend and podcasting partner Fred Reish (who hasn’t yet crossed over into retirement, it bears noting) came up with the idea of doing a podcast where we talk to retirement industry people about their retirement(s). We’ve now done  three of those interviews  – and I hope that you’ll come check them out.  In the most  recent episode , [ii]  Fred thought it would b...

My “retirement” isn’t even a year old—and for the most part, it’s played out pretty much as planned.  There was, however, an area that caught us a bit flat-footed. For us (and this has very much been a joint effort between me and my wife), that surprise was…Medicare.  Don’t get me wrong; to date the coverage has compared favorably with what we had pre-retirement—mostly because we coupled “standard” Medicare with a Medicare Advantage plan (which has actually provided some nice enhancements over our pre-retirement coverage).  That said, here are some things we’ve learned along the way that we either didn’t know or hadn’t thought about “before”: Medicare isn’t free.  Well, technically speaking, some of Medicare comes without additional premiums/cost, at least if you’ve worked at least 10 years and paid into that system.  There are two “core” parts to Medicare; what are affectionately referred to as Part A (hospital coverage)—which is “free” (in that y...

As it happens, I’ll commemorate an anniversary of my birth this weekend. It’s not a particularly significant one—it doesn’t end in a 5 or a 0, won’t trigger any new savings opportunities or impact (catch-up, RMD trigger, forbearance of withdrawal penalties, or Social Security)—but it is a birthday, and therefore a day upon which to reflect (and to wonder anew why we don’t make more fuss about our mothers, who—let’s face it—did the real work on that day). Traditionally, on my birthday weekend (and the 4 th of July holiday), I have taken a look at my current asset allocations and, when circumstances warranted, rebalanced. There’s no magic to those points in time. It’s not the ONLY time I look (and act)—but it happens to be a time when, whatever is going on in the market, I have a calendar-driven opportunity to take a breath and take a longer view. And, let’s face it, this year has been a bumpy ride in the markets. The mantra in times of volatile markets is, inevitably,...

What’s the most important number when it comes to retirement? Once upon a time it might have been considered to be “65”—that traditional age for retirement—but even though it’s the default in many retirement calculators, until recently it hadn’t even been the most common age for actual retirement. Heck, it’s not even “good enough” for full Social Security benefits these days. [i]   Perhaps a more precise focus number in retirement planning is the one that purports to provide some level of financial security in retirement [ii] —indeed, some years back there was a commercial that prompted folks to determine their “number”—a reference to a financial result that was deemed necessary to “retire the way you want” (and perhaps when you want, though that wasn’t part of the “pitch”). But while that was (and is) “A” number, in order to get to it, for it to have any semblance of actually fulfilling that promise (premise?), you had to first get to several other numbers; how l...