I wish I could show this post to every new graduate, be they high school or college. The following three screenshots point out just how difficult it is to get ready for those retirement years. In the first slide I lay out the assumptions for this investor. In the second slide we have twenty index […]
Retirement Planning Mistake #1
Mistake number one in my book is failure to save or to not follow The Golden Rule of Investing. Open up a spreadsheet and run your own calculations for the following classic comparison. As a nineteen year old you have the foresight and financial opportunity to save $2,000 per year for eight years. After saving […]
Retirement Planning Mistake #2
Prospective investors carry too much credit card debt. This mistake is a corollary of Mistake #1. Stay out of credit card (CC) debt. Mistake #2 is not so much an investor mistake, but rather a mistake of bad management as it has nothing to do with managing a portfolio. If one ever aspires to be […]
Retirement Planning Mistake #3
Many investors are too conservative at an early age. In other words, they are “stock market shy.” Don’t load up your portfolio with bonds when you are in your twenties and you have forty years to save. Let me illustrate this mistake with a real example. Husband and wife saved identical amounts during their […]
Retirement Planning Mistake #4
Investors lack knowledge about the importance of asset allocation. Investors do not educate themselves as to the importance of asset allocation, and what asset classes tend to perform better than others over the long-run. I need not go into the importance of overcoming this mistake as I have written extensively about this possible mistake. […]
Retirement Planning Mistake #5
Investors pick individual stocks to build portfolios rather than use index funds. Our preference is to use commission free ETFs. Next to not following “The Golden Rule of Investing,” the error of not using index funds is likely the biggest mistake investors make. Remember – The Market is smarter than you are. While there are […]
Retirement Planning Mistake #6
It is a mistake to think your portfolio is properly diversified simply because you have chosen stocks or index funds across differing sectors. That’s not enough. Investing across all sectors will not coverall asset classes, but investing across all asset classes will cover all sectors. There is a big international world out there. Don’t neglect […]
Retirement Planning Mistake #7
Lack of Portfolio Plan Do you have a portfolio plan and is it written down? If you can lay your hands on a plan, you are a rare investor. What is involved in specifying a Strategic Asset Allocation plan? A portfolio plan will first of all identify all the asset classes that are to be […]
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