June 23, 2021

What if you don’t have 30 years ahead to invest? and other Q&A

59 minutes

The questions and topics in this podcast came out of the wonderful responses to the question posed to our free newsletter subscribers, "How we can keep you engaged?”Most of your studies offer returns over 30, 40, or more years. For those of us who don’t have that kind of time, what can you tell us about the likely returns we should get?

In Paul’s response he references a terrific new article and study by Craig Israelsen, one of our Truth-Tellers. His article, “How Long is a Long Run?”, offers the likely success of getting the historical returns for the next 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 years. Spoiler alert: There’s good news and bad! 2:00

You and Larry Swedroe have convinced me to add small cap value to my portfolio. Many retirement plans offer actively-managed small cap value funds with high expenses. Do you have a hard cut-off on what level of expense is acceptable? 22:40

In your popular video, My Favorite 12 Vanguard Funds for Retirees, you recommend several actively-managed funds, including Wellington. How can you recommend Wellington (VWLEX) when Vanguard offers Balanced Index Fund (VBIAX) with about the same balance of stocks and bonds? 28:05

You recommend a combination of short-term government bond fund, an intermediate bond fund and a TIPS fund for the bond portion of your portfolios. Why not keep it simpler and just combine a total bond market fund like BND with a TIPS fund? 31:30

What advice or evidence can you offer to help investors who have started saving late in their career and are in danger of taking too much risk in an attempt to catch up? 35:20

I am 80 years old and never invested in the stock market. I have used only CDs to build my retirement savings. I now believe I need to add some equities to my portfolio. What do you recommend I do to conservatively add equities and still sleep easy? 59:28

There are several links mentioned: bankrate.com, stantheannuityman.com, and for this man’s children and grandchildren.

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By Paul Merriman

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