The Complete Retirement Planner Blog
"Sequence Of Returns Risk", And Why It Matters
As you develop your financial plan for retirement you will give a good deal of thought to the known details of your finances (e.g., monthly expenses, income, etc.) as well as to what you expect to happen in the future. One particularly important decision concerns the annual rate of return that you will use to forecast your savings/investments balances. Since you can't predict the future, you may end up relying on your (not the market's) historical results to arrive at a reasonable expectation. That makes sense, but how you choose to enter that information can have a serious effect on...
The Impact Of Inflation On Your Retirement Plan, And How To Use It To Your Advantage.
One component that is essential to account for in any financial plan is an inflation rate. As we are currently experiencing, inflation considerably above historical norms can really take a bite out of your budget. However, unusually high inflation rates are typically temporary, lasting one to three years, so when planning for decades into the future how much of a difference does an inflation rate really make in the grand scheme of things? The short answer - it makes a tremendous difference. It also provides a terrific way to stress test your financial plan.Since the rate of inflation varies from...
Considerations For Starting Your Financial Plan
According to a 2021 Charles Schwab study, the majority of households without a financial plan don't have one because it's too complicated and/or they don't have the time to create one (TCRP solves those problems!). Yet, of those that have a written plan, 54% feel "very confident" about reaching their goals, and another 18% are "certain" that they will reach their goals. It's clear that having a tangible plan to follow can provide a great source of comfort and will help to keep you on the right track.At the very least, everyone over the age of 30 should be planning...
A New Year - Same Old Useless Retirement Benchmarks
The beginning of every year seems to be an especially popular time for articles about retirement planning, and the goals that you should set your sights on to be prepared. The problem is that all the "advice" that is being offered is exactly the same as what was being offered last year. And the year before, and all the years before that. The articles are just recycled and regurgitated. The same savings benchmarks by age (that most likely don't apply to you), the same withdrawal rate rule of thumb (mostly outdated or misleading), and the same assumption about replacing a...
The Real Cost of Credit Card Debt
When it comes time to assess your financial health, nothing is more important than seeing an itemized monthly budget in black and white - every single item that you spend money on - and what % of your income it represents. Seeing it all on one page makes it real, undeniable, and inescapable. You have to deal with it, and that's a good thing. You can't make intelligent decisions until you have the cold, hard facts in hand, and one of the most important budget items to examine is debt.Debt can be a serious threat to your financial security because...