My Retirement Planning Philosophy

Welcome to my humble blog! I decided to start writing about retirement planning for two primary reasons 1) I am getting close to that "transition zone" as I knock on the door to "the big five-oh"; and 2) I have a lot of training and experience (and interest in) a wide variety of finance and investing topics, many of which can be applied to retirement planning. So, this is my way of giving back to the community.

While I'm sure that I will address a wide variety of topics on this site over time, my focus will remain trying to simplify what I believe to be overcomplicated issues, especially when it comes to investing. However, investing isn't the sole issue to discuss - a sound retirement plan also uses insurance, social security, budgeting and tax planning to work together instead of against each other.

My Philosophy in a Nutshell

1. Simple is usually better than complex (despite what your stockbroker or insurance agent claims).
2. Assume you are going to live for a long time.
3. Lock in your essential spending, so you can shoot for higher returns for for discretionary spending.
4. Understand and plan for your goals, but make sure you get the cash flows right.
5. When looking at an investment, the most important return figure to evaluate is the after-tax, after inflation number. Inflation is a bigger risk than many people think.
6. Everything is connected! You can't look at just your investments, or just your insurance - it all has to work together.

Let me know your biggest issues and sticking points - chances are, they are fairly common, and I can write a post which can help a lot of other people figure it out.