Seniors Handling Their Own Finances. Do You do it yourself?

Traveler, I really like your nerdy approach and am glad you've been so successful.

My career had nothing to do with finance or investing. I come from a background of feeling NOT knowledgeable about investing. I didn't start reading those magazines till 5 years ago as I neared retirement. Now I also read the Wall Street Journal, The Economist (deep deep international background), Bloomberg Businessweek, CNBC, and a slew of online finance sites such as Google Finance and Yahoo Finance. I greatly enjoy watching PBS Nightly Business Report, and I'm a news junkie in general. In the 4 years I've been managing my 401k, I made my share of wrong moves but I have also gained a lot of confidence and my funds have grown nicely. Hopefully the confidence is not just due to this bull market. I've become a Bogle follower, but occasionally I dabble in non-Vanguard funds. I've begun helping my brother, who just retired and who has been building up his 401k. I think I gave him a very good introduction to investing by preparing a 3-page report talking about (1) diversification, (2) active vs. passive, (3) the importance of fees and costs, and (4) advisers, fiduciary issues, and advisors' fees. I place a high priority on keeping fees low, and I don't like the idea of paying 1 or 1.5% per year to an advisor. So I do it myself. Right now, an area where I have little knowledge is Bonds. I don't understand how they work, but I understand their general role in diversification and protection. I have read Wikipedia-type explanations of bonds from several sources but still don't get it. So my confidence in bonds is very low, in terms of knowledge and understanding. Currently bonds do not seem to be a good place to be investing. There's nothing but bad news about bonds. However one bond fund that I like is the Vanguard Wellesley Income Admiral institutional fund. It has a remarkable track record, it is actively-managed, and I prefer it over bond index funds. Right now I have 20% of my investments in that fund, as a protective bet against downturn, with 30% of my money in international index, 10% total US market index, and 40% in an aggressive fund called Harbor Capital Appreciation which gives me exposure to the FANG-like funds (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google). This mix has performed amazingly well this week, but then again this week has been record-setting for the markets. My account offers about 30 fund choices, so it's rather limited. It's actually a 457 plan from my public sector employer. I think I should roll it over to an IRA, to give me the whole universe of choices, but am procrastinating. I have never bought individual stocks, but my wife and son do. In conclusion, you call me a Traveler Wannabe.


retiredtraveler said:
I'm one of those nerds who started saving money from the age of 12 (paper route) and got into investing in my 20's. By my 30's, I was trading in individual stocks. I used to go to the library regularly (long before PC's) and read magazines such as Money and Kiplinger and take a notepad with me.
We were able to early retire in our mid 50's, 100% on our investments. I've always done my own research, and by often being contrarian, was able to be a successful investor. Wife was an accountant in a former life so she works the tax side of things (which I definitely made some mistakes on in the past).
What I dislike about 'experts' (aside from knowing they are wrong so much of the time), is that they just look at 'the markets'. I was successful because I often invested on the basis of macroeconomics, and still do. But, those of us who invest all have our own style. There are lots of approaches that work, more that don't. You can educate yourself if you put in the effort, understand basic math and stats, and are grounded in the basics of what equities, mutual funds, bonds, etc. are and can explain the risks vs. rewards of various approaches to investing.
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God has blessed me with my own wise life and financial planning.

I've also done my own taxes for over 35 years. That is, until a few years ago
when I discovered by being debt free I could live comfortably on a low income.
So low, I don't have to file a tax return. I plan to keep it that way until I'm forced
to take yearly RMDs.

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location plays a major roll in what we all want to live on .

just earning enough to pay our housing and insurance costs here in ny gets our income taxed . even 69k a year in income qualifies you for a low income nyc housing project . most of those here who are below the filing threshold are on some form of assistance to survive and not have an impoverished life .

but the flip side is high cost of living areas are not that way in a vacuum . the high costs are usually because they are desirable and that is where the higher paying jobs are , which lead to higher home values which lead to higher taxes .

so by the end of the game a homeowner who relocates from a high cost of living area tends to have a much larger social security check forever because of higher wages , as well as selling a paid off home that appreciated even 3% a year is a whole lot more on a 800k home than a 200k home .

transplants tend to be wealthier than locals most of the time so high cost of living areas are not bad if you make use of them ..

we had a 2nd home in a low cost of living area , which we decided to not retire to and we sold . it just lacked to many of the things that were now going to be important to us through retirement .

there was no public transportation system if we couldn't drive

very limited specialists and medical facilities

no where to work if i wanted except low paying low end jobs .

had i wanted to work a bit there i would have had to work quite a few days to earn what i do working just 1 day a week like i do here .

nothing to do all winter

even the summers were getting boring

to far from the kids to be part of our grandkids daily lives

the list went on and on so cheapsville was not going to work for us
 
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After my brother retired from NASA he moved from sunny Clear Lake City in Houston, Texas to the Northwest Arkansas Ozarks to be near his children and grandchildren. Fortunately, he missed Hurricane Harvey [his old neighborhood was not damaged], but is now experiencing single digit winter temps. He was born, raised and went to university in NW Ark, so it wasn't that much of a climate and cultural shock.

As for me, I was born and raised in Texas. The DFW area is not perfect... but it's the near perfect home that suits me. My only issue... winter temps can get down into the teens here and that is too cold for me... but it rarely snows and usually warms up quickly.

DFW has public transportation. But most are like me... they prefer their independence and private car.

Plenty of jobs of every kind here... which is why so many are moving here and real estate prices are rising.

In the past this area might have been considered "cheapsville"... but now it is a corporate business hub and an up and coming tech hub that some say might eventually rival Silicon Valley.
 
Denise1952 said:
I can understand this being fun for you. My favorite class was Math, and I couldn't wait to do the homework assignments. I think calculating, figuring out an equation is fun:)
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LOL Denise. I wasn't much for math in high school but did way better when I went to college as an adult. I enjoy doing "money math". :D
 


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