Looking for a Buying Opportunity

In the next few weeks, I expect the stock market to be very volatile.  I also expect a 10-20% decline given new uncertainty in a number of economic and political areas:  new Fed chair, Middle East instability, and bond purchase taper.   The market generally reacts in a negative manner with new uncertainties.  For example, I don't think the debt ceiling debate will have much impact on the stock market, since it has experienced that situation before in 2011.

Although it will be painful, I plan to put 10% of our cash back into equities when the market has declined 20%.

For more on The Practice of Personal Finance, check back every Wednesday  for a new segment.

This is not financial or investing advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2013 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

The Wealth Builder Carnival #139

Welcome to the one hundred thirty-ninth edition of The Wealth Builder Carnival. The purpose of this carnival is to collect articles from the blogosphere on building, preserving and keeping enough wealth for a comfortable retirement. For reference, I have tried to keep the carnival content tightly focused on wealth building and did not include submissions that were off topic. For reading convenience, the posts are listed with a brief summary or comment by the submitter and organized into seven categories: Earning, Insuring and Protecting, Investing, Living Frugally, Retiring, Saving and Taxes.

And now on to the Carnival.

Earning

Gary presents Summer Jobs For Teachers posted at Gajizmo, saying, "Although teachers get summers off, that shouldn't stop them from earning a second income or exploring other opportunities. Here are a few of the best summer jobs for teachers to take advantage of, including freelance work, starting their own blogs or businesses, teaching abroad, etc."

Insuring and Protecting

Gary presents Life Insurance Definition posted at MyLifeInsuranceQuotes123.com, saying, "What is life insurance? Have you ever read an in-depth, comprehensive definition explaining its purpose, the parts of a life policy, whether you need coverage, and the types available? Check out this life insurance guide to learn the basics and whether you may be in a stage of life where you need to purchase protection."

Investing

Top Dividend Stocks presents 5 Tricks to Successful Dividend Investing posted at Top Dividend Stocks, saying, "In a world of volatile stock markets, you cannot rely on capital growth as your primary means of building wealth. Instead, focus on generating dividends from your stocks, and reinvesting those dividends back in to your holdings for compounding growth. Even a conservative strategy like this has gone through hoops, especially with 804 dividend payment cuts made in 2009 (according to the S&P 500). This massive cut cost investors a whopping $58 billion in lost cash dividends."

John Schmoll presents Investing in Stocks: Are You a Trader or Investor? Plus a Giveaway! posted at Frugal Rules, saying, "There are various strategies investors can implement in the stock market yet many do not stop to think which is best for them. This lack of preparation can significantly undermine their investing efforts and hinder their attempts to grow wealth."

Todd presents Bid and Ask | Understand These Terms Before Trading Stocks posted at All Things Finance, saying, "An uneducated investor may get lucky a few times, making profitable trades without knowing what these terms mean. Eventually though, this person will get burned and their luck will run out. As an investor, you MUST know what the bid and ask are and how a trade is executed. This could mean the difference between a great trade and a horrible one. If anything else, it will save you a call to your broker asking why your trade has not gone through."

Matthew presents What is a Trailing Stop? posted at Investing Five Daily, saying, "An introduction to the use of a trailing stop as a part of a buy and hold investing strategy."

Living Frugally

Matt Becker presents The Mythical $12,000 Baby posted at Mom and Dad Money, saying, "The reports out there say it costs $12,000 in the first year of raising a child. When making your own decisions, it’s important to remember that that number is just an average. It doesn’t reflect your personal situation or your ability to make different choices. Let’s look at some of the ways you can be different."

Todd presents How Much To Spend On An Engagement Ring posted at Fearless Men, saying, "There’s too many opinions on how much to spend on an engagement ring. The only opinion that really matters is your lady's. The problem is, you may feel like a chump for straight up asking her how much you should spend. And you don’t want to ask her friends that question either. So here's the scoop on How Much to Spend on an Engagement Ring."

Taxes

Bill Smith presents New Tax Relief For Education posted at 2010 Tax, saying, "The Lifetime Learning Credit 2010 gives a tax credit of up to $2,000 dollars for types of higher learning."


That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of The Wealth Builder Carnival using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: the wealth builder carnival, blog carnival.

For more on Ideas You Can Use, check back every Tuesday for a new segment.

This is not financial, earning, insuring, investing, living, retiring, saving, tax, or wealth building advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2013 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Capital Preservation

"Rule #1: Never lose money.  Rule #2: Never forget Rule #1."~ Warren Buffett

Today, I started to sell individual profitable stock positions, in anticipation of a stock market decline. Tomorrow, I will continue to sell to raise cash.  Then, I will wait for a 10% decline to start reinvesting.

The only equities that I may purchase before a 10% decline are material stocks, such as Freeport McMoran, Cliffs Natural Resources, and Newmont Mining or precious metal ETFs.

Disclosure:  We have long positions in Freeport McMoran, Cliffs Natural Resoures, Newmont Mining, gold ETFs, and silver ETFs.

For more on Strategies and Plans, check back every Monday for a new segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2013 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Time to Be Risk Averse Again

Last night I dreamed I was working at my old job again, receiving a regular paycheck, instead of being retired.   I guess my subconscious was telling me that our 35% concentration in my company stock and stock options is too much risk.  After doing the analysis last week, my conscious thinking was giving me the same caution.  I am reluctant to put significant funds back into equities while we have such a large exposure to my company stock and stock options.

On Friday, the two day reversal of the four straight down days of the Dow made me bullish, a little too bullish.  I was planning to add more funds to a managed account this week.  After thinking about the market over the weekend, I've decided the four reasons I identified in Preparing for a Correction still are relevant.  So I've decided to continue waiting for a 10% market decline before putting significant funds back into equities.

For more on New Beginnings, check back every Sunday for a new segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2013 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

College Costs and the Obama Plan

Obama Takes on College Cartel reports that President Obama promises a plan to rate colleges based on performance for getting graduates jobs and also to reduce future costs for middle class students.  I have low confidence that any government plan will deliver against these promises.

My guess is that the cost of college will only increase faster with more government involvement.  I only need to see the results of the Affordable Health Care Act which has already significantly raised my health insurance costs, despite promises by President Obama to lower the cost.

For more on Reflections and Musings, check back every Saturday for a new segment.

This is not financial or education advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2013 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Changing our Investment Risk in Retirement

Our main challenge with living off savings and retirement accounts is concentration risk.  Although concentration can be a significant positive when values are increasing, it can be major negative when values are declining.  Currently, about 35% of our assets are concentrated in my company stock.  This is down from about a 50% level when I retired in 2007.

Concentration has been a key factor in helping us build wealth.  While the risk is still the same, some of the downside can be offset by wages earned and time to recover, both of which are not available in retirement.   So it is important to reduce concentration risk.

While I could reduce our concentration to zero immediately, there are significant negative tax consequences.    I estimate that we would pay about 80 to 140% more in Federal and State income taxes than if we reduce the concentration to zero over the next five years.

So we will need to make a decision between higher risk and lower taxes or higher income taxes and lower risk.  At this point, I am leaning toward the higher risk and lower taxes solution, but we can revisit the decision on an annual basis.

For more on Reaping the Rewards, check back every Friday for a new segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2013 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Revising our Retirement Withdrawal Process

Since retiring in 2007, we've been withdrawing funds based on an expense based budget.  Due to the Great Recession, this was a relatively tight budget since we didn't want to overspend the funds in our taxable saving accounts.  Also, I took on some part time jobs to reduce the withdrawal rate from our savings.

Since mid-2013, we've been living entirely on our retirement savings.  So I have been reviewing how to calculating available annual funds going forward.  Based on analysis our financial advisor and some personal calculations, we will be moving from spending based funding to a withdrawal based faced funding, using a 4% withdrawal rate.  This will give us a 69% raise over our spending

Financially, there are several reasons we can make the change.  First, my stock option income, at current share prices, will be significantly above our expenses through 2017.  This by itself will support over 4% withdrawal rate through 2017.   Second, we had a cash windfall from an inheritance, which can support a 4% withdrawal for two years, if my company stock price declines significantly.   Third, in 2017, I can start withdrawing from retirement account funds without any penalty, which is expected to support a 4% withdrawal rate in perpetuity at a 85% confidence limit.

I will fully implement the new 4% withdrawal process in 2014 by withdrawing 4% of the December 31, 2013 liquid investment value and placing the fund in our checking account.

The analysis and revised withdrawal/spending process has given me much higher confidence that we have saved more than sufficient funds for retirement.

For more on The Practice of Personal Finance, check back every  Wednesday for a new segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2013 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

The Wealth Builder Carnival #138

Welcome to the one hundred thirty-eighth edition of The Wealth Builder Carnival. The purpose of this carnival is to collect articles from the blogosphere on building, preserving and keeping enough wealth for a comfortable retirement. For reference, I have tried to keep the carnival content tightly focused on wealth building and did not include submissions that were off topic. For reading convenience, the posts are listed with a brief summary or comment by the submitter and organized into seven categories: Earning, Insuring and Protecting, Investing, Living Frugally, Retiring, Saving and Taxes.

For reference, multiple submissions from the same blog are included for this edition since this Carnival was not published the last two weeks. Normally, only one submission is allowed per blog.

And now on to the Carnival.

Earning

Martin Poldma presents How to Earn Money Through YouTube: 7 Steps posted at Success and Personal Development Blog, saying, "This blog post talks about how to make money in YouTube, in which thousands of people are currently earning a 6-figure income by making videos in there."

Bryan Chau presents Turning The Tide Around – Learning From P&G posted at Success Pen Pal, saying, "earning, business, success, innovation, growth, partnerships, tide, procter & gamble (P&G), transaction learning experiments, disruptive innovation, etc."

Insuring and Protecting

Gary presents Whole Life Insurance Quotes posted at Life Insurance Quotes - Instant Online Term, Whole, Universal Rates, saying, "What is whole life insurance? What is the cash value? Is it right for you? Is whole life a good investment? If so, how do you pick the death benefit amount, the life insurance company, and your coverage options? These are all questions you should be asking yourself before choosing a life insurance policy, whether it is term or permanent coverage, and these are all questions we help you answer."

Investing

Bill Smith presents Investing in Facebook after Sheryl Sandberg Sells Shares posted at FastSwings, saying, "For the past year one of the most highly anticipated and traded stocks has been Facebook Inc."

August Juvonen presents Ultimate guide to successful day trading posted at Forex News Trading, saying, "People will always strive to find new and fast ways to make money. In most instances they will just create another get quick rich scheme; in some cases they might discover some legitimate and real ways to increase one’s financial well being. Day trading could be placed in both categories, depending on who tries to promote it and then use it to make capital. In most cases day traders lose all of their money, but there definitely are some pros who consistently take cash from the market using reliable trading systems, good trading plan, very strict discipline and sound risk management."

Matt Becker presents With Investing, the Grass is Rarely Greener on the Other Side posted at Mom and Dad Money, saying, "Investing is such an important topic because it’s one of the best ways to ensure your family’s financial security and because there are so many misconceptions about how it should be done. There’s decades of evidence showing that the best investment strategies are actually incredibly simple, but still there are always people searching for something better. That search for the mythical magic bullet, the one that gets you great returns with minimal risk, is not only a waste of time but can be incredibly harmful to your ability to build wealth."

Living Frugally

Elizabeth Atwood presents 10 Tips For How To Save On Gas posted at rockabyeparents.com, saying, "Now days we're all feeling the pinch at the pump. Here are 10 tips that can help your gas budget get you even farther."

David presents 4 Great Inexpensive Dates Part #2 posted at Financial Nerd, saying, "Four great ways to spend time meeting someone new by not spending a lot of money."

Evan presents It is Amazing How Local Personal Finance Can Be posted at My Journey to Millions, saying, "Most people discuss personal finance rules in absolute terms. I hate it! I truly believe there are almost NO SET PERSONAL FINANCE RULES."

FI Pilgrim presents Build A Better Budget Part 1 – The Mindset posted at FI Journey, saying, "It pays dividends to think through the process of creating a budget before you get started. What's the purpose? What does it consist of?"

Holly presents Operation Frugality: Save Money by Eating Old Food posted at Club Thrifty, saying, "Do you want to save money by eating food that you already have? If so, please join OPERATION FRUGALITY: SAVE MONEY BY EATING OLD FOOD. It'll be awesome!"

Retiring

Fitz Villafuerte presents 6 Common Mistakes People Do When Planning For Their Retirement posted at Ready To Be Rich, saying, "Retirement is that "paradise" we reach to pat ourselves on the back for a job well done. But the question now is, will you reach that paradise? This post helps answer this question."

Jacob @ My Personal Finance Journey presents Issues With 401k Plans And How To Compensate For Them posted at My Personal Finance Journey, saying, "This post illustrates some of the issues that you should be aware of regarding 401k plans and how you can compensate for them."

Saving

Daniel presents Force Yourself To Save With A 100% Personal Tax posted at Sweating The Big Stuff, saying, "With income taxes, you pay the government for money you earn. But with a personal tax, you pay yourself for money you spend."

Barbara Friedberg presents HOW TO AFFORD EXOTIC TRAVEL posted at Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance, saying, "Build wealth, spend wisely, save aggressively and savor life. Machu Picchu, a vacation of a lifetime."

John Schmoll presents Can’t Keep Up? 5 Ways to Streamline Your Savings posted at Frugal Rules, saying, "There are various kinds of savers and it can be difficult to get started if saving money does not come naturally to you. By following some simple steps you can start saving in no time and start to build up a nest egg."


That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of The Wealth Builder Carnival using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: the wealth builder carnival, blog carnival.

For more on Ideas You Can Use, check back every Tuesday for a new segment.

This is not financial, earning, insuring, investing, living, retiring, saving, tax, or wealth building advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2013 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Preparing for a Correction

I'm becoming more worried about a significant market correction occurring before the end of 2013.  First, the stock market is down about 4% from the all time highs set earlier this month. Second, the Fed will likely taper bond purchases before year end.  Third, there is uncertainty due to a new Fed Chair being appointed for 2014.  Fourth, political instability is increasing in the Middle East.

Overall, I'm surprised more pundits aren't highlighting the current decline.  The market only pulled back about 6% in June and all the pundits were all over it.  With the current market down almost 4%, there doesn't seem to be much public worry about a significant decline.

My main worry is the remaining stock options losing all of the gains from 2013.   I've been trying to develop some hedging and put insurance strategies, but haven't found a cost effect one yet.  My best scenario is for my company stock to rise another 6%, which means that this scenario probably won't happen.  The worst case is for the price to fall to or below the 2012 lows.

My next worry is the funds that are invested in stocks.  I 'm considering cashing out of 25% of my investments in the expectation of a market decline over 10%.  I will make the final decision in the next two weeks.

Finally, on the positive side, I'm looking a buying opportunities if the market should drop 10% or more. At that point, I will start reinvesting funds into stock for our college savings and retirement savings accounts.  I will continue to add 5-10% of outstanding cash to stocks for every additional 10% decline.

For more on Strategies and Plans, check back every Monday  for a new segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2013 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Living Entirely Off Savings and Investments

For the first time since retiring in 2007, we are living entirely off our savings and investments.  We have no pensions, no Social Security since we are under 62, and no part time current or upcoming part time jobs.

It will take some time getting used to having 100% of our expenses covered by savings and investments.  Since 2007, we've always had part time jobs to cover some of our expenses.  My biggest worry now is a market downturn like 2000 or 2008/2009 which could eliminate 40% of our savings and investments.  Going forward, we won't have the luxury of not spending our retirement accounts while waiting for a recovery.

Over the next week, I will be talking to our financial advisor on how we can minimize the impact of a significant market decline if it happens.

For more on New Beginnings, check back every for a new segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2013 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Too Much Personal Exuberance

"It's déjà vu all over again." ~ Yogi Berra

It's starting to feel like 2007 again to me.  Back then, I recall the stock market (and my company stock) kept advancing despite many negative factors (e.g. subprime mortgages) in the economy.   I only extrapolated up when estimating the future value of our portfolio.

Over the past month, I've caught myself looking mainly at 2-3 year scenarios where the stock market and my company stock are significantly higher.   That's easy to do since the market performance of the first half of 2013 has caused many investors to forget about the many negative economic factors that could bring the market down significantly again.

My recent thinking to consider mainly at positive scenarios probably means that market is likely to correct soon. It probably means that I should be selling to raise cash for the next market decline.

For more on Reflections and Musings, check back every Saturday for a new segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2013 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

$5 Million Needed to Feel Wealthy

It now takes more than a million dollars for most people to feel wealthy.

What Does It Take to Be Wealthy? $5 Million reports that 60% people start feeling wealthy when they have over $5 million in investable assets, not including their home.    Being wealthy was defined as "having no financial constraints on what they can do."   In addition, the wealthy believed that keeping 20% of their assets in cash was important for financial security.

For reference, only 28% of those with $1 million to $5 million of investable assets considered themselves wealthy.

For more on Reaping the Rewards, check back every  Friday  for a new segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2013 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

On Borrowed Time

Our daughter will soon turn 9.  Sadly, I realize half the time our daughter will be living with us has also passed. If she is like me, she'll be leaving to attend college when she is 18.  After that she'll only see us at Christmas and summers. Once she starts working, we'll likely see her only during the holidays.

This summer, it dawned on me that our children are only lending us the first 18 years of their lives to share. And I want to make the most of the time that I have remaining.  It doesn't feel it will be long before our daughter has moved out and is in college.

For more on Crossing Generations , check back every  Thursday  for a new segment.

This is not financial or parenting advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2013 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Creating a New Retirement Spending Plan

Since the 08/09 stock market decline, we had implemented our own austerity spending plan. We cut back on living expenses, paid off our mortgage and worked part time to reduce our withdrawal rate from retirement savings.  We reduced our expenses by 30-40% and covered 20-100% of expenses with my part time jobs.

Due to the recent recovery of my company stock and an inheritance from my parents, our retirement savings now above the 2007 highs.   This is encouraging since we have used 6 years of living expenses and paid off a mortgage since 2007.  In addition, I've identified a few sources of retirement income streams that will become available over the next few years.

Although there is still a chance of a significant stock market decline, I think we are better protected now than we were in 2008 due to a higher proportion of assets in cash and an income stream  from a partnership interest.   So I'm planning to give a raise of 20% to our monthly spending account.   This will be in addition to a 5% raise earlier this year.   For reference, the allocated amount is still less than our spending in 2008 when we had a mortgage.

I will review this thinking with our financial advisor over the next couple weeks. I expect our advisor will validate the increase.  

For more on The Practice of Personal Finance, check back every Wednesday  for a new segment.

This is not financial or retirement advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2013 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

The Wealth Builder Carnival #137

Welcome to the one hundred thirty-seventh edition of The Wealth Builder Carnival. The purpose of this carnival is to collect articles from the blogosphere on building, preserving and keeping enough wealth for a comfortable retirement. For reference, I have tried to keep the carnival content tightly focused on wealth building and did not include submissions that were off topic. For reading convenience, the posts are listed with a brief summary or comment by the submitter and organized into seven categories: Earning, Insuring and Protecting, Investing, Living Frugally, Retiring, Saving and Taxes.

For reference, multiple submissions from the same blog are included for this edition since this Carnival was not published the last two weeks. Normally, only one submission is allowed per blog.

And now on to the Carnival.

Earning

Buck Inspire presents Forced Out Of My Comfort Zone posted at Buck Inspire, saying, "I have been primarily in server management throughout my IT career. Recently, I vowed to expand my skills into networking."

Bryan Chau presents Think And Grow Rich Secret – Exposed! posted at Success Pen Pal, saying, "earning, self improvement, success, personal development, think and grow rich, napoleon hill, free ebook, etc."

Insuring and Protecting

Gary presents Best Life Insurance Companies posted at MyLifeInsuranceQuotes123.com, saying, "Picking the best life insurance policy for your needs is just as important as picking the best life insurance company to buy from. Between life insurance company ratings from A.M. Best and JD Power, one of which focuses on financial strength and the latter on customer satisfaction, here is a list of the top companies in the industry and what factors you should consider when picking your provider."

Investing

Matthew presents DRIP Update posted at Investing Five Daily, saying, "An article about the power of dividend reinvestment (DRIP) in three stocks over five years."

Theresa Torres presents The Importance of Determining Your Investment Profile posted at The Better Investor, saying, "Finding the right investments and investment strategies can depend on several factors. Here are some tips to guide you."

Living Frugally

Fitz Villafuerte presents Get Rid of Clutter Once and For All posted at Ready To Be Rich, saying, "If your happiness lies in material stuff, then you have to work on your self-esteem. Your values, your relationships, your life experiences – these are the sources of true happiness. Remember that you are worth more than your possessions."

Holly presents Club Thrifty Fall Financial Lockdown posted at Club Thrifty, saying, "Spending has been getting a little crazy in the Club Thrifty household lately. As a result, we have put ourselves on FALL FINANCIAL LOCKDOWN."

FI Pilgrim presents The True Impact Of Lifestyle Choices posted at FI Journey, saying, "I kept thinking about the word lifestyle and the far-reaching impact that it has on our lives and finances"

Gary presents The Best Time To Buy Anything During The Year posted at Gajizmo, saying, "Need a new car, appliance, grill, suit, boat, camera, cell phone, luggage, laptop, or mattress? Check out our comprehensive guide on the best time of year to buy anything you need. We go through each month detailing what to buy and why products may be discounted. If you want to save huge amounts of money on big ticket items by planning ahead, you have to learn when to buy."

Jeff Moore presents 28 Blogs Looking at How You Can Build Smart Money Habits Early posted at Babysitting Jobs, saying, "Having a budget in place can help you delegate money for savings, bills, purchases and charitable giving. It also serves as a good way to teach your children the benefits of budgeting and proper money handling."

Retiring

John Schmoll presents When Should You Start Saving for Retirement? posted at Frugal Rules, saying, "Saving for retirement can be challenging for many. There are many excuses to use from not having enough money to it being too far away. However, by starting to save for retirement earlier rather than later, regardless of the amount, you put yourself in the best position possible."

Taxes

Bill Smith presents Tax Made Easy – 7 Usefull Tips For Business posted at 2013 Taxes, saying, "For many businesses, especially small businesses, taxes can be quite a handful."


That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of The Wealth Builder Carnival using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: the wealth builder carnival, blog carnival.

For more on Ideas You Can Use, check back every Tuesday for a new segment.

This is not financial, earning, insuring, investing, living, retiring, saving, tax, or wealth building advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2013 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

A Retirement Financial Strategy

Over the past couple months, I have been reconsidering my original strategy of living entirely off investment income in retirement.  The Great Recession has shown me the tremendous volatility and uncertainty of a 100% investment income strategy.  So I've started to consider how to develop stable retirement income streams and the level of cash to maintain in an emergency fund.

Assuming our current expenses, here's how I expect the percentage each income stream can cover.

Dividends and interest - 21-25%.  This is a minimum percentage based on the dividends my company stock will pay when I withdraw it from my company profit sharing plan through an NUA.  I can increase this amount by buying some additional dividend paying stocks.

Rental Property - 21-42%.  This the expect range of the net income from a real estate partnership I inherited from my parents.   Historically, it has been at 42%, but lately there have been expenses and vacancies that have reduced the net income by half.

Social Security -  40-50%.   This assumes I start taking payments at 62, which is still a few years away.  I was surprised that Social Security would cover such a high percentage of our expenses.

Annuity -  0% for now.  Based on the above three elements, I shouldn't need an annuity.  I will reconsider if the actual percentages for the other three fall below the minimum of the range.  But I expect that investment income will be able to make up the deficit in most cases.

So the range of living expenses I can cover with stable income streams is 82% to 117%, which is a reasonably good level and above the minimum 70% target.   However, there are several caveats.  First, the rental property net income is not guaranteed since vacancies and maintenance expenses can both increase.  Second, Social Security benefits may be modified, although I am above the age of 55, for which benefits are held constant even if the program is changed.  Third, our expenses are going to increase by 10-20% over the next few years.

For an emergency fund, I am considering keeping 5 years of my pre-retirement salary in cash or cash equivalents in taxable savings accounts (i.e. not IRA).  Currently, we are at about 3 years worth of cash. Once I reach 59-1/2, I will include the cash in our IRA accounts since I will be able to withdraw from my accounts with no penalty.

The remaining balance, I will put into either my ETF investment strategy, managed accounts or individual stocks and hopefully, earn 6-7% annualized returns.

For more on Strategies and Plans Idea, check back every Monday  for a new segment.

This is not financial, retirement or investment advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2013 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

A Bigger Family

Our family has a new member.  We just adopted a healthy infant boy from China.  So there will be a lot of changes and adjustments over the next few months.

We didn't plan on adopting this late in life.  We applied to adopt in November 2006 and expected a referral in 2007. However because of the slowdown for healthy adoptions, we waited almost seven years for the referral. (In comparison, the referral for our first adoption occurred seven months after we applied.)  We are every bit as excited as we would have been seven years ago.

I've always been a late bloomer: sports, school and career.   I guess it shouldn't be any different with raising kids.

For more on  New Beginnings, check back every Sunday for a new segment.

This is not financial or family planning advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2013 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

My Exit Plan from Blogging

Tuesday, August 13, 2013 will be the seventh anniversary of the My Wealth Builder. While I've enjoyed writing for this blog, I know I won't be blogging another seven years.   So I've been thinking about a plan to wrap up My Wealth Builder.

When I started My Wealth Builder, I had hoped to build a large reader base and then monetize the blog through text link ads and Google ads. Blogging to make extra income was the rage at the time. My Wealth Builder never did reach the business goals I had set.   Readership grew for about two years and then plateaued.   Monetization peaked at about three years and has declined steadily since then to a little more than zero.

While My Wealth Builder did not meet my business goals, the blog did help me in achieving my personal retirement goals: specifically, the wealth builder ratios.  In addition, writing for the blog also helped me think through investment strategies and retirement income strategies.

So here are three possible endpoints for this blog. Endpoint #1:  Demonstrating that we have sustainably achieved the wealth ratios. I expect we will be able to do this by the end of 2013, which would be one year.   Endpoint #2:  At the 10 year anniversary of My Wealth Builder, August 13, 2016.   If I do this one, I will cut back from publishing every day to 2-3 times a week.   Endpoint #3:  At the 10 year anniversary of retiring, October 2, 2017.  Again, I would cut back from publishing every day to a couple times a week.

At this point, Endpoint #1 feels like the best option.   I expect to meet all the wealth ratios for the fourth consecutive quarter on December 31, 2013.  After that I will work towards wrapping up My Wealth Builder.

For more on Reflections and Musings, check back every Saturday  for a new segment.


This is not financial or blogging advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2013 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Navigating Frequent Flyer Ticketing Process

Using frequent flier miles to purchase tickets has turned out to be quite an educational experience.   It has taken me much more time than I expected to get flights we wanted at the lowest available cost.   Here is the complexity that I had to navigate:

Mileage level tiers. The airline did not have any blackout dates, but used low, medium and high mileage tiers.  There didn't seem to be any pattern (e.g. number of remaining seats, time to travel) that correlated with the lowest available price.  So finding the lowest price was an iterative process.  For example, I was able, by luck, to get one segment at the lowest price, even though some seats were already booked.

Hold and cancellation policies.    To prevent people from holding tickets, the airline had only a 2 day hold period before releasing tickets.  After purchase, the airline had a 24 hours no fee cancellation policy, after which it would cost $150.   This policy limits time to hold a ticket while looking for a less expensive one. 

Changing prices.  Prices are changing randomly.  So when a good price shows up, it's a good idea to book and hold the ticket.

Limited low price tickets.  I found that lowest price tickets were often available to single passengers.  So I could get a better price by booking each ticket singly instead of booking tickets for the family at the same time.

By checking every few hours, I was able to get an average ticket price at the mid tier price.    I'm sure if I were still working, I wouldn't have been able to spend as much time as I did working the system.

For more on Reaping the Rewards, check back every Friday for a new segment.


This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2013 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

A Path to Personal Financial Success

Since developing my financial goals in 2006, it's taken a little over six years to achieve the ratio targets of 0.8 income/salary, 20X savings/salary, and 0 debt/salary all at the same time in a quarter.  Although the income/salary ratio has been achieved for a number of quarters, it has not been demonstrated over a  year yet.   The savings/salary ratio was achieved only twice prior to Q4 2012.  Zero debt/salary was achieve in May 2009 and maintained since then.

For the last two quarters, we have met all three target ratios. Two more quarters of similar or better numbers will deliver a year of meeting personal finance targets.

In retrospect, the path to achieving the target ratios has not been easy, since our strategies and plans required modification due to the great recession and the stock market decline.  So the path to reaching our financial goals was neither clear nor straightforward, which has caused me to rethink the elements that helped us be successful.

My conclusion is that success requires using a critical mass of sound financial practices, especially those that were personal strength.   How many and which ones are areas I will consider and evaluate for future posts.

For more on The Practice of Personal Finance, check back every Wednesday for a new segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2013 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

The Wealth Builder Carnival #136

Welcome to the one hundred thirty-sixth edition of The Wealth Builder Carnival. The purpose of this carnival is to collect articles from the blogosphere on building, preserving and keeping enough wealth for a comfortable retirement. For reference, I have tried to keep the carnival content tightly focused on wealth building and did not include submissions that were off topic. For reading convenience, the posts are listed with a brief summary or comment by the submitter and organized into seven categories: Earning, Insuring and Protecting, Investing, Living Frugally, Retiring, Saving and Taxes.

For reference, multiple submissions from the same blog are included for this edition since this Carnival was not published the last two weeks. Normally, only one submission is allowed per blog.

And now on to the Carnival.

Earning

Bryan Chau presents Great Ideas For Making Money Online – Internet Careers Options posted at Success Pen Pal, saying, "make money online, business ideas, marketing, success, passive income, entrepreneurship, etc."

Bryan presents Top Resume Words – Resume Action and Power Words posted at Gajizmo, saying, "Is your resume and cover letter doing you justice? We all know that the most difficult part of getting hired is usually getting your foot in the door, and what better way to improve your chances by ensuring your resume reads the best it can. Here are a list of the top resume words, including action and power words, that will help make your resume stand out."

Martin Poldma presents 10 Ideas for Generating Passive Income posted at Success and Personal Development Blog, saying, "This blog post is about how to generate passive income, or in other words how to make money while we sleep. I give different methods to do so and believe that anybody could find ways to earn income residually in a passive way."

Insuring and Protecting

Gary presents What Is Term Life Insurance? posted at MyLifeInsuranceQuotes123.com, saying, "Almost everyone needs life insurance and term coverage is the most popular type of policy available in the United States. In this comprehensive guide, we define term life insurance and its characteristics, the different ways to calculate the death benefit you need, how companies calculate rates, and finally, offer a detailed comparison of more than a dozen of the most common term life policies you'll find. At almost 3000 words, this article is the ultimate guide to helping you find the best term life insurance for your family."

Gary presents Permanent Life Insurance - Whole, Universal, Variable Universal posted at MyLifeInsuranceQuotes123.com, saying, "Even though most financial planners and advisers recommend buying term life insurance over permanent life insurance, it doesn't mean that you shouldn't educate yourself and research permanent protection. Here is a comprehensive guide to permanent life insurance and the different types of coverage. When buying life insurance, be sure to make an informed decision!"

Investing

Dividends4Life presents 6 Dividend Stocks Acting Like a Money Machine posted at Dividend Growth Stocks, saying, "Growing up in the late 60’s early 70’s, I spent a fair amount of time reading comic books. I don’t remember much about them, but I do remember several of classic ads. Of course, there was the Charles Atlas ad where the beach bully kicked sand on the skinny boy and his girlfriend. But the ad that I remember the best was the “Magnificent Marvelous Money Machine“. It was a..."

John Schmoll presents Is Investing in the Stock Market Really That Easy? posted at Frugal Rules, saying, "Many are overwhelmed when it comes to investing in the stock market. With a little homework and due diligence it can actually be simplified quite a bit and can lead to more efficient investing for long term needs like retirement."

Daniel presents Lending Club Returns at 11.22% in July 2013 posted at Sweating The Big Stuff, saying, "Halfway through the year, it's time to check in on my Lending Club performance. Using my smart investment strategy, things are looking pretty good!"

Dividends4Life presents 8 Dividend Stocks Raising Their Yield On Cost posted at Dividend Growth Stocks, saying, "There are income investors and Dividend Growth investors. While the distinction is rather simple, it slips past many casual observers. Income investors are investing for maximum current income, while dividend growth investors are looking to maximize income over an extended period of time — usually sacrificing current income for potential greater future earnings. Unlike fixed income investments, a growing dividend means a growing yield on cost..."

Bryan Chau presents How To Become A Successful Stock Jock posted at Success Pen Pal, saying, "stocks, investing, equities, shares, markets, research, success, business, screening, Warren Buffett, Jim Cramer, SuccessPenPal, etc."

Mike McFate presents Trend Trading Basics posted at StockGuruSite.comStockGuruSite.com, saying, "How to use market pullbacks to maximize your return"

Matt Becker presents How to Beat 80% of Investors With 1% of the Effort posted at Mom and Dad Money, saying, "What if I told you that you could spend about 30 minutes setting up an investment portfolio that would beat 80% of the investors out there without any additional work? Sound a little too good to be true? It's not. Let me explain."

Living Frugally

Cherry Liu presents 10 iPhone Apps You Can Use to Lead a Frugal Life posted at House Sitting Jobs, saying, "Managing money often becomes a full-time task, and just doesn’t seem worth the pennies saved if it’s eating up every spare moment of your time. Thankfully, leading iPhone developers have created some great apps to help you reduce your spending."

Jeffrey James presents Inflation - What It Is And Why You Should Care posted at Life In Charge, saying, "What is inflation? What can you do about it? If you want a better handle on your finances, you've got to start with some financial education."

Retiring

Evan presents The Detroit Bankruptcy Should Teach You that Nothing is Guaranteed with your Finances posted at My Journey to Millions, saying, "Detroit's recent bankruptcy should teach you something about risk and your personal finances and retirement. Real possibility of reduction in pension and trimming of bonds."

Saving

Rowan Wellington presents Your personal earnings, expenditures, and savings are the most important determinants of your family’s long-term financial wealth posted at THE SKILLED INVESTOR Blog, saying, "Short of receiving a substantial inheritance, marrying very “well,” or having unusually good luck in the lottery, all you have to rely upon in life is your personal human capital or your ability to earn, budget, and save."


That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of The Wealth Builder Carnival using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: the wealth builder carnival, blog carnival.

For more on Ideas You Can Use, check back every Tuesday for a new segment.

This is not financial, earning, insuring, investing, living, retiring, saving, tax, or wealth building advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2013 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Buying Every Dip

Since the bottom in March 2009,  buying on the dip has been a good investment strategy.  In every case, the stock market rallied and reached a new post 2009 high.    In 2012, the dips became short and shallow, as investors realized the economy was healing and Fed policies were providing support.   Since then, the market declines have barely reached the 5% correction level.

For the most recent correction, I started buying when the dip started on May 22, with Ben Bernanke's announcement of a Fed taper.    Since then, the market declined a little over 5% and recovered to a new all time high.

For now, I expect that the market will continue to be volatile.  I will continue to buy a little on every dip since I expect the overall market trend to be upwards.

For more on Strategies and Plans, check back every Monday  for a new segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2013 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Shared Eating Challenge

Our daughter and I share one similar health challenge:  eating enough food to gain weight.   Our daughter is in the 5 percentile for weight and height.  She has always been a selective health eater and she gets full fast.  I am also a very healthy eater now that I'm on the Esselstyn diet, which is a plant based, low fat diet.  I find that I need to eat a lot and often to maintain or increase my weight.

For my daughter, we are trying to get her to a little more meat, which is a calorie dense food.  For me, I'm trying to eat more grain based foods, which is also more calorie dense.   However, I have to be cautious and continue eat enough vegetables and fruit, since it's easy to over indulges on breads and cracker.

For more on New Beginnings, check back every Sunday for a new segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2013 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Government Entitlement Payments

Here are some interesting factoids:

• 50% of Americans live in a household that receives government benefits
• 18% of the population receives some form of Social Security payment
• 5.4% of the civilian workforce  ages 25 to 64 that are on Social Security disability, which is up from 1.7% from the 1970s
• 21 million out of 114 million households receive earned income credit
• 22 million households or 48 million people are on food stamps. 

For reference, there are 316 million people and 114 million households in the U.S.

For more on Reflections and Musings, check back every Saturday for a new segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2013 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Major Maintenance Planning

Our house has reached the 25 year mark, which means that is has already had or will need some major maintenance work.   In the past five years, we've already replace the furnace and roof.  Currently, we are working on replacing a water main and a driveway.   I expect the house will require several other major maintenance items over the next five years.

My goal is to do the maintenance work that will enable us to live relatively worry free for the next 20 years.  That's about the time we'll be downsizing and selling our house to the next owner, hopefully for more than we paid :-)

For more on  Reaping the Rewards, check back every Friday  for a new segment.

This is not financial or maintenance advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2013 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Real Estate Holdings Significantly Increased

Due to an inheritance from my parents, about 20% of our retirement and savings assets are now invested in real estate.  This is up from 0% since I don't include our house has part of retirement and savings assets, even though the mortgage is paid off.

The good news is that both properties are paid off and I have no mortgage. In addition, the rental property is positive cash flow.   The bad news is that real estate is not the booming investment it once was and both properties will require active involvement by me.   So, I am getting the opportunity to learn more about real estate.

For more on  Crossing Generations, check back every Thursday for a new segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2013 Achievement Catalyst, LLC