Retirement Field Guide

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Should You Expect Dividend Cuts?

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The predictions for dividend cuts sounded dire for quite some time. Many were predicting cuts of between 20%-30% here in the U.S. The jury is still out for now, but it doesn’t seem as likely based on what the data has shown thus far from Janus Henderson in their Global Dividend Index report. Here is their record of dividend cuts with regard to global dividends: Global dividends fell $108.1bn to… Read More

Dividend Bear Markets

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An astute reader of last week’s blog post, Equities in Retirement: A 30-Year Case Study, asked a great question: “How much of a maximum decline in annual dividend income (based on prior historical experience) should one be prepared for?” In other words, during dividend bear markets, what level of income decline should we expect? The obvious answer is that I do not know because even the worst-case historical event is… Read More

Equities in Retirement: A 30-Year Case Study

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Whenever I ask soon-to-be retirees what the ultimate goal of investing in retirement is, the most common answer I hear is: I don’t want to run out of money. Pretty straightforward, right? Here’s the problem. When I ask many of those same individuals what the primary objective of their retirement portfolio is, this is the typical response: Preservation of principal. Whether retirees realize this or not, those two goals run… Read More

Retirement Income in Bull Markets, Bear Markets & Flat Markets

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I live in a bedroom community of Pittsburgh and there are two primary routes to get to the grocery store. Back roads and the highway. During perfect conditions, the backroads take about twelve minutes and the highway takes about nine or ten minutes. I always take the backroads and my wife would choose the highway most of the time. My logic is that in virtually all conditions, the backroads take… Read More

How to Invest For a 30+ Year Retirement

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A couple of weeks back, I had the pleasure of chatting with Taylor Schulte, CFP® on his retirement podcast, “Stay Wealthy.” Taylor is a highly respected retirement expert, so naturally, I was excited to have a public chat about a topic we are both passionate about. On the podcast, we discuss my post, A Portfolio Strategy for 30-Year Retirements, to include the following topics: Why living longer should be a… Read More

Why I Prefer Dividend Income Over Total Return in Retirement

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The one constructive response I received on the article, A Portfolio Strategy for 30-Year Retirements, was the preference for total return versus dividend income. If you haven’t read it, I’d encourage you to do so now as what follows will make much more sense. Before we dive in, let’s first define total return investing. Total return investing is the idea that there is no preference for investment gains, whether via… Read More