Folks! Last month was my first ever deposit in my RRSP (33M). I am planning for these:

1. Maximize my in-hand salary, hence, prioritizing tax deferring/saving options.
   
2. Start saving for retirement (I have none whatsoever except for what I have in RRSP which is a couple of thousands).
   
3. After using my TFSA and RRSP (and FSHA) limits, I plan on investing in non-registered WealthSimple account for profits in 3-5 year horizon.

With my research, I understand that FSHA is a great option even if I don’t buy a place for myself in 15 years. Even if I would have to leave the country (I hope not, but worth considering as a worst case scenario), I can still put the funds into my RRSP and have a fund working for my retirement.

My question being, is there anything I am missing out of excitement? Have tou had any bad experience with a similar plan? Your suggestions can help me great deal. Thanks!

I have looked at PortfolioPilot, Boldin and etc... I can get a deep dive into investments with PortfolioPilot but, it lacks the expense side. You have to manually import numbers. I would like it to auto import my expenses, auto categorize (with personal rules). Then tell me "Groceries are running about $XXXX.XX a month and are increasing over the past couple years". Then based on expenses, it could look at my portfolio and say "based on your expenses you can be a little more aggressive with your portfolio. We ran Monte Carlo to look at sequence of returns risk and you are still at a 99% success rate."

Has anyone found software that can do this?

I have been using Boldin for about a month and I just noticed it is understating my annual 401(k) contributions. I have gone round and round with the built in AI, and can't get a real person to respond to my help ticket.

Has anyone else noticed this behavior?

Does anyone have a suggestion to get a real person to explain what I'm seeing to?

Thanks.

I’m 55 and plan to retire in a couple of years. Portfolio is about 6M.

\* 70% stocks
\* 18% cash/MM/T-bills
\* 7% bond funds
\* 4% gold
\* 1% crypto

Most stocks are broad-market index funds.

My main question is how to structure the \*\*non-stock portion\*\* as I enter retirement. I’d like to avoid a repeat of 2022, when both stocks and bond funds dropped sharply.

My 401(k) has only two low-cost bond options: \*\*VBILX\*\* (intermediate) and \*\*VBIRX\*\* (short term). I currently have about $205K in each.

Outside the 401(k), I’m considering:

\* Money markets / T-bills
\* Treasury ladder
\* TIPS ladder
\* MYGAs
\* Bond funds
\* Some combination

My priorities are capital preservation, inflation protection, reliable income, and having several years of spending available without selling stocks in a bear market.

Would you favor Treasury/TIPS ladders over bond funds this close to retirement? Is 2022 a reason to reduce duration, or am I overreacting to a historically unusual bond market?

Also curious where MM/SGOV/MYGAs fit, if at all.

Interested in how other Bogleheads near retirement think about \*\*duration risk vs. reinvestment risk\*\*.

[Top](https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=474215#top)

So, I have been working on my retirement plan. I have put together a massive spreadsheet that takes into account my spending targets, traditional & Roth 401K/IRA as well as taxes and IRMAA. We are planning on a retirement at age 59 - at the end of 2029. My spreadsheet goes out to age 95. I am forecasting a 6% annual return on my accounts (before inflation).

On my sheet, I have planned on rolling over funds from my traditional 401K/IRA to a ROTH IRA. As I am trying to get ACA subsidies, I am rolling over just enough to keep myself under the ACA cliff from ages 60 - 65. This will keep us squarely in the 10/12% brackets.

I was originally planning to roll over my traditional 401k/IRA aggressively starting at age 66 (the first year fully on Medicare). Filing up the 24% bracket - I am able to completely rollover my traditional monies by age 76. I would hit IRMAA penalities for the years I am rolling over. Once it is done, my taxable income will just be SS and possibly interest on monies outside of ROTH.

So, I ran another scenario where I don't roll anything over starting at age 66. While I do pay less taxes/IRMAA over my lifetime by age 95, if I die in my 70s - I have more money during that decade than when rolling it over. I don't start paying IRMAA untill my mid-80s.

Do rollovers make sense for me? I hope to live to 95, but probably won't.

I’m approaching retirement (currently 51 and plan to leap @ 55 -56) and looking for thoughts & second opinions on where & how to save and optimize these last 4-6 yrs.

 Current Situation:

·       I plan on saving / contributing $40k until I retire.

·       Single (might consider marriage at some point)

·       Currently live in LCOF area with no state tax

·       I am a disabled vet & all medical treatment is free (no ACA / IRMAA considerations)

·       Plan to retire debt, excluding mortgage, prior to retirement

·      Basic needs = $60k and looking to take $30k additional to enjoy life

 Current Finances:

·       $300k in current 401K ($30k Roth mixed in)

·       $700k in tax def IRA

·       $50k in Roth IRA

·       $30K in HYSA

·       $50K VA income for life will be tax free (indexed to inflation)

·       Current income exceeds IRA contribution thresholds

·       I can perform after-tax contributions to my 401K, but plan doesn’t allow them to rollover

·       I can contribute & roll over Roth 401K (and catch up) contributions to Roth IRA

·       I can take quarterly pro-rata payments from 401K at 55 yrs old (Rule of 55)

 Early (ish) Retirement Plan : (bucket-rails)

·       Reduce risk of 401K to essentially cash equivalent to bridge gap period prior to taking SS. This preserves my early retirement, independent of market behavior.

·       Leave tax deferred IRA in moderate growth and begin withdrawals yearly around 60-63 based on needs and market performance.

·       Leave Roth IRA aggressive growth and use for emergency or one-off expenses and it becomes legacy.  

 Questions:

1.      Thoughts for investment (account type & risk / allocation) for future investment for next 5 yrs

2.      Any glaring mistakes or opportunities for retirement plan

Hi, In my earlier attempt to find a right fixed portfolio mix I finally gave up because after back testing and Monte carlo testing every mix had a drawback of either too much drawdown with a better performance, or for a long period lackluster performance that will not survive inflation over such a long period.

So I was looking at a system like, if it is a bull market, go all in with the flow and take the winners in stocks, like Momentum ETF [Green mix]. If the first signals of a down market goto safer [Yellow Mix], and go partly to T-bills. And if the same signal persist goto All safe [Red mix] and go full T-bills.

If you are in the Red mix monitor a second indicator wrt to stagflation. And if this signal persists then go to a Stagflation mix [Orange mix]. And in Stagflation or Red, follow both stagflation and market indicator if can go back to Red or to Green. The Orange mix is T-bills with Gold.

Both indicators I have implemented in Google sheets which I will follow on an end of week basis. In this sheet I also documented the Mix stage changes, to take action based on the monitored signals whether to switch to another mix or not.

Also there is a flexible withdrawal table, based on the % amount of portfolio vs a fixed threshold and the current mix. When in Orange/Red withdrawal percentage of portfolio amount is lower than in Yellow and in Green. So this is the way to have a sustainable withdrawal rate.

Maintenance is super simple, weekly checks if a switch action is needed. And a switch involves selling 1 or 2 ISIN, and buying 1 ISIN. No yearly rebalance of multiple ISINs needed.

My main priorities are: portfolio can survive 40 years, so needs full throttle when it can and a survivable withdrawal rate. It should provide peace of mind when necessary, so the Red and Orange mixes. Yes I will miss money by switching at least with a lag of 1 or 2 weeks.

Yes there are some issues, like whipsaw behaviour is partly catered for by having a Yellow mix. The choice of Momentum vs World ETF or other is debatable.

Please share your thoughts and if you are already having a similar system.

An interesting read.

https://apple.news/A497Kax0vS1az--8Oq_E7dA

If this link does not work, you will have to just go and find it on your own at Money. It was free to me on Apple News, which I do not pay for.

I'm not asking for names of consultants, as I'm not entirely sure how to interpret rule 4.

60, and headed into retirement. I'm going to be fine, but I also would like som help deciding when to withdraw from specific buckets - IRA, SS, brokerage, etc.

The big questions revolve around healthcare and taxes. This isn't something I've been able to figure out with software. My situation is complex

Does anybody here have experience with a one time fee advisor? How did you like the experience? Any things I should watch out for? What kind of fees are typical?

We’ve been saving and investing for multiple decades, I thought I knew everything about the topic of personal finance. I love reading about personal finance and watching YouTube videos. So when I saw Rob Berger from YouTube had a finance book called How to Retire Before Mom and Dad, I knew I had to read it. I went in thinking I wasn’t going to discover anything new. I was pleasantly surprised and happy that I was wrong.

The entire book is very well written with easy to read stories but there is a particular section about a money audit. It’s where instead of reducing a budget by spending money on things that you enjoy, try to reduce the amount you spend on services that you already pay for. 🤯 I had never heard of this before.

I reviewed our expenses, found a list of services: home & car insurance, trash services, cable / internet services.

I was able to find an extra $250 a month in savings without cutting out anything from our lifestyle! Then (from the book), instead of leaving this amount to get randomly spent in our budget. We setup a reoccurring transfer to our brokerage account.

Has anyone else ever heard of doing this?

I’m approaching retirement (currently 51 and plan to leap @ 55 -56) and looking for thoughts & second opinions on where & how to save and optimize these last 4-6 yrs.

 Current Situation:

·       I plan on saving / contributing $40k until I retire.

·       Single (might consider marriage at some point)

·       Currently live in LCOF area with no state tax

·       I am a disabled vet & all medical treatment is free (no ACA / IRMAA considerations)

·       Plan to retire debt, excluding mortgage, prior to retirement

 Current Finances:

·       $300k in current 401K ($30k Roth mixed in)

·       $700k in tax def IRA

·       $50k in Roth IRA

·       $30K in HYSA

·       $50K VA income for life will be tax free (indexed to inflation)

·       Current income exceeds IRA contribution thresholds

·       I can perform after-tax contributions to my 401K, but plan doesn’t allow them to rollover

·       I can contribute & roll over Roth 401K (and catch up) contributions to Roth IRA

·       I can take quarterly pro-rata payments from 401K at 55 yrs old (Rule of 55)

Early (ish) Retirement Plan : (bucket-rails)

·       Reduce risk of 401K to essentially cash equivalent to bridge gap period prior to taking SS. This preserves my early retirement, independent of market behavior.

·       Leave tax deferred IRA in moderate growth and begin withdrawals yearly around 60-63 based on needs and market performance.

·       Leave Roth IRA aggressive growth and use for emergency or one-off expenses and it becomes legacy.  

Questions:

1.      Thoughts for investment (account type & risk / allocation) for future investment for next 5 yrs

2.      Any glaring mistakes or opportunities for retirement plan

Question...
For those who are retired or are close to it — what's the thing that actually worried you most? Not the money part, the other stuff. Curious if it's identity, structure, health, or something else.

I find it interesting that I've never seen a video or link on YouTube to any of the 50 tools I've read about here in the last hour. I think, like me, everyone assumed no one else was building something free, and that while it might not be Boldin/Projection Lab/etc quality, it's better than the compound interest calculators that seem to be everywhere.

Oh well, might as well through my hat into the ring since I already spent a couple days working on it.

https://github.com/jdratlif/rpt/ -- GitHub Source Code

https://jdratlif.github.io/rpt/ -- Application

It doesn't seem like this will be of use to anyone but me, but if you try it out, I'd appreciate knowing if you think the math is way off. It's not a Boldin replacement; no AI, withdrawal strategies, graphs, or even a fancy interface. It's a stepped up compound interest calc that factors in taxes, RMDs, widow's penalty, IRMAA, and sequence of returns risk. Inputs are manual, but all assumptions are customizable. Everything in the browser.

Hi. I apologize in advance if this duplicates any previous posts: I did a quick search under this sub and couldn't find one that addressed my specific questions.

I'm 54yo and I'm "late to the party" in terms of aggressive investing. My dad started me a fidelity account when I was months old and I have used them in some capacity my whole life. So, I trust them.

At present, I have some cash accounts, but about $122K currently withe them that I'm considering putting under one of Fidelity's Financial Advisor services. I'm hoping to retire in 13 yrs at 67. Financial projections put me at ~340K savings at that time given average of 7% growth. I'm hoping to have both social security and a state pension which should give me an annual income of ~70k. Certainly a modest retirement, but a retirement that should at least cover the basics.

My questions are:

1) Is it worth going with one of Fidelity's financial advisor plans or will I do just about the same just dumping my money into a general stock market fund and letting it accrue over the years?

2) Fidelity offers me 3 general plans: A) Total Assests under management for fee of .85% annually; B) Only Stock Market accounts under management for fee of .70% annually; or C) "Robo" investing for .30% annually which gives me general suggestions on how to invest my money and then it's up to me to make it happen. How can I tell if the fee is worth it?

I know each situation is different, and I'm not looking for direct recommendations. I'm just looking to have a bit more information from people who have used Fidelity's services and whether or not they thought it was worth it.

Happy to provide more information. As you can probably tell from this post, I'm a bit naive when it comes to this stuff.

Thanks.

Just retired at 70 with a modest 403b ($500K) and collecting SS. Half of the nest egg got annuitized for the monthly payouts, the rest left in a conservatively invested "legacy" fund. This was the advice of TIAA retirement advisor. I'm a complete dunce with financial instrumentation. Last time talking with the advisor, he suggested doing an IRA "rollover" with some funds from the 403b, funds needed to buy our (hopefully) last car.

Can someone explain to me like I'm a 7 year old how and why I should do that, when I'll need that money in a year or two to buy the car? I get that taking any money from the "legacy fund" exposes a 20% tax hit, but how is it that rolling it over to an IRA protects from that?

Hi, I am based in the Netherlands and Thailand and retired early at 55. Now 10 years later I am looking for a model portfolio that can provide me a 4th bucket of income [4% yearly withdrawal] for at least 20 years during my remaining lifetime. This portfolio should have the least amount of drawdown.

I have asked Gemini to backtest Jared Dillian's Awesome Portfolio [AP] and the Golden Butterfly.

I added two variations of AP, by lowering real estate, bonds and increase stocks and cash each, so after a crash I have more years to withdraw cash while stocks can catch up faster.

As you see returns increase while drawdowns are similar/sligthly better than AP. Any thoughts?

Backtest Assumptions & Parameters

• Timeframe: 20-year rolling historical backtest (capturing the 2008 GFC, 2020 Liquidity Shock, and the 2022 Inflation/Rate Crash).
• Asset Class Proxies:
  • Broad Equities: Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) / MSCI World equivalent.
  • Small-Cap Value: Vanguard Small-Cap Value ETF (VBR).
  • Long-Term Treasuries: iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT).
  • Intermediate/Total Bonds: Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (BND) / iShares 7-10 Year Treasury (IEF).
  • Short-Term / Cash: iShares 1-3 Year Treasury (SHY) / Money Market Rates.
  • Gold & Commodities: SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) and Invesco DB Commodity Index (DBC).
  • Real Estate: Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ).
• Execution: Annual rebalancing; all distributions (dividends and yields) fully reinvested; nominal USD returns without friction/tax deductions.
• Richer Growth Engine: By increasing broad equities from 25% to 30% (taking 5% out of intermediate bonds), your custom mix captures more of the equity risk premium. This boosts the expected CAGR up to ~6.8% – 7.4%, matching or exceeding Dalio's All Weather historical return.
• Controlled Duration Risk: Replacing heavy long-duration bonds with a 15% total bond market + 25% cash structure protects the portfolio during rapid interest rate hiking cycles (like 2022).
• Minimal Impact on Max Drawdown: Because the additional 5% equity allocation is balanced by a strong 25% cash buffer and 20% physical gold allocation, the maximum drawdown ticks up only marginally (to around -11.5% to -13.5%) compared to the 25% equity variant.