No. of Recommendations: 9
My main account was up about 20% compared to the market's 25% return. I consider that a success since only about 70-75% of the account was in stocks and the rest in treasuries.
I'm still trying to plan out withdrawals, Roth conversions, treasuries maturities, etc. For now I can't imagine just doing a 3 fund portfolio.
My wife has a small pension with a job she left a few years ago. Trying to figure out what she will get is difficult. I'm used to pensions where you work "x" years and then leave, you know what you will get down the road since the calculation is fairly straightforward (e.g., avg high 3 years salary * 1% per year * number of years worked). It doesn't matter a lot in planning since it won't be anything significant but the monthly payment has risen a couple of hundred dollars in her latest estimate (she can request it from the holder - Merrill Lynch) which is a large percentage of the small pension. I told her just to ignore it until she is 65 and then we can look at it and either collect the pension monthly or a lump sum.
Except for getting older, the year was good although stressful (retiring, moving cross country again, etc.).
Due to a previous job's requirement, I've gotten into a habit of logging all of my accounts year end values. While the overall cash/investment value dropped this year, that was due to the large chunk of money withdrawn to pay for a house.
This year I did close some credit cards and accounts to make things a bit simpler. Still have a bunch of ccs which I don't mind. Currently have 4 retirement accounts but one is my TSP account with the goverment and I don't do much of anything with it but may move it since they often make easy things hard. From what I've been told, my TD account will be moved to Schwab in May so most of my stuff will be with Fidelity (bridge money to social security) and Schwab (main account mostly for down the road, and to use as my main bank). Closed my WF account since I got tired of all of their fraud alerts and making it too hard to get my own money so I only have my credit union as a bank and I rarely use that.
While I wish I was 20 years younger and my parents and some friends were still alive, overall I'm probably doing much better than many others. Hopefully health things will be ok for another year.
Happy New Year and try to stay healthy. (And stop worrying over most things since they really aren't that important unless it is health related.)
Rich
