retirement funding

Why Index Funds Are the Best Choice for New Investors

Darren Wu — Fri, 16 Aug 2013 09:48:29 +0000

Are you looking to build long-term wealth, but are so new to the world of investing that you don't know where to begin? If so, I've got great news for you.

There aren't too many things in life that both save you more money and make you more money at the same time. Fortunately, a type of investment known as an index fund is one of them. (See also: Begin Your Investing Career Right With Some Mutual Fund Basics)

That's why index funds are one of the best long-term wealth-building tools ever made. So let's dig in to see exactly what they are, and — more importantly — how they save you money and make you money all at once.

But before we go further, let me explain some terms.

What Are Mutual Funds?

In a nutshell, mutual funds are a basket of different kinds of investments. And the most common investments are stocks and bonds.

For instance, one mutual fund could be made up of a few hundred stocks. Another could be made up of a few hundred bonds.

This large amount of stocks or bonds is a good thing because it protects you. If a few stocks or bonds don't perform well, then there are still hundreds of others to help pick up the slack.

Different Kinds of Funds

Within the world of mutual funds, there are two types of funds:

Actively managed funds
Index funds

What's the difference?

Actively managed funds are run by managers who try — note the keyword try — to beat the market's return. So if the stock market goes up 8% one year, this manager will try to pick certain stocks so that you'll earn more than 8%.

Index funds, however, do not try to beat the market. All they do is copy it. So if the market goes up 8% one year, this fund has the same stocks that'll provide pretty much the same 8% growth. (See also: 7 Great Investments for First-Timers)

OK, now that I've explained that, let's go back to the topic of saving you more money.

Saving You More Money

First, it's important to know that all mutual funds come with a cost. The difference, however, lies in the amount.

Actively managed funds charge more for the "potential" for higher returns that I mentioned above. In some cases, a lot more.

According to a report from the Investment Company Institute (PDF), the average actively managed fund costs 0.92% a year. This means that for every $1,000 your investment is worth, you'll pay $9.20.

With index funds, however, you'll pay much less. The average index fund costs 0.13% a year. So for every $1,000 your investment is worth, you'll pay just $1.30.

Now, this $7.90 difference may not seem like a big deal, but that's because we just started with a small amount as an example. To build real wealth, you need to invest often.

Let's say you invest $5,000 every year for the next 20 years. Also, let's assume that both the actively managed and index funds grow by 8% per year (although I'll show you later that this isn't a fair assumption).

If you chose the actively managed fund, at the end of the 20 years you'd end up with $219,728 — a decent amount. But if you invested in the lower-cost index fund, you'd have grown your money to the sum of $242,994 — a difference of over $23,000. (See also: Boost Your Retirement Savings: Avoid 401(k) Fees)

What would you do with an extra $23,000?

Or here's another way to put it — how much would it hurt to lose $23,000?

This extra money that you'd make with an index fund comes from one thing, and one thing only — the cost savings.

So one way that index funds both save you more money and make you more money — at the same time — is by the simple fact that they cost much less.

But that's not the end of the story. There's another way index funds make you more money, and that's from the poor performance of most actively managed funds.

Making You More Money

A study from the S&P Dow Jones Indices found that during the past three years, over 86% of large-cap funds failed to beat their benchmark index, the S&P 500 index. While the actively managed funds provided just under 9% growth, the S&P 500 index grew by over 10% during this time.

This means that if you invested in the S&P 500 (through an index fund, of course) during this time, you would've made more money than 86% of all other related funds.

When you combine the greater long-term performance with the lower cost of index funds, you end up saving more money and making more money. (See also: Using Time Horizons to Make Smarter Investments)

If you'd like to see how I'm using index funds to build wealth, and how you can do it too, check out the Core Four Portfolio.

Do you invest in an actively managed fund or an index fund?

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This article is from Darren Wu of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Planning an Entrepreneur's Retirement

Thursday Bram — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 19:24:16 +0000

Link:

http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/lifestyle/article/how-entrepreneurs-can...

For many entrepreneurs, retirement is something to worry about down the road. Today, you've got enough on your plate; managing your business can easily occupy every spare moment you've got. But the sooner you can spend some time thinking about retirement, the better. Not only will you have more time to set aside savings for retirement, but you'll create more opportunities for yourself whether or not you actually retire on schedule.

Setting Aside Money for Retirement

While there are many ways running your own business differs from being an employee, the absence of a retirement plan can be a doozy. A 401(k) or similar retirement plan has become a fairly standard benefit for many employees. It makes the process of saving for retirement practically automatic — all an employee has to do is sign up for the program and a portion of their paycheck goes straight into the account. With payroll taxes and other deductions, some employees may not even notice. But the process is far more complex when you're on the other side of the equation. As a business owner, you have to take responsibility and actually do some retirement fund legwork if you want to have a retirement account.

There are a variety of tax-advantaged retirement savings plans available to business owners and the self-employed, which makes the process easier. Because of the tax advantages, it rarely makes more sense to invest money on your own for your retirement. However, every situation is different; you're going to have to do some research to find the solution that works for you. It can be tough to determine which plan helps you most in terms of taxes and which helps you most in terms of amassed retirement savings. Be sure to talk to a tax professional or a financial planner who can look at the specifics of your financial situation.

Your options include, but are not limited to:

Simple IRA: If you employ fewer than 100 people per year, you can choose a Simple IRA. With this plan, you can save up to $11,500 per year. You can also make a Simple IRA plan available to your employees and contribute to their accounts as a benefit. However, if you use a Simple IRA, your options for additional retirement plans are limited.
SEP IRA: Just like Simple IRAs, SEP IRAs are available to business owners and their employees. You can contribute up to 25 percent of an individual's compensation, provided that amount is under the cap of $49,000.
Simple 401(k): In most ways, Simple 401(k) plans are identical to Simple IRAs. However, with a Simple 401(k), an account holder can take a loan against the account balance, which is not allowed under a Simple IRA plan.
Single-participant 401(k): Provided that you don't have any employees, a single-participant 401(k) can be a good choice. It offers a higher limit for savings than a Simple IRA – up to $16,500 a year. You can also have your business make a tax-deductible contribution on your behalf of up to 25 percent of your compensation, with a ceiling of $49,000.

If you routinely work with an accountant or other financial professional to help you keep your business' affairs in order, that individual is likely the best starting point for determining what retirement plan is going to be the best choice for you and your business. After all, your business may wind up with additional financial and reporting obligations if you begin setting aside money in a retirement account. You don't want planning for the future to impact your company's present.

Making Your Business Your Retirement Account

Your business itself may provide for some or all of your retirement. When the time comes, you can sell the whole thing and use the proceeds to fund your ideal retirement. Or you can hire a manager to run the business while you continue to collect an income from it.

Or maybe you aren't excited about fully retiring from the company you've built over the years, but you recognize the fact that at some point you'll probably want to put in fewer hours each day. That means that you need to make sure that your business is ready for you to retire. Even if that day is a long time off, it's worth thinking about what your retirement is going to mean for your business. At the very least, consider what it's going to take for the business to run without you running it. No buyer will take on a business that absolutely requires the founder's presence — and most managers will be a little concerned about that prospect, too.

Even if you are considering this option, it's still a good idea to look at the formal retirement accounts discussed above. Having a retirement fund in place gives you more flexibility – your retirement does not depend solely on your ability to sell your business. By planning for your personal future as well as the future of your business, you'll simply have a little more security when retirement eventually does arrive.

This article is from Thursday Bram of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Don't Just Think About Income When Saving for Retirement

David Ning — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 15:00:08 +0000

I keep hearing how people should plan their retirement according to their income, but that method is flawed at best and...(oh, I won't be allowed to type those words)...at worst. Statements like "you can probably live with 80% of your income," and "your net worth should be your income minus this divided by that times your age" are a good estimate of how most of us save and spend in retirement. But as to whether it will be enough for you? It's just a guess.

The Flaw in the Plan

I don't know about you, but my bills don't adjust based on my income. When I splurge on an iPhone, AT&T charges me $199 (at the very least) and then $70 a month for the foreseeable future. It doesn't matter if I am a billionaire or a struggling college grad; $70 is $70, and the bills come like clockwork month after month. Oh and those senior prices you were hoping for? They're something like a 5% discount — wip-a-dee-doo.

The Real Key to Retirement Is Your Spending

By measuring how much we need in retirement against how much we make, we have accepted that yes, we do spend more when we make more. It's as if all of a sudden we are okay with lifestyle inflation. It's your money after all, so spend as you please, but don't think that spending more equates to more happiness. When we equate everything with our incomes, we are putting way too much emphasis on how much we make. It's no wonder why we always compare our incomes to other people's. Don't become a slave to the rat race! Some would kill to make $500,000 a year, but if that comes with $500,000 in spending every 12 months, it's extremely stressful and risky. What if that person gets fired? What if the industry tanks and the salary is reduced to $200,000? It makes for good stories, but I bet it would be tough to live for the rest of your life knowing that a chance for a great retirement was ruined for the entire family because spending couldn't be controlled.

The key to retirement is how much you saved as it relates to how much you spend. The simpler your life is, the less money you need to retire. If you want a comfortable retirement, concentrate on your expenses first. Income is important, but without controls in spending, a comfortable retirement is just not possible.

This article is from David Ning of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

The End of the 4% Rule?

Philip Brewer — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 13:00:07 +0000

There's a rule of thumb that's pretty well known to retirement planners: the 4% rule. It states that if you spend 4% of your capital in your first year of retirement, you can go on spending that much — and even adjust it for inflation — and you won't run out of money before you die. That rule is starting to look kind of iffy.

The rule has its roots in an older 5% rule that's long been used by university endowments and non-profit foundations. If you have a well-diversified portfolio, you can spend 5% of your capital each year and reasonably expect investment returns will grow your capital over time.

The rule works for non-profits and such because they can react to market downturns by cutting spending: making fewer grants, canceling projects, etc. If the market goes down 40%, they can cut spending by 40%. Most households don't have the flexibility to do that — it's not practical to cut your housing, grocery, or health insurance expenses by 40% just because the market was down last year. Hence, the 4% rule, which provides some slack. Since you're spending your capital down more slowly, you have time to wait for the market to recover from a downturn.

Looking at the past

The rule is just an observation: Over the past hundred years you could have followed the 4% rule starting in any year and you wouldn't have run out of money. That's been true because the return to capital has been pretty high, and because downturns have been pretty short.

Until the 1990s you could get most of your 4% just from dividends on stocks — any price appreciation was just a bonus. At the same time, government bonds were returning more than 4% as well. In fact, you could earn more than 4% on cash as well from the late 1970s until just the past 10 years.

The upshot was that it was trivially easy to put together a portfolio that had an average return of well over 4%. You had to be careful to allow for inflation (which was pretty high during the late 1970s and early 1980s), but pretty much any portfolio that held a mix of stocks, bonds, and cash was going to return enough over 4% that following the 4% rule worked fine.

Looking at the present

Sadly, recent returns have been lower:

The dividend yield on stocks has been well under 4% for the past twenty years. (For the past ten years, it's been under 2%!) Stock investors saw some price appreciation in the 1990s, but there's been no appreciation since then. In fact, your stock portfolio is probably down over the past decade, even with reinvested dividends.
The return on bonds held up somewhat better, but has been below 4% for most of the past three years, and below 5% for most of the past 10 years.
The return on cash dropped below 4% in 2001 (during the dotcom bust). It recovered briefly in 2006, but fell sharply in 2007 and remains near zero.

Looking at the future

The 4% rule only works if two things are true:

Periods of low returns are short enough that retirees retain substantial capital, even while spending continues based on their old, higher portfolio value.
The returns the rest of the time are high enough to restore the portfolio.

As the current period of low returns is already long by historical standards, and there's no sign yet of returns rising at all—let alone any sign that returns will rise enough to make up for a decade of flat-to-down market—things don't look good for the 4% rule going forward.

What can you do?

If you're living off capital, you can't depend on any rule of thumb. You need to pay attention to what's actually happening. If your capital isn't growing, you need to hold down your expenses. And if your capital shrinks over a period of years (as it probably has been doing lately), then you need to start cutting your expenses (and probably look for some additional income).

Fortunately, Wise Bread is full of tips on cutting your expenses and on earning extra income.

The 4% rule is still useful as a planning tool. It means that, for whatever level of spending you hope to maintain in retirement, you need about 25 times that much capital. But the key word there is "about." It was never safe to just look at your portfolio level on the first day of retirement, set a 4% payout, and then carry on no matter what the markets did.

Back in the days when only rich people had any capital to speak of, nobody thought about the 4% rule. The rule in those days—for the past several hundred years—was that you only spent income. Everybody knew that spending down your capital—even a little bit of capital—meant that you'd eventually go broke. The 4% rule only works for retirement if you take the position that it's okay to go broke as long as it doesn't happen until after you're dead. Even that is beginning to look a bit optimistic.

If you're building a retirement portfolio, you can still use of the 4% rule for making early estimates of its target size. But don't stop there:

As you build your retirement portfolio, invest for income. You're much safer spending income than you are spending capital, even if you spend it slowly.
Pay attention to what your yield actually is, and don't expect your total return to be much higher than your yield. If your actual investments are just yielding 2% or 3%, don't expect some market magic to produce returns that are higher than that.

If you want more information, the book Work Less, Live More, that I reviewed for Wise Bread, has a carefully worked-out analysis of the 4% rule. I also talk about the rule in the context of figuring out how much you can spend in retirement in my post How much do I need to retire? How much can I spend?

The 4% rule was never a magic shield. It was just an observation that a certain payout pattern has worked over a historical period during which the return to capital was reasonably high. There's no law of nature that says that that the return to capital will be over 4%, so there's no guarantee that it will work in the future.

[Data on stock market returns from Simple Stock Investing. Data for bond and cash returns from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.]

This article is from Philip Brewer of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Save on Last Year's Taxes Right Now

Julie Rains — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 14:00:02 +0000

Did you know that you can make money moves this year that can help you save on last year’s taxes?It's true.

Linsey’s post on procrastination and tax tips reminded me that procrastination can pay, specifically in the form of a lower tax bill. If you hurry or file an extension, you can reduce your income and your tax liability.

Fund tax-advantaged accounts (HSA, SEP-IRA, IRA)

Health Savings Account

(Form 1040, Line 25; plus Form 8889, Line 2): You’ll need to have a high-deductible health plan that is linked to your HSA. See your plan and IRS info for details, but, generally, you can fund the account up to the amount of your annual deductible.

SEP-IRA

(Form 1040, Line 28; Form 560): As long as you have earned income from your business, self-employment, or freelance work, you can contribute to a self-employment retirement plan, such as a SEP-IRA. First, you’ll need to open an account with your favorite financial institution or brokerage firm. The money doesn’t have to flow directly from your business checking account to the retirement account; any extra cash you happen to have can fund your SEP-IRA. Contribution limits are based on IRS caps and your income.

IRA

(Form 1040, Line 32): If you (or your spouse) have earned income, you can contribute to an IRA. Similar to the SEP-IRA, you’ll need to open an account, you don’t have to fund the account directly from your paycheck (you could actually sell investments in a regular account and fund the IRA with the proceeds), and contribution limits are based on IRS rules and income.

Specify applicable tax years on contribution forms and tax forms. And, if you haven’t yet opened these or similar accounts, check the IRS website and financial services providers for deadlines. Funding may be possible only if the account is already established (see page 3 of Form 560).

If you’ve had a significant drop in income or reduced your income substantially through perfectly legal methods, you may be eligible for tax breaks this year (which you might not have qualified for at higher incomes):

Medical Expenses: If you itemize deductions and you have high medical expenses relative to your income, then you can deduct the amount over 7.5% of your income. For example, if your income is $80,000, then you’ll need to have more than $6,000 in medical expenses to reap a tax benefit. However, if you’ve suffered a job loss mid-year and have income of $40,000, then you’d need just over $3,000 to benefit.
Job Search Expenses: Similar to medical expenses, you need to itemize deductions, and job search expenses must exceed a certain percentage of your income (over 2%) to get a tax benefit. But a lower income will mean a lower threshold and greater likelihood that you'll have qualifying expenses.
Long-term Capital Gains(Schedule D): If you can lower your income enough, you might get a tax rate of 0% on long-term capital gains.

If you can't make these moves by April 15, then you can file an extension. Retirement funding is available for certain accounts up to the due date of your return, which includes the extended date. Just make sure you go ahead and pay taxes due now.

Consult your CPA or tax professional for details on your personal tax situation.

This article is from Julie Rains of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Book review: Cash-Rich Retirement

Philip Brewer — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:08:05 +0000

Cash-Rich Retirement: Use the Investing Techniques of the Mega-Wealthy to Secure Your Retirement Future by Jim Schlagheck.

Do you need a kick in the pants to get you saving for retirement? Do you need someone to wave their arms and run around screaming that your whole future is at risk, in order to motivate you to put some serious money aside and take the time to learn how your 401(k) works? If so, this is the book for you.

It's fascinating to read this book in conjunction with Work Less, Live More, which I checked out of the library the same day.

Where that book goes way beyond the classic notion of retirement at age 65, suggesting that not just retirement, but early retirement, is readily available to almost anyone--if they're willing to live frugally and maybe keep on doing a bit of work on the side--this book is the complete opposite.

Schlagheck scarcely talks about early retirement, and it doesn't even seem to imagine that anyone might do any work to earn money after they retire. It's all about straight-up retirement: You work to retirement age, and then you quit. And, it warns, if that's your plan, you may be in for an unpleasant surprise. Not only is your retirement in "grave danger," the whole system of retirement is on the verge of being a failed experiment.

Schlagheck sees two sources of danger.

The first is the "coming demographic storm" of baby boomers all getting set to retire at once. Not only are they all going to want to get their social security payments at once, they're also going to be taking their pensions (from old-line businesses and from state and local governments) at once. Plus, they're all going to stop accumulating investments, and switch to selling them instead. With everyone trying to get their money at once, Schlagheck sees a real danger that they won't all succeed.

The second is a set of foolish ideas about investing. You cannot, he says, safely rely on capital gains for your investment returns; reliable long-term returns are largely going to come from income: dividends, interest, and rents. In addition, you can't get adequate diversification simply by dividing your investments among American companies of different sizes (a generous helping of S&P 500 seasoned with some mid-cap and small-cap funds). You need to diversify both internationally and among asset classes (stocks, bonds, REITs, etc.).

I actually agree with most of what Schlagheck says, especially about his focus on income in your investment portfolio and on the kinds of investments you ought to be focusing on. In addition to the excellent chapters on investing, he's got a good chapter on health insurance, some interesting thoughts on long-term care insurance, and lots of good detail about complicated subjects like annuities (that aren't so well covered other places).

Where I have a problem is in the way he's trying to work the reader up into a tizzy. The book could not have been printed before the digital age, because in the days of metal type the printer would have used up his entire supply of exclamation points before getting halfway through the manuscript. Every page is splashed with italics warning you of a threat or urging you to action. The repeated exhortations to "save, save, save" become wearisome, and the drumbeat warning that your retirement is in danger don't become more compelling with repetition.

Still, if you or someone you know is just blithely assuming that retirement will take care of itself, a wake-up call like this may be just what you (or they) need. The information is right on, even if I got an unusually vigorous workout for my eye-rolling muscles as I plowed through the cautions, dangers, perils, warnings, and urgent urgings.

For the right person, though Cash-Rich Retirement by Jim Schlagheck is a fine book. Excellent content. Just a little strident for my tastes.

This article is from Philip Brewer of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

The Quiet Millionaire: Part 3 - Money for Now, Money for Later

Julie Rains — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 19:28:55 +0000

You've figured out how to have positive cash flow (aka spend less than you earn) for now; but will you have enough money for later? Funding for future requirements, such as retirement, is crucial to financial success, according to The Quiet Millionaire author Brett Wilder. He states:

"...while you may not be having a current cash flow problem paying your bills, you may have a future cash flow problem without even knowing it by not saving enough for future obligations."

So how much do you need to save? I’ve created a Funding for Retirement spreadsheet (downloadable, customizable in Excel) and Q&A guide that will help you find out.

SPREADSHEET Q&A

What does "Funding for Retirement" do?

It helps you figure out how much money you’ll need to save for retirement based on a set of assumptions.

What are assumptions?

They are educated guesses about the future based on what you’ve experienced in the past or think is likely about the future. For the spreadsheet to be useful, you’ve got to make some reasonable assumptions, such as:

Projected Annual Needs: $70,000
Annual Growth of Investments: 10%
Conserve Rate: 5%
Inflation Rate: 2%

What is the "conserve" rate?

It's the investment rate you'll likely earn after you've retired, when you want to conserve your assets.

How do I use the spreadsheet?

Enter the following values into bolded cells:

Projected Annual Needs
Investment Growth Rate
Conserve Rate
Inflation Rate
Your Age Now
Your Age at Retirement
Your Balance Now

Everything else is calculated for you. The most relevant number is the PAYMENT needed TO REACH your targeted BALANCE.

The schedules are just for fun. They show 1) how your investments will grow over time and 2) how you will use your investments in retirement. I put them together to check my calculations.

Can "Funding for Retirement" help guide my financial planning?

Yes, but mainly it is a tool to give you an idea of how much you should be saving each year. And, you can play "what if" by changing assumptions (see how investment rates can dramatically change annual payments needed, how one or two more years of working can help build your assets, etc.).

In the spreadsheet example, if you are 30 years old, plan to retire at age 65, have saved $20,000, think you will earn 10% each year while saving for retirement and 5% each year while conserving your investments, project annual inflation at 2%, and need $70,000 per year (in today's dollars) to live, then you'll need to save $8,241 per year. Using a "what if" scenario, if you grow your investments 12% per year, then you'll need to save $3,923 per year; 15% growth will require only $20.

What if I will be getting a pension or Social Security payments?

You can adjust Projected Annual Needs to reflect your additional needs only (projected annual needs less annual pension or Social Security income).

Why doesn't the spreadsheet have a place for taxes?

A few reasons:

If you funded your retirement using a Roth account (consult your tax pro for more on income and annual contribution restrictions), you won't have to pay taxes when you withdraw your money.
You can add taxes to your Projected Annual Needs -- use the following formula: Projected Annual Needs/(1-Tax Rate); as an illustration, if your Projected Annual Needs = $70,000 and your effective tax rate is 20%, then you will need $87,500 to support your planned lifestyle.
I'll be discussing Mr. Wilder's insightful ideas on tax planning for retirement in a separate post.

Will my investments earn 10% every year for 30+ years?

Probably not. Some years, you may earn more; some years, less. Still, you can get a general idea of how investment growth will impact your portfolio value.

What is cool about this spreadsheet?

You can change the assumptions and update it every year if you'd like. Also, you can download it for free!

Is there anything quirky about the spreadsheet?

Sort of -- I designed it so that you can enter retirement ages of less than 65 and up to age 70, and so that you will run out of money at age 100 (you receive the investment return at the beginning of your 100th year). Also, some cells are not used in all of the calculations so that I could offer options for retirement age.

Defining what you want out of life and, more specifically, your money is covered in The Quiet Millionaire: Part 1 - What is Important about Money to You? and an honest look at your spending habits is discussed in The Quiet Millionaire: Part 2 - Major Obstacles to Financial Success. Mr. Wilder gives an even deeper discussion about retirement planning in Chapter 14 of his book The Quiet Millionaire, which I will cover in an upcoming post. (Note that I have received a copy of The Quiet Millionaire so that I could review the book for Wise Bread readers).

You may or may not be able to save all of the money you need to fund your retirement this year but getting started with any money at all will allow you to begin accumulating wealth; the Funding for Retirement spreadsheet can help chart your path and measure your progress.

This article is from Julie Rains of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread: