On the Money... (Financial Advice/Lessons)

[clean]

Thanks for posting this Spork!

For me, the short one really put into words what I had been feeling about handling my most recent passed dean. 

I dont know about the investment advice, so much, and Im not sure that 'dont buy a house' is the best 'one size fits all' advice, but I whole heartedly agree with the advice on the car, and the other stuff you dont really want/need. 

Of course, the untold initial step isnt discussed.... (think Steve Martin.... " Step One:  Get 2.5 Million Dollars.")

But the Fortress of Solitude position is something that I have been working toward (as in Step One!)

[spork]

The short version.

The longer version.

The man says "don't drink". Why? Should we not have fun along the way?

There's too much of a perverse kind of Protestantism in the US of A. The Pilgrims had more fun than what is prescribed today.

He's in a bar holding a glass in his hand. The original movie scene that Collins was edited into, to replace John Goodman, is the same.

[spork]

Reviving this thread because my question isn't limited to the topic of retirement financial planning.

But can a moderator change the title to something like "Financial Advice" or "On the Money"?

My liquid investments are almost entirely in equities, and they've generated respectable returns. Post-pandemic, we've (USA) had an economic boom. Now I'm worried that the economy will end up like one of Trump's Atlantic City casinos if he's elected president again, perhaps for much longer than four years. I don't want to retire in 7-10 years with the value of my portfolio cut in half. Bond fund returns have sucked. Should I be looking at moving some of my money into Treasury bonds? Leave things as they are?

[clean]

Your concerns are warranted, so Treasury Bonds will keep their value. Inflation cuts the value of fixed income assets, but the loss of purchasing power is much less than the potential loss in value of your stock assets. 
Being close to retirement, shifting into treasury bonds would be warranted. 
IF the assets are in retirement accounts, though, they may be invested in bond funds, which have different characteristics than you might get if you buy individual US Treasuries.  In other words, if you want a 5 year bond and buy one, it will pay interest over 5 years and the par value at the end. If you buy a bond fund, they will try to keep a maturity range, buying bonds that are at the upper range and selling those at the lower range (in other words, there is some market risk in the bond funds... The yield you get may fluctuate, but an individual bond will not.   (it may be a small matter, but you may get a different return on a fund - which is likely your only choice if you are using money IN a 403- than if you can pick individual bonds in an IRA.... Either way, it should have less volatility than the equity market).

[aprof]

Reviving this thread because my question isn't limited to the topic of retirement financial planning.

But can a moderator change the title to something like "Financial Advice" or "On the Money"?

My liquid investments are almost entirely in equities, and they've generated respectable returns. Post-pandemic, we've (USA) had an economic boom. Now I'm worried that the economy will end up like one of Trump's Atlantic City casinos if he's elected president again, perhaps for much longer than four years. I don't want to retire in 7-10 years with the value of my portfolio cut in half. Bond fund returns have sucked. Should I be looking at moving some of my money into Treasury bonds? Leave things as they are?

First suggestion, take financial advice given on the internet with a grain of salt :)

Second suggestion, don't invest based on politics, emotions, or instincts. If you believe the efficient markets hypothesis, then the market has more information than any of us and is already pricing in the risk of foreseeable events. Instead, define your financial goals and a plan and stick to it regardless of those other things.

Third, I think you can learn a lot from Jack Bogle's investing philosophy, which you can find more information about here: https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Bogleheads%C2%AE_investment_philosophy

But to your question, my opinion is that you should hold diverse, uncorrelated assets and generally try to match the duration of your investments to your liabilities. If you are retiring in 7-10 years, then you have a liability at that point in time (your annual COL since you won't have income).  So at the very least, you should look to hold some portion of bonds with a 7-10 year duration (and then shorten that duration as you get closer to retirement).  In terms of bond-stock split, common suggestions are the portion in stocks should be (100-your age) or (120-your age).

[Parasaurolophus]

But can a moderator change the title to something like "Financial Advice" or "On the Money"?

Done. Glad I saw this before too much time elapsed!

[dismalist]

I am resurrecting this thread to ask about retirement plans.

...

Reviving this thread because my question isn't limited to the topic of retirement financial planning.

...

This thread has been revived, not to say resurrected, twice. Probably a unique pair of occurrences on the board.