Planning & Risk
What retirees say they got wrong
Surveys and accounts from people already retired converge on a short list of regrets.
Ellen Park
25 articles by Park
Healthcare Costs
Health as a financial asset
The return on maintaining physical function in later life exceeds most available financial decisions.
Withdrawal Strategy
Withdrawing in a way you can actually follow
The best withdrawal strategy is the one that gets executed, which usually means the simplest one that works.
Planning & Risk
Longevity, and planning for a long life
Planning to average life expectancy means half of people outlive the plan, which is not an acceptable failure rate.
Healthcare Costs
Nursing homes, assisted living and the differences
The categories are distinct in what they provide, what they cost and what pays for them, and the distinctions matter.
Withdrawal Strategy
What to do when markets fall
A short list of actions that are useful during a decline, and a shorter list of actions to avoid.
Accounts & Vehicles
Investment costs and what they actually take
Fees are the one element of investment returns that is knowable in advance, and they compound the same way returns do.
Healthcare Costs
Vision, mobility and driving in later retirement
Losing the ability to drive changes the cost and viability of where you live, and it is rarely planned for.
Social Security
Pensions that interact with Social Security
Public sector workers with pensions from non-covered employment have faced specific provisions that recently changed.
Withdrawal Strategy
How much to hold in cash
Cash has a genuine role in a retirement portfolio and a real cost, and the right amount depends on what it is for.
Planning & Risk
The behavioural mistakes that cost most
The gap between investment returns and investor returns is well documented, and it is entirely self-inflicted.
Taxes in Retirement
Estate basics every retiree should have in place
A short list of documents that cost little, matter enormously, and are missing from a large proportion of households.
Social Security
Claiming decisions for single people
Without spousal and survivor provisions, the analysis is simpler and the stakes are arguably higher.
Accounts & Vehicles
Consolidating accounts, and when not to
Most people accumulate accounts across a career, and combining them helps in several ways with a few genuine exceptions.
Healthcare Costs
Falls, frailty and the cost of losing mobility
A single fall is among the most common triggers for a major and expensive change in living arrangements.
Taxes in Retirement
Estimated taxes and withholding in retirement
Nobody withholds tax on your behalf once you stop working, and the penalties for getting it wrong are avoidable.
Withdrawal Strategy
Rebalancing, and how often is enough
A maintenance task with a clear purpose, a modest benefit, and a lot of unnecessary complication around it.
Accounts & Vehicles
Pensions, lump sums and the choice between them
A one-off, irreversible decision with a structure that can be analysed properly rather than guessed at.
Healthcare Costs
Retiring before Medicare eligibility
The health insurance gap between leaving work and turning sixty-five is the largest obstacle to early retirement in the United States.
Social Security
Working in retirement, and what it does to the plan
Continuing to earn changes benefits, taxes and account eligibility in ways worth understanding before deciding.
Withdrawal Strategy
Sequence risk and why the first decade matters most
Two retirees with identical average returns can have completely different outcomes, and the difference is timing.
Healthcare Costs
Long-term care and the ways of paying for it
The largest uninsured risk most retirees carry, with a set of imperfect options and no clearly correct answer.
Taxes in Retirement
Required minimum distributions and planning around them
Forced withdrawals from tax-deferred accounts are the most predictable tax event in retirement, and the planning happens years earlier.
Withdrawal Strategy
Which account to draw from first
The conventional sequencing advice is a reasonable default that is wrong for a substantial number of people.
Accounts & Vehicles
Traditional or Roth: what the decision actually turns on
The choice reduces to a comparison of tax rates now against tax rates later, with several complications that matter more than the headline.