Three Retirement Planning Goals for Age 65

by Ethan S. Braid, CFA | Jun 25, 2025 | Blog, Estate Planning, Retirement Planning

Retirement planning can be overwhelming. To simplify your retirement plan and increase your odds of success, break your retirement plan down into the following three goals: portfolio, housing, and estate plan. Instead of getting lost in a complicated software program,...

Who Will Help Your Spouse with Investing After You Are Gone?

by Ethan S. Braid, CFA | Apr 18, 2025 | Blog, Estate Planning, Fiduciary Standard, Retirement Planning

Have you been managing the family wealth yourself for a long time and your spouse is either not interested or not capable of managing the investments if you are gone? Do you fear that your spouse might be taken advantage of by an unscrupulous financial salesperson?...

4% Rule with Vanguard Balanced Index Fund – 25 Year Illustration

by Ethan S. Braid, CFA | Apr 3, 2025 | Asset Allocation, Blog, Retirement Planning

How reliable is the 4% rule when using a 60/40 equity/fixed balanced investment strategy? Will you run out of money if you have bad timing and retire right before a recession? How will sequence of negative returns affect your retirement plan? To answer these questions...

4% Rule Using SPY – All Equity Retirement

by Ethan S. Braid, CFA | Apr 3, 2025 | Asset Allocation, Blog, Retirement Planning

Like what I saw in the year 2000, many investors are now touting the benefits of an all-equity retirement portfolio. I thought it would be fun to see how a hypothetical $2 million retirement portfolio would have performed using the 4% rule for retirement distributions...

Plan For Four Recessions During Retirement

by Ethan S. Braid, CFA | Mar 26, 2025 | Asset Allocation, Blog, Retirement Planning

Retirees should plan to encounter four recessions during a typical 25-to-30-year retirement. According to Fed Chair Jerome Powell during his March 19th, 2025, press conference, the unconditional probability of a recession is in the range of 1 in 4 at any time. Another...

Mistakes You Can Easily Make With Retirement Planning Software

by Ethan S. Braid, CFA | Mar 21, 2025 | Blog, Retirement Planning

Most people planning for their retirement will utilize software to develop their retirement plan. They might use a free retirement planning tool they find on the internet or hire a financial planner who uses software to develop their retirement plan. In either case,...