Kevin Kroskey's Money & Mind

The value of delaying Social Security has been written about a lot recently. In the current low-yield environment for bonds and low expected return environment for many stock asset classes, it is a particularly attractive strategy now. But should retirees include Social Security as part of their bond allocation? Watch the short video to learn one expert's perspective.  

Motivational speaker Denis Waitley once remarked, “You must stick to your conviction, but be ready to abandon your assumptions.” That statement certainly applies to retirement planning. Your effort must not waver, yet you must also examine it from time to time. 1       Perhaps you may realize that you under-estimated your health insurance costs and will need more retirement income than previously assumed. Or perhaps, with today's low interest rates you are not getting the level of investment returns you counted on. With those factors and others in mind, here are some signs that you may need to double-check your retirement strategy.     Your portfolio lacks significant diversification. Many baby boomers are approaching retirement with portfolios heavily weighted in U.S. equities. As many of them will have long retirements and a sustained need for growth investing, you could argue that this is entirely appropriate. Yet, U.S. equities by some me...

If you have saved and invested consistently for retirement, you may find yourself ready to leave work on your terms – with abundant free time, new opportunities, and wonderful adventures ahead of you. The thing to keep in mind is that the reality of your retirement may not always correspond to your conception of retirement. There will inevitably be a degree of difference. Some new retirees are better prepared for that difference than others. They learn things after leaving work that they wished they could have learned about years earlier. So with that in mind, here are a few of the little things people tend to realize after settling into retirement. Your kids may see your retirement differently than you do. Some couples retire and figure on spending more time with kids and grandkids – they hang onto that five-bedroom home even though two people are living in it because they figure on regular family gatherings, or they move to another state to be closer to their kids. Then the...

Thomas Perls MD, MPH is the founder and director of the New England Centenarian Study, the largest study of centenarians and their families in the world. Dr. Perls has constructed the "Living to 100 Life Expectancy Calculator," which is available for free. Answers to the calculator questions can be provided to obtain a helpful gauge life expectancy and health-related behaviors. The Living to 100 Life Expectancy Calculator uses the most current and carefully researched medical and scientific data in order to estimate how old you will live to be. Most people score in their late eighties... how about you? The calculator asks you 40 quick questions related to your health and family history, and takes about 10 minutes to complete. At the end, you will be asked to create an account to store your answers.   Click here to go to the calculator. My personal life expectancy per the calculator...99 years. Grandpa Kroskey turned 98 in June. Need to put some more money in ...

Predicting interest rate movements correctly is hard. Predicting them for a living is harder still. But getting it wrong is nowhere near as painful as the experience of those who lose their own money based on someone's forecast. A year ago, the Reuters news agency polled a group of people closer than just about any other community to those who actually decide rate movements. These were 16 money market dealers who do business directly with the US Federal Reserve. 1   The so-called primary dealers — banks or broker-dealers — are market makers for government securities. They consult directly with the US central bank and Treasury about funding the budget deficit and implementing monetary policy. So if you wanted an informed view about the interest rate outlook, these might be the people you would call on first, which is what Reuters did when it asked the dealers for their forecasts for Treasury bond yields three, six and 12 months ahead. Back in late September 2010, the dealers came ...

Limiting spending to interest or dividends received is a common idea that many retirees have about managing spending in retirement. This idea causes some retirees to reach for yield in both stock and bond investments. In an annual report for Berkshire Hathway, Warren Buffett wrote, "More money has been lost reaching for yield than at the point of a gun." Pursuing an interest-and-dividend-only strategy is sub-optimal for a multitude of reasons, man of which I'll be explaining in an upcoming article to be posted at the Money & Mind blog. Meanwhile, click on the video below to listen to Ken French of Dartmouth College answer the question whether retirees should limit their spending to interest and dividends.