Things I did today

Another Go at Books? I had success reading more over the summer, but then work and, more likely, Stardew Valley took over my evenings and weekends. It’s far too easy to play “just one more day”! Lately I’d read a few pages of Bill Bryson’s Made in America , drift off in thought, and not remember any of it the next day. The same happened with 1929 and Too Big to Fail , both by Andrew Ross Sorkin. Beyond the big themes, I can’t recall what I read. I remember being surprised and making connections, but not what those connections were. I want a record of what I read, rather than “Yeah, I read that years ago.” So this section starts with Kindle samples. After each one, I’ll write a short review and give it a verdict: Buy, Defer, or Skip. Defer is the tricky one: it can’t mean “someday.” It needs a specific date and a specific reason. Will these samples spur me to buy and read the rest, or will I mostly skip them after the first few chapters? Either way, I’ll finally have a record of wh...

I recently read Morgan Housel's new book, The Art of Spending Money. What I got out of it the most was the idea of starting books, but not finishing them. I've always felt I should finish what I start, and he argues that it shouldn't be so for books. If you're not interested in the book after chapter one, put it down. It was not as advertised or summarized inappropriately or you changed as a person between purchase or borrowing and sitting down to read. He suggests to have a wide funnel but strong filter. Read anything, genres you wouldn't go for, authors you're unsure of, because you're only investing a small amount of time. Sometimes, he mentions, he decides the book isn't for him be the end of page one.  I happen to have a lot of books. Most of them I'm excited to start, but rarely do I start them because I feel like I should finish them, even if I don't want to.  So I've decided to change my thoughts on that. I now will start a book and m...

Chapters 10, 11, and 12 deal with Tax Planning, Legacy and Incapacity Planning and Non-Financial Aspects of Retirement. Chapter 13 is a summation of all previous chapters, gathering all of the action steps that were at the end of each chapter in one place for reference.  Chapter 10 notes on Tax Planning: I already knew most of the things in regards to taxes and retirement plans, but learned a lot about the "Social Security Tax Torpedo" and will need to model how that will affect my retirement spending and distribution. It's a bit of tricky math. Because your "combined income" that the IRS looks at to tax Social Security is linear, it feels like the Social Security tax should be roughly linear, but extra income could reclassify a dollar of Social Security that was subject to 0% or 50% tax now 85% tax just by increasing $1 in income. And because it doesn't change with inflation, it's been affecting middle income retirees more than the wealthy. This was suc...

 Chapters 7, 8 and 9 deal with Medicare, Long Term Care Planning and Housing in Retirement. Chapter 7 notes on Social Security: Surprised at the cost of Medicare considering the population is mostly of people with fixed incomes and declining ability. So many rules and changes for a population that should require simplicity.  Also surprised at the different flavors of Medigap coverage. And surprised to find that Original Medicare has no out of pocket limit, essentially requiring Medigap or Medicare Advantage to be sure you're not just going to be on the hook for something extremely expensive in your 70s when you have a good 15-25 years to go. Chapter 8 notes on Long Term Care Planning: A quarter of women and a fifth of men need 5+ years of long term care, but most people rely on family/friends to fill that gap instead of paid care. A robust network is required if you don't have the money to cover it. I'm surprised it is that large of a subsection of the population. Chapter 9...

 Chapters 4 - 6 cover the 4% Rule, Annuities and Social Security. Chapter 4 notes on the Trinity Study: The Trinity Study switched its bond holding for the exercise purpose from intermediate government bonds to long term corporate bonds, and the volatility went up and safe percentage to draw went down. Something to consider when having a regular corporate bond fund in retirement. Intermediate government bonds do provide the sweet spot for risk and return in worst case scenarios. Consider FUAMX for that portion of the portfolio. The 4% rule is inappropriate for those who are expecting to be retired for more than 30 years - though it is a decreasing rate that the safe withdrawal rate would go down past 30 years/4%. Chapter 5 notes on Annuities: He has to start the chapter on Annuities with "Caveat about Annuities" where he mentioned he's just going to assume the annuity is fairly priced and appropriate which tells me all I need to know about using annuities. Bond Ladders ar...

Chapters 2 and 3 focus on more definitions, discussing  retirement risks and retirement income, including some broad preparedness activities. What I found interesting was my longevity risk (the book included a resource to see your own probability of demise at a certain point) and that I would need to change my current thought of how long my investments should last. I should add an extra 5-10 years! I also need a different model for projected expenses. At this time, I just assumed all items would go up the same amount - the inflation rate. However, healthcare and housing around healthcare (CCRCs, nursing homes, etc) are going up much faster than inflation, so by the time I need them, my investments may not have kept up. I imagine the other items that won't go up as much as inflation (electronic equipment) will be enough to make up for the healthcare costs. The book also talks about the "funded ratio", essentially how much have you already saved up against your assumed expe...

Wade Pfau has gotten so much into the math of retirement planning that his previous academic title was Professor of Retirement Income. With his wealth of knowledge, he's decided to write a series of books:  Retirement Planning Guidebook: Navigating the Important Decisions for Retirement Success  Reverse Mortgages: How to use Reverse Mortgages to Secure Your Retirement Safety-First Retirement Planning: An Integrated Approach for a Worry-Free Retirement and How Much Can I Spend in Retirement?: A Guide to Investment-Based Retirement Income Strategies In this first book of the series, he walks through the major topics of generating retirement income that the other three books cover in-depth, as well as Social Security, Medicare, and Long Term Care planning. In the first chapter, he stresses that there are multiple income strategies and that there are certain strategies that resonate more strongly with some, and other strategies that work well for others. There is more beyond the i...

 Surge 11 went well. I remembered to do my stretches and PT daily except for the last 4 days of the month, when my hip pain was finally mild to none. I was worried with my hip pain as I had a conference to attend the third week of the month, and walking was still painful. Apparently, what I needed was being forced to walk 5 - 9 miles a day for six days at the conference, along with my PT. At end, for the day I walked 9 miles, I had a painful hour in the afternoon that subsided, and after that I've only had the mildest of pain on occasion when going up stairs. I guess I'm mostly cured! I'll call that an unintentional success and keep doing my PT. Surge 12 took me some time to think about. I've settled on going through a book I bought late last year, "Retirement Planning Guidebook: Navigating The Important Decisions For Retirement Success", by Wade Pfau. I've been wanting to read this book and work through the exercises, as I'm hopeful to retire before I...

 I only ended up adding six recipes as I didn't have nearly as many recipes that I'd tested enough! Throughout the winter, I'll be cooking a lot more, so I'll feel more confident in adding good ones. For the month, though I added Beef Stroganoff , Ham Quiche , Pad Thai , Chicken Cacciatore , Arroz Con Pollo and Tuna Steak . You can find the full list at my recipes page: http://www.lauraqjohnson.com/recipes.html For Surge 11, I need to get back to daily PT as my hip is continuing to bother me. It's gone from moderate pain to mild, which is good - but part of the reason is that I'm not going on near daily walks anymore. That I really miss, so I will be using November to strengthen and stretch my hip and area around it.