August 2022 Best of the Web

This month, I have some fantastic resources to help you save more, invest smarter and retire sooner. More importantly, they include valuable wisdom to use those tools to live your best life.

We’ll learn from the mistakes of others, examine the surprising spending patterns of early retirees, and explore important strategies to avoid a bad sequence of market returns early in your retirement.

Resources will help you with the technical and emotional aspects of creating an estate plan and managing an investment portfolio. We’ll also explore strategies for choosing the right Medicare options.

Voices of Wisdom

I recently reviewed Jordan Grummet’s new book. A few year’s ago, early retiree Mark Trautman wrote a guest post for the blog. Each resonated with blog readers, with good reason. These are two of the most thoughtful and wise people I’ve met in the FIRE community.

I highly encourage anyone reading this blog to listen to their important conversation on the Earn & Invest Podcast: Does Your Money Serve You?

Learning From Mistakes

Allan Roth writes Wrong! My Mistakes Over a 20-Year Advisory Career.

Ben Carlson examines Why People Make Dumb Financial Decisions on Purpose.

Retirement Spending

Nick Maggiulli asks and answers How Do Retirees Actually Spend Their Money?

Wade Pfau provides 4 Ways to Manage Sequence of Returns Risk in Retirement.

Doing the Hard Stuff

When starting down the road of educating myself about personal finance, the finance part was intimidating. The more I learn, the more convinced I become that dealing with the personal aspect is the far greater challenge.

Jon Stoj bravely shared a personal example. Financial Advisor Friday Confessional: My dad died 4 years ago. I’m the executor. I still haven’t closed the estate. Why? And what can you do to prevent the same thing from happening to you.

That one resonated way too much. One year ago, my friend Emily shared the lessons learned after losing her husband to an aggressive brain tumor. I encouraged you to make sure you learned from her generously sharing her story and use it as impetus to get your affairs in order.

I committed to do the same myself, writing: “I will personally hold myself publicly accountable by committing to writing a blog post by the end of this year. I’ll share steps we took and what I learned in the process.”

One year later, like Jon, I continue to avoid doing these things I know I should. I will try to do better and I encourage you to do the same.

John Yeigh did update his estate planning documents. He shares important lessons he learned in the process: Where There’s a Will.

Keeping It Simple

While there is some complexity to estate planning, with investing simple is almost always better.

Mike Piper answers the obvious follow-up question to that statement. Why Do Advisors Recommend Complex Portfolios?

Figuring Out Medicare

Darrow and then I have written this blog to document our journeys into and through early retirement. As such, we’ve written extensively about the challenge of bridging the gap from getting health care through a job to qualifying for Medicare, including last week’s post that shared how recent legislation impacts this.

While that is a great challenge, it may imply that once you reach Medicare eligibility the challenges end. Unfortunately that is not the case.

John Greaney writes What I’m doing for Medicare insurance at age 65.

Hat tip to a reader who shared this excellent resource with me. This audience is incredibly knowledgable and wise. I’m grateful to all of you who choose to read this blog and especially those of you who generously share ideas and resources with me and the community through your private emails and public comments. 

Thank you for reading and being part of this community! Have a great month.

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[Chris Mamula used principles of traditional retirement planning, combined with creative lifestyle design, to retire from a career as a physical therapist at age 41. After poor experiences with the financial industry early in his professional life, he educated himself on investing and tax planning. Now he draws on his experience to write about wealth building, DIY investing, financial planning, early retirement, and lifestyle design at Can I Retire Yet? Chris has been featured on MarketWatch, Morningstar, U.S. News & World Report, and Business Insider. He is also the primary author of the book Choose FI: Your Blueprint to Financial Independence. You can reach him at chris@caniretireyet.com.]

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