Browse by Categories

• Consumption Smoothing
• Financial Planning
• Government, Taxes & Other Disasters
• Home Ownership & Mortgages
• Mutual Fund Investing
• Resources
• Social Security

• When It Comes To College Saving, Keep It Simple

  Q. How about some guidance on saving for college. My daughters both have new babies and want to start saving for college. I recommended mutual funds with Vanguard. One son-in-law wants to fund college through a life insurance program with a fraternity... Posted Jun 06 2007, 09:00 PM by scottb with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Income Investing, Q&A (from print), Resources, Retirement

• The Best Retirement Formula: Make Your Own

  Q. Please email me your formula for figuring how much money it takes to retire. I am 72 and still working. ---J.A., by email from Dallas, TX A. For better or worse, I have no such formula. The best we can do is come up with different rules of thumb, all... Posted Jul 20 2006, 04:09 PM by scottb with | with no comments Filed under: Income Investing, Q&A (from print), Retirement

• Yes, You Can Have Too Much of a Good Thing

  Q. My wife and I have about $320,000 of investments. About a third of that amount is invested in two royalty investment trusts. One is oil-based, and the other is in natural gas. Even after the recent dunking the energy market has taken, we are still... Posted Jan 19 2006, 02:40 PM by scottb with | with no comments Filed under: Consumption Smoothing, Government, Taxes & Other Disasters, Home Ownership & Mortgages, Income Investing, Q&A (from print), Retirement

• Worried about interest rates? Build a ladder.

  Q. In May I made a 7 figure deposit with a very large Boston wealth management firm. They invested 60 percent in equities and 40 percent in their intermediate bond fund. I protested when I saw the intermediate bond fund and forced them to exit it. As... Posted Dec 15 2005, 10:45 AM by scottb with | with no comments Filed under: Income Investing, Q&A (from print), Retirement

• Balance, Not Safety or Big Bets, Brings Good Returns

  Q. I am so tired of taking devastating losses in stocks and bonds. I am 66 years old and was wondering if buying long term CDs (even at today's low rates) makes sense? I have accounts at Vanguard, Fidelity, T. Rowe Price and Schwab. One Vanguard newsletter... Posted Jul 01 2004, 02:22 PM by scottb with | with no comments Filed under: Income Investing, Q&A (from print), Retirement

• Welcome to the world of small 401(k) plans

  Q. I am currently employed by a company offering a Simple IRA. They match the first 3%. This is great, but the only fund company they are offering is John Hancock Funds, with class A, B, or C shares, and horrendous yearly expenses. Should I invest anyway... Posted Dec 31 2003, 11:59 AM by scottb with | with no comments Filed under: Income Investing, Q&A (from print), Retirement, Social Security

• The Investment Advantage of Stocks May Be Declining

  Q. Now retired, most of my asset allocation is in fixed income mutual funds with Vanguard. Several friends use financial advisors, who invest primarily in stocks. Is one method recommended over the other, and why? I suspect many asset allocation investors... Posted Oct 17 2002, 12:31 PM by scottb with | with no comments Filed under: Income Investing, Q&A (from print), Retirement

• Check Your Tax Bracket Before You Seek Tax-Free Income

  Q. I am a retired teacher. I want to put my money into something that will give me a monthly return, but is also safe. I invested a lot of money in the stock market and lost almost all of it, so I do not want to get back into the stock market at all.... Posted Sep 12 2002, 09:56 AM by scottb with | with no comments Filed under: Income Investing, Q&A (from print), Retirement

• Defined Benefit Pension Plans Have Limits

  Q. Which is preferred, a defined benefit or a defined contribution pension plan? As I'm sure there is no one-blanket answer to cover all scenarios, what are the important factors to consider in evaluating the different plans? My company is offering current... Posted Aug 29 2002, 10:34 AM by scottb with | with no comments Filed under: Income Investing, Q&A (from print), Retirement

• Health Insurance Is A Necessity, Not a Luxury

  Q. My wife and I will soon both be self-employed and we're trying to figure out how to handle health coverage. We are physically fit non-smokers in our early 30's. Even so, the insurance premiums for high-deductible ($5,000) policies for our family of... Posted Jul 04 2002, 03:20 PM by scottb with | with no comments Filed under: Income Investing, Q&A (from print), Retirement

• Diversification Can Protect You From Steep Losses

  Q. I am one of thousands of Dallasites who has watched his 401(k) holdings vanish at an alarming rate. Now, more than a year after the dot.com bubble burst, I am still losing approximately one out of every five dollars invested. My 401(k) investment is... Posted Jul 26 2001, 11:20 AM by scottb with | with no comments Filed under: Home Ownership & Mortgages, Income Investing, Q&A (from print), Retirement

• Reconsidering 401k Fund Selections

  Q. I have been investing 100 percent of my wife's 401k contributions in the Vanguard U.S. Growth fund for about 12 years at the maximum allowable percentage. The fund lost about 50 percent of its value in the last few months. Among other choices in the... Posted Apr 19 2001, 01:59 PM by scottb with | with no comments Filed under: Income Investing, Q&A (from print), Retirement

• Where to look for 7 Percent Yields

  Q. My wife and I just sold our higher priced home and purchased a new smaller home--using your advice since we are both 70. We have paid for the new home with cash and have over $50,000 we need to invest. We have several CD's and IRA's paying good rates... Posted Jun 22 2000, 11:30 AM by scottb with | with no comments Filed under: Income Investing, Mutual Fund Investing, Q&A (from print), Retirement

• Think of it as “The Dell Problem”

  Q. I have 24,000 shares of stock in a central Texas based computer company (Dell) that I have held for nearly 8 years. In the past it has done very well. However, in the last year the price of this stock has been bouncing around in a very lackluster manner... Posted May 11 2000, 10:41 AM by scottb with | with no comments Filed under: Financial Planning, Income Investing, Q&A (from print), Retirement

• Stocks Are Good, But They Aren't Perfect

  Q. I have read numerous times from many sources that investing in the stock market has always beaten any other investment option over any ten year period since the 1920's. However, I recently read in your column that if a person had invested just before... Posted Dec 12 1996, 11:42 AM by scottb with | with no comments Filed under: Income Investing, Q&A (from print), Retirement