Retire Smarter with Kevin Kroskey, CFP® & Tyler Emrick, CFA® CFP®

Interview with Retirement Researcher Dr. David Blanchett Part 2

Dr. David Blanchett is Head of Retirement Research formerly at Morningstar and currently at Prudential’s asset management arm PGIM. He is also an adjunct professor at The American College of Financial Services. David has been a voracious and accomplished researcher, being published in a variety of peer-reviewed articles, and receiving many ‘best paper’ awards. Today he conducts research primarily in the areas of financial planning, tax planning, annuities, and retirement.  
Listen to Kevin and David do a deep dive into key assumptions made in your retirement planning – investment returns, spending assumptions, longevity, and inflation. Learn from David’s original research on retirement spending and how it is likely to decline as you age, including the positive implications it has on your planning. (Hint: you may be able to retire earlier than you think.) 
Be sure to pay attention to the end where David and Kevin discuss guaranteed income, cryptocurrency, and empirical studies on quantifying the benefits of working with a trustworthy and competent advisor. 
A big "thank you" to Dr. Blanchett for sharing his research and wisdom.  To read David’s research, visit https://www.davidmblanchett.com/research 
Learn more about our Retire Smarter Solution™: https://www.truewealthdesign.com/ep-45-retire-smarter-solution/
 
Have a financial question? Contact us at https://www.truewealthdesign.com/contact/
 
Key topics on this episode: 
1:05 - Using the spending data to build a financial plan
2:47 - Success rate as an outcome metric
5:27 - Measuring your wants and needs
9:52 - Building guaranteed income
14:16 - Annuities
16:53 - Comparing annuities
20:21 - His recent paper on cryptocurrency
22:40 - Recent/current projects
24:21 - How an advisor adds value
 

Interview with Retirement Researcher Dr. David Blanchett Part 1

Dr. David Blanchett is Head of Retirement Research formerly at Morningstar and currently at Prudential’s asset management arm PGIM. He is also an adjunct professor at The American College of Financial Services. David has been a voracious and accomplished researcher, being published in a variety of peer-reviewed articles, and receiving many ‘best paper’ awards. Today he conducts research primarily in the areas of financial planning, tax planning, annuities, and retirement.  
Listen to Kevin and David do a deep dive into key assumptions made in your retirement planning – investment returns, spending assumptions, longevity, and inflation. Learn from David’s original research on retirement spending and how it is likely to decline as you age, including the positive implications it has on your planning. (Hint: you may be able to retire earlier than you think.) 
Be sure to pay attention to the end where David and Kevin discuss guaranteed income, cryptocurrency, and empirical studies on quantifying the benefits of working with a trustworthy and competent advisor. 
A big "thank you" to Dr. Blanchett for sharing his research and wisdom.  To read David’s research, visit https://www.davidmblanchett.com/research 
Learn more about our Retire Smarter Solution™: https://www.truewealthdesign.com/ep-45-retire-smarter-solution/
 
Have a financial question? Contact us at https://www.truewealthdesign.com/contact/
 
Key topics in this episode:
1:11 - Welcome in Dr. David Blanchett
2:15 - Reviewing his historical papers
3:39 - Important retirement variables
5:26 - What are reasonable expected returns?
9:44 - Building blocks that play into forming expectations
13:50 - Spending patterns
16:24 - Spending data and categories
21:05 - Behavioral aspects of spending

Ep 100: Not So Smart Things Even Smart Investors Do

Market downturns elicit emotion. Emotional investors are more apt to make poor investment decisions. Time and again this is proven. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Or get educated and break the cycle...
 
Listen to Tyler Emrick, CFA, CFP stand in for Kevin and describe some common behavioral issues even smart investors often must overcome. Got a case of 'get-even-itis' (loss aversion)? Or perhaps a case of 'no-decision-itis (regret aversion)?' Look at an inheritance differently than money you worked for? 
 
Listen to these and more to be informed and help overcome behavioral hurdles that can harm your wealth. 
 
What we discuss in this episode: 
0:36 - Welcome back on Tyler
2:39 - Our topic today
5:16 - Mental accounting 
12:56 - Regret Aversion
19:07 - Loss Aversion
26:57 - What steps can you take to improve?
 
 
 
Read more and get additional financial resources here: https://www.truewealthdesign.com/podcast/ 
 

Ep 99: Whoa! Stocks and bonds both going down? What’s going on?

2022 has been a bad year for most investors. Both stocks and most bonds are down sharply. You may be wondering why? 
 
Hear Kevin explain what has been happening in markets with key points related to understanding diversification, risk, and four key economic regimes for investors to balance against. Learn why even a "balanced investor" has 90% of risk coming from one asset class, and why bad behavior is causing severe pain for many return-chasing investors as they go down with the ARKK. 
 
The egghead alert may sound on this episode, but Kevin will keep things at a high, understandable level at this crucial time.
 
Learn more about our Retire Smarter Solution™: https://www.truewealthdesign.com/ep-45-retire-smarter-solution/
 
Listen for these key topics: 
1:43 - Why we're talking about this 
3:25 - Emotion creeping in
5:55 - Don't lose sight of the purpose of the money
9:30 - So many factors to changing expectations
10:32 - YTD returns we've seen
12:24 - Idea of diversification
16:16 - Recent stock values
17:45 - ARKK ETF
21:03 - The investing environment and factors that change it
23:25 - Risk from stocks vs bonds
29:02 - What's been working this year?
33:16 - Takeaways 
 
 
Read more and get additional financial resources here: https://www.truewealthdesign.com/podcast/ 

Ep 98: Interview with Retirement Researcher Dr. Michael Finke Part 2

Dr. Michael Finke is a professor and chair of Economic Security Research at The American College of Financial Services. 
 
Listen to Kevin and Michael chat about a wide range of key retirement issues, the research behind them, as well as current topics: Life expectancy differences for average vs. wealthy people, what makes a retiree happy, why Social Security is such a good deal, how inflation impacts retirees differently than workers, why the current market environment contains much bad news for retirees, and much more. 
 
A big "thank you" to Dr. Finke for sharing his original research and wisdom. No doubt this is one of those episodes you may want to find yourself listening to twice. 
 
About our guest: https://www.theamericancollege.edu/our-people/faculty/michael-finke 
 
What we discuss in this episode: 
1:05 - Shiller PE Ratio
5:01 - Behaviors 
6:44 - Spending habits
11:01 - Tax rate risks
11:55 - Cognitive impairment
15:25 - Women vs men
16:36 - RMD jail 
20:46 - Final thoughts
 
Read more and get additional financial resources here: https://www.truewealthdesign.com/podcast/ 

Ep 97: Interview with Retirement Researcher Dr. Michael Finke - Part 1

Dr. Michael Finke is a professor and chair of Economic Security Research at The American College of Financial Services. 
 
Listen to Kevin and Michael chat about a wide range of key retirement issues, the research behind them, as well as current topics: Life expectancy differences for average vs. wealthy people, what makes a retiree happy, why Social Security is such a good deal, how inflation impacts retirees differently than workers, why the current market environment contains much bad news for retirees, and much more. 
 
A big "thank you" to Dr. Finke for sharing his original research and wisdom. No doubt this is one of those episodes you may want to find yourself listening to twice. 
 
About our guest: https://www.theamericancollege.edu/our-people/faculty/michael-finke 
 
What we discuss in this episode: 
0:52 - Welcome in Michael
1:48 - Time as a food consumption researcher
4:24 - Delaying gratification
8:10 - Breaking saving habits in retirement
11:08 - What research has found
13:38 - Income and spending in retirement
17:56 - High income people
20:05 - What age to plan for
25:31 - Longevity predictions
28:24 - Future of Social Security
33:50 - Social Security strategies
39:30 - Inflation expectations
 
Read more and get additional financial resources here: https://www.truewealthdesign.com/podcast/ 

Ep 96: Rules Gone Awry, Part 5 - Retirement Healthcare Is Exorbitant

In this episode, Kevin turns the tables on a handful of common misconceptions about health care costs in retirement. Find out the truth about what health coverage and long-term care actually might cost and how you can factor them into your overall retirement plan.
This is the final part of this series we're revisiting on Retirement Rules Gone Awry. 
 
What we discuss in this episode:
1:40 - The rule we're discussing today 
3:33 - So Kevin isn't worried?  
5:37 - What we envision for the future of healthcare?  
10:37 - Longterm care coverage 
20:17 - Helping our clients make decisions 
 
Read more and get additional financial resources here: https://www.truewealthdesign.com/podcast/ 

Ep 95: Rules Gone Awry, Part 4 - The 4 Percent Rule

You've perhaps heard the 4 percent rule, that if you take 4% out of your investment account each year, you'll never outlive your money. Kevin talks about where this idea came from, and pokes some holes in this strategy in this third installment of Rules Gone Awry.
This is the fourth of a five-part series we're revisiting on Retirement Rules Gone Awry. 
 
What we discuss in this episode:
1:40 - What is the 4% rule?
4:00 - Why this rule became widely adopted? 
5:35 - Major problems with this rule
11:12 - What is the right answer?
14:53 - Example of someone we've worked with 
18:07 - Final thoughts
 
 
Read more and get additional financial resources here: https://www.truewealthdesign.com/podcast/ 

Ep 94: Rules Gone Awry, Part 3 - The Rule of 100

There's a "rule" that says you should take 100, subtract your age, and the result tells you how much of your money you should invest in stocks. It would be awesome if retirement planning was that simple, but simple isn't always effective and that's the problem with the Rule of 100. Take a listen to find out about better ways to invest and plan for your financial future.
This is the third of a five-part series we're revisiting on Retirement Rules Gone Awry. 
 
What we discuss in this episode: 
1:40 - Today's rule  
5:29 - Measuring risk  
10:32 - Simple isn't always better 
 
Read more and get additional financial resources here: https://www.truewealthdesign.com/podcast/ 

Ep 93: Rules Gone Awry, Part 2 - Take Social Security Early

There's an old school of thought that says you should take social security as early as you can so that you can get the most out of it. But this is another one of those retirement rules gone awry that we enjoy picking apart on the podcast. Kevin will tell us why this retirement "rule" needs to be scraped and give us the proper lens through which to view the social security problem.
This is the second of a five-part series we're revisiting on Retirement Rules Gone Awry. 
 
What we discuss in this episode: 
1:52 - Background on this Social Security rule
4:05 - The common approaches people take to SS
5:27 - 'I won't live long enough.' 
6:59 - 'I don't want to wait to spend money.' 
9:21 - Worry about SS funding issues 
14:29 - Different ways you can take SS
 
Read more and get additional financial resources here: https://www.truewealthdesign.com/podcast/