The Rob Berger Show

Welcome to another edition of Five Question Friday (FQF). Here are the 5 questions: 1. Can one Fidelity fund beat the Vanguard 3-fund portfolio? 2. How do expense ratios work with fund of funds? 3. Concerning the 4% rule, which I believe the analysis runs out for 30 years, if someone starts to take a yearly percentage out of their portfolio at a later age, say in their mid-70s, can the starting point of 4% be safely increased, and to what? 4. How to Track a Complicated Portfolio 5. What should we make of Vanguard's paper that indicates a better asset allocation for retirement income is a majority of bonds (like 40% equities, 60% bonds!) as opposed to long-established portfolios that are more like 60/40 in favor of equities. Even Bill Bengen didn't recommend going below 50% equities, right? Join the Newsletter. It's Free: https://robberger.com/newsletter/?utm...

Get 10% off the cost of ProjectionLab with promo code RBERGER-10 using this link: https://go.robberger.com/projectionla.... In today's video, we'll look at the following features of ProjectionLab: 1. Export/Import Data 2. Income/Expense 3. Tax Analytics 4. Drawdowns 5. Bond Allocation Join the Newsletter. It's Free: https://robberger.com/newsletter/?utm...

Today, the SEC announced a $106.41 million settlement with Vanguard following moves Vanguard made in 2020 that resulted in excessive capital gains distributions to retail investors. In this video, I'll walk through the settlement order and what it means to investors. Join the Newsletter. It's Free: https://robberger.com/newsletter/?utm...

In today's episode of Five Question Friday (FQF), we start with a strategy you might consider if you want to leave your expensive financial advisor but you are afraid of going it alone. Here are all the questions in today's show: 1. How to leave your financial advisor 2. TIPS ladder vs BND 3. Are Target Date Funds a Reasonable Option 4. If a person has over $250,000 in a Fidelity account, should they open up another account - say with Vanguard, Schwab, M1 Finance, or perhaps another brokerage - elsewhere as well? 5. How do we rebalance assets in Boldin? If we enter a 60/40 portfolio today, after a few years, it turns into 80/20, which means the software is not rebalancing automatically.2. For the BND fund, what rate of return will you use? Join the Newsletter. It's Free: https://robberger.com/newsletter/?utm...

We start this week's Five Question Friday (FQF) with a question about whether a 2% investment fee is crazy. Here are the five questions: 1. Am I crazy to be paying a 2% fee to manage my investments at Morgan Stanley? 2. Can you analyze 100% BND versus 50% BND and 50% VIPSX. 3. In Boldin, what are you setting as projected returns? 4. How should I invest if I don't need the money in retirement? 5. Is direct indexing worth the cost and complexity? Join the Newsletter. It's Free: https://robberger.com/newsletter/?utm...

With five years to go before retirement, there are several steps you can and should take to prepare. In this video, I'll cover 13 things to consider as your retirement date draws closer. Resources mentioned: Boldin: https://go.robberger.com/new-retireme... Tiller: https://go.robberger.com/tiller/yt-5-... Rocket Money: https://go.robberger.com/rocket-money... Lunch Money: https://go.robberger.com/lunch-money/... Vanguard Asset Allocation: https://investor.vanguard.com/investo... Open Social Security: https://opensocialsecurity.com/ Join the Newsletter. It's Free: https://robberger.com/newsletter/?utm...

At least once a year it's important to review your investment portfolio and make any necessary adjustments. Here are the 10 things I check every year: 1. Write down your planned asset allocation 2. Compare your actual allocation to your plan 3. Evaluate individual holdings 4. Evaluate your asset location 5. Confirm you have beneficiaries listed for each account 6. Check your performance for the past year 7. Check for excessive stock concentration 8. Evaluate your advisor relationship & fees 9. Make sure you have 2FA on all financial accounts and email 10. Evaluate if you can simplify your portfolio Resources Empower: https://go.robberger.com/empower/yt-y... Investment Tracking Spreadsheet: https://robberger.com/investment-trac... Morningstar: https://www.morningstar.com/ ETF Overlap Tool: https://www.etfrc.com/funds/overlap.php Join the Newsletter. It's Free: https://robberger.com/newsletter/?utm...

Welcome to this week's edition of Five Question Friday. Here are the questions we'll be covering today: 1. Should you include the value of your home in your asset allocation? 2. Should we tilt our portfolio to 10% SCV? 3. After-Tax Asset allocation 4. Tips Ladders vs ETFs: If for example we had 500k for our fixed assets portion of our portfolio, what are your thoughts on building multiple TIPs ladders with all 500k to meet our retirement goals vs. a more diversified mixof t-bills, CDs, Agency, Corporate, and TIPs? I am leaning toward the more "diversified mix." 5. Roth conversions and Rate of Return Assumptions Resources: Boldin: https://go.robberger.com/new-retireme... Bolgeheads' Wiki: https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Tax-a... Reichenstein Article: https://www.financialplanningassociat... Join the Newsletter. It's Free: https://robberger.com/newsletter/?utm...

Morningstar recently released its annual State of Retirement Income report. According to its calculations, the new safe withdrawal rate is 3.7%. The report offers some excellent data and analysis that can help us as we build our retirement income strategy. Join the Newsletter. It's Free: https://robberger.com/newsletter/?utm...

Over the past four years I've received tens of thousands of questions about investing from viewers. I've assembled 9 of the most frequently asked questions in this video. Here they are: 1. Should you pay off debt or start investing? 2. How do I get started investing? 3. Is 100% stocks a reasonable portfolio? 4. S&P 500 vs Total Stock Market Index 5. Why do I need international stocks? 6. Should I invest in Bitcoin? 7. How do you know when you can retire? 8. Lump Sum vs DCA 9. How can I increase my savings rate? Join the Newsletter. It's Free: https://robberger.com/newsletter/?utm...

Welcome back to another edition of Five Question Friday. For this FQF, we cover the following five questions: 1. Should we wait to invest until stock valuations come down? 2. Does it matter if we pay the tax on a Roth conversion from a taxable account? 3. Are dividend stock ETFs a reasonable alternative to bonds? 4. Why is the 3 bucket portfolio so popular? 5. Should are planned spending in retirement be based on a percentage of our pre-retirement income? Best retirement planners: https://robberger.com/best-retirement... Join the Newsletter. It's Free: https://robberger.com/newsletter/?utm...

Do retirement planning tools calculate the same chance of success if given the same retirement plan? That's what I wanted to know, so I compared Boldin, Pralana and ProjectionLab. The results shocked me. Boldin: https://go.robberger.com/new-retireme... Pralana: https://go.robberger.com/pralana/yt-c... ProjectionLab: https://go.robberger.com/projectionla... Join the Newsletter. It's Free: https://robberger.com/newsletter/?utm...

In this Five Question Friday (FQF), we'll be tackling the following viewer questions: 1. Is a 100% stock portfolio the best option during retirement? 2. How does the 5-year rule on Roth conversions work? 3. Should long-term investors invest in bonds? 4. How do backdoor Roth IRA conversions work? 5. What are my favorite personal finance books to give as gifts during the holidays? Resources Mentioned in the Video: Retire Before Mom and Dad: https://amzn.to/3OQL0DA Big ERN's response: https://earlyretirementnow.com/2024/0... SWR Toolbox: https://earlyretirementnow.com/2018/0... Join the Newsletter. It's Free: https://robberger.com/newsletter/?utm...

In this week's Five Question Friday, we look at several important retirement planning questions: 0:00 - Intro 0:45 - Should our asset allocation change if we have a much younger spouse? 7:45 - Should a pension represent the bond portion of a portfolio? 10:30 - What types of ETFs should go in taxable accounts versus retirement accounts? 14:13 - Should we prefer Roth conversions over investing in a taxable account? 17:31 - Should we prefer Roth conversions if we plan to use the money for long-term care? Boldin: https://go.robberger.com/new-retireme... Pralana: https://go.robberger.com/pralana/yt-fqf Projection Lab: https://go.robberger.com/projectionla... Open Social Security: https://opensocialsecurity.com/ Join the Newsletter. It's Free: https://robberger.com/newsletter/?utm...

I've been using Pralana Online over the past month. It's a retirement planning tool that, for a long time, was available as a spreadsheet. It's now available as an online app. In this video, I take a high-level look at Pralana and compare it to Boldin, formerly New Retirement. Pralana: https://go.robberger.com/pralana/yt-p... Boldin: https://go.robberger.com/new-retireme... Join the Newsletter. It's Free: https://robberger.com/newsletter/?utm...

One of my favorite tools, Portfolio Visualizer, just launched a new design. In this video, I'll show you how to navigate the changes. Unfortunately, one change is to limit the amount of backtesting data you have access to in the free version. I'll show you a free alternative. Portfolio Visualizer: https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/ Test Folio: https://testfol.io/ Join the Newsletter. It's Free: https://robberger.com/newsletter/?utm...

Welcome to the first episode of Five Question Friday (FQF). I'll answer five questions from past live shows that we didn't get to. Today, we're covering the following questions: 1. Is the 6% Rule on Lump Sum vs Pension Reasonable? 2. What will my stock/bond allocation be when I reach 65? 3. How do you decide between a Roth Conversion and 0% Capital Gains Harvesting? 4. What's the best credit card for travel? 5. Should an early retiree pay off their low-rate mortgage? Kitces Article: https://www.kitces.com/blog/navigatin... CFPB Pension Article: https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/2... Fidelity Pension Article: https://www.fidelity.com/learning-cen... Travel Credit Cards: https://www.allcards.com/travel-rewar... Cash Back Credit Cards: https://www.allcards.com/best-cash-ba... Join the Newsletter. It's Free: https://robberger.com/newsletter/?utm...

Vanguard has reached a proposed settlement in the class action lawsuit related to the 2021 distribution of capital gains in its target date retirement funds. Here's how much each claimant may be entitled to receive. Proposed Vanguard Settlement: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gBIQ... Join the Newsletter. It's Free: https://robberger.com/newsletter/?utm...

We can save for retirement through at least four different account types: (1) 401(k) and other workplace retirement accounts, (2) IRAs, (3) HSAs, and (4) taxable accounts. Some can also use a mega backdoor Roth 401(k). In this video, I walk through one optimal approach to prioritizing which accounts to contribute to first. Here's a related article that I wrote on the topic: https://robberger.com/the-optimal-ord... Join the Newsletter. It's Free: https://robberger.com/newsletter/?utm...

A TIPS ladder is just one way to generate income during retirement. We'll look at two scenarios where a TIPS ladder may make sense, and then discuss the pros and cons. TIPS Ladder: https://www.tipsladder.com/ Four Easy Steps to Build a TIPS Ladder: https://www.advisorperspectives.com/a... Schwab Annuity Pricing Tool: https://www.schwab.com/annuities/fixe... Join the Newsletter. It's Free: https://robberger.com/newsletter/?utm...