Series I Savings Bonds rates increased this month. The unadjusted CPI-U rose from 301.836 in March 2023 to 307.789 in September 2023. As a result, the Inflation Rate on I Bonds increased to 3.97% in November 2023. At the same time, the fixed rate jumped from 0.90% to 1.30%. This represents the highest fixed rate…
Congratulations on your retirement! Now, have you considered how you’ll handle your finances? The shift from a steady paycheck to drawing income from investments, social security, and perhaps other sources requires a different approach to cash management. This article was inspired by an email from a reader named Irving who asked the following question: “I’m…
In 2017, the Stanford Center on Longevity analyzed 292 retirement withdrawal strategies. The study used eight metrics to measure how each strategy would satisfy various retirement income goals. From this analysis, the study identified what it described as the Spend Safely in Retirement Strategy (SSiRS). As described in a paper titled How to “Pensionize” Any IRA…
Robo-Advisors promise to make investing easy at a very low cost. Investors have taken notice. According to one estimate, automated investing platforms will manage nearly $1.5 trillion by the end of the year. With dozens of options, however, picking the best robo-advisor can be overwhelming. To help, I examined about two dozen robos and narrowed…
Morningstar is best known for its stock, bond, etf and mutual fund research. Recently it launched Morningstar Investor, a paid service for retail investors. It replaces Morningstar Premium, a service I used for years. In this Morningstar review, I’ll take a deep dive into the Investor product and provide some tips on how best to…
I’ve used Morningstar to track and analyze various investment portfolios for over 20 years. Recently, they launched what is called Morningstar Investor. It’s an updated and refreshed version of the company’s old portfolio tracker. Unfortunately, the new Morningstar Investor is expensive ($34.95/month or $249/year). As a result, many have reached out to me asking what…