This week the biggest personal finance news is the Supreme Court’s hearing of oral arguments in King v. Burwell. The issue to be determined is whether people who purchased health insurance on the federal exchange can qualify for the new premium tax credit. (The act itself states that, to …
Author: Mike
Vanguard Increases International Allocation to Target Retirement and LifeStrategy Funds
A few readers have asked what I think about the recent announcement that Vanguard will be increasing the international allocation in the Target Retirement and LifeStrategy funds. (In case you missed the announcement: The international equity allocation will increase from 30{04524d497bea0ade6defd1388b5c9b25998d95475e2938b4fa9d615e63ad1540} to 40{04524d497bea0ade6defd1388b5c9b25998d95475e2938b4fa9d615e63ad1540}, and the international bond allocation will increase …
Investing Blog Roundup: Schwab “Intelligent Portfolios” Suddenly Less Exciting
For several months now, Schwab has been promoting their upcoming “Intelligent Portfolios” platform, which will offer automated rebalancing and tax-loss harvesting of a portfolio of ETFs. The big selling point is that there is no fee for the service, aside from the cost of the funds held in …
What Is Estate Planning, and Do I Need to Worry About It?
When I recently asked for suggestions of specific estate-planning-related topics to write about, one thing that immediately became clear is that many people aren’t entirely sure what estate planning is — and whether it’s something they should be thinking about. To put it bluntly, estate planning …
Investing Blog Roundup: Staying Flexible with Retirement Withdrawals
There are many personal finance rules of thumb that can be helpful when developing a rough-draft retirement plan. However, as Darrow Kirkpatrick and Christine Benz remind us this week, following a given rule of thumb may not be the best approach. Kirkpatrick addresses the question of how much to …
Don’t Change Tax Plans Based on Presidential Budgets
A reader writes in, asking: “I heard on the radio recently that Obama will be changing IRA rules so that Roth IRAs will require RMDs and so there will be a limit on IRA account size. Do you think this has a big effect on the decision of which …
Investing Blog Roundup: Missing Out on Subsidized Insurance
This week, the Kaiser Family Foundation released the results of a survey showing that, of the approximately 30 million adults in the U.S. who remain without health insurance, 48{04524d497bea0ade6defd1388b5c9b25998d95475e2938b4fa9d615e63ad1540} would qualify for assistance purchasing such insurance (either tax credits or Medicaid). If you (or somebody you care about) doesn’t …
How Do Child’s Benefits Affect Social Security Claiming Strategies?
A reader writes in, asking: “If I have a young child, how does that affect the age at which I should be filing for my Social Security?” Before getting into how claiming strategies are different for people with qualifying children than for people without qualifying children, we must …
Investing Blog Roundup: Learning about Estate Planning
Estate planning is not one of my primary areas of expertise, which is why I don’t discuss it on the blog very often. In the hope of being able to be more helpful to you folks though, I’ve been starting to develop my knowledge of estate planning topics …
Should Financial Advisors Be Fiduciaries?
A reader writes, asking: “Do you think that a financial advisor should be a fiduciary? I’ve seen that discussed elsewhere, but never on your blog.” Well, that depends on exactly what you mean. If you’re in the market for a financial advisor, and you’re wondering …
How Much Can I Give Per Year Without Having to Pay Tax
Administrative note: There will be no articles this upcoming Friday or Monday, due to the holidays. The regular posting schedule will resume the following Friday (1/2). I hope you all enjoy your holidays! A reader writes in, asking: “How much can I give per year without having to …
How Big Does Your Portfolio Have to Be Before It Should Look Different?
A reader writes in, asking: “For the last several years I’ve been following a basic Boglehead strategy with a few index funds. How big does a portfolio have to be before it makes sense to start moving into other strategies?” There are certain portfolio-related considerations that …
Investing Blog Roundup: Market Valuations and Retirement Asset Allocation
Housekeeping note: We have family and friends visiting from out of town this week and early next week, so there will be no article on Monday. This week researchers Wade Pfau and Michael Kitces released a new paper looking at an assortment of different asset allocation strategies in retirement — …
A Look at Vanguard’s Managed Payout Fund
A reader recently wrote in asking for a discussion of the Vanguard Managed Payout Fund — how it works and what it might be good for. In short, the fund is meant to be a tool for investors who are spending from their portfolios (i.e., retirees). It’s an …
Investing Blog Roundup: Fixed Indexed Annuities
As I’ve written on several occasions, I’m a big fan of annuities as a tool for providing retirement income. But that doesn’t really extend beyond boring lifetime annuities. Fixed indexed annuities (a.k.a. equity indexed annuities) are an entirely different animal. And as Allan Roth explains …
Investing Blog Roundup: Active Management Risk
The big news last week and early this week was the abrupt departure of legendary bond fund manager Bill Gross from PIMCO. (For those who don’t bother to learn the names of mutual fund managers: Bill Gross was one of founders of the company, and he ran the firm’…
Financial Advisor Fees Are Irrelevant, If You’ve Already Paid Them
A reader writes in, asking: “After reading your books and others on the Boglehead reading list, I think I’ve determined that my new money should go to Vanguard index funds. But I’m thinking about keeping my existing savings with the advisor I’ve been using for several …
Investing Blog Roundup: Spending in Retirement
This week, two articles dealing with recent retirement-related research came across my radar — one discussing income, spending, and overall satisfaction in retirement, the other discussing mental health in retirement: Despite Curveballs, Most Retirees Manage from Tom Lauricella (The study’s press release can be found here.) Retirement: …