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Bogleheads’ Retirement Planning: Determining a Retirement $$ Goal
This is the first of my Bogleheads’ Retirement Planning series. The ultimate question is simple: how much do I need to have when I “retire” to be able to live for decades on the proceeds? It’s worth getting over the hump of the definition of retirement, because it always seems to come up as a side topic in retirement discussions. Retirement, to me, isn’t buying a boat and spending all day golfing. …Especially since I’d rather just take a group walk through a park instead of hitting and chasing a small ball in the process. To me, retirement is getting out of a 40 hour a week job and working…
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Bogleheads’ Retirement Planning: Hitting the Highlights
I finished The Bogleheads’ Guide to Retirement Planning last week, and I have to say, it’s the single best resource on retirement planning that I’ve seen or read so far. Hands down. Other books might add more depth to particular areas or have different approaches, but this book has given me the crucial vocabulary and background to know where I need to research further. Each chapter is written by different combinations of writers (with repetition) and touches on everything from how much to save, how taxes work, retirement account and plan types, investment strategies, how to withdraw for retirement (including some tax minimization strategies), and what to do when fecal…
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The spook who counted her money
I finished The Spook Who Sat By the Door yesterday morning. Sam Greenlee has one hell of a knack for sharp writing, and regardless of my not being a proponent for militantism, the book struck a chord with me. Greenlee got at the heart of the loneliness of being black in a nation and profession that both expects you to act white “enough” (but only so much) and simultaneously disdains you for doing so (as you disdain yourself). It was and is a fine line to walk. There are going to be spoilers here, but nothing that actually ruins the novelty of the book, I hope.
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Mo’ money, mo’ problems: a retirement app idea
I mentioned this obliquely a couple of weeks ago, but I’m wigging out a bit about retirement. In 39 years I will be 65, and I don’t have solid plans with numbers behind them. Socking away $5k a year into an IRA just isn’t enough. Back in the day, I loved, loved, loved Microsoft Money’s Lifetime Planner. It asked you all sorts of questions about when you were going to have a kid and how much you were saving in various accounts, their expected returns, how much you thought you needed to live on in retirement, etc. Then it crunched the numbers and gave you a big graph showing your…