Tag Archives: Boomers Retirement

Retirement Planning: Nobel Prize Economist William Sharpe Offers Free E-Book For Retirees

November 16, 2019 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Feom a Barron’s online interview article:

Right now, you tend to have investment advisors for retirees, and insurance advisors or salespersons for retirees, and it’s fairly rare to go to somebody who can sell you annuities or invest your money and has no financial incentive to tilt one way or the other. Ultimately, what I’d like to see are people who have knowledge of both annuities and investments, and who are compensated in a way that doesn’t influence the decision.

The idea is that you segment your money. It’s similar to using “buckets” but with a time component. A retiree might have a box for 2020 and a box for 2021, and 2022, etc.

Nobel Prize–winning economist William Sharpe has spent most of his career thinking about risk. He’s behind the Capital Asset Pricing Model for gauging systemic risk and the eponymous Sharpe ratio, which captures risk-adjusted return.

A few decades ago, Sharpe turned his attention to what may be the biggest risk of all for most Americans—running out of money in retirement. The professor of finance, emeritus, at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business created a computer program that eventually covered 100,000 retirement-income scenarios based on different combinations of life spans and investment returns for a retired couple. Sharpe has made this program available in a free ebook, Retirement Income Scenario Matrices.

Retirement, Reviews

Boomers Retirement: Three Of The Top Hidden Costs Facing Retirees

October 21, 2019 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

From a Wall Street Journal online article:

“many people are poorly prepared for unexpected expenses” in later life, the study notes. Even worse, about one in five retirees (19%) and one in four retired widows (24%) experienced four or more shocks during retirement. The good news: Many older adults who get hit with stealth expenses appear to bounce back.

• Replacement costs. Big-ticket buys—a new furnace, updated appliances, a fresh coat of house paint—can put sizable dents in your nest egg. But most people don’t consider that these outlays can follow them into later life or that such costs can continue to add up for decades. A contributing factor: Many retirees underestimate their life expectancy.

• Relatives in need. This can hit you from two sides: aging parents feeling a financial pinch and younger family members who suddenly find themselves in a bind. With the latter, perhaps it can be an adult child who gets laid off or divorced, or a grandchild who needs help with tuition.

• Required distributions. Most people know that, after reaching age 70½, they must begin withdrawing funds from tax-deferred accounts (like IRAs). What they fail to understand are the ripple effects from these payouts. Required minimum distributions can, first, push you into a higher tax bracket and, second, translate into increased Medicare Part B premiums (which are tied to annual income).

Retirement, Reviews

Boomers Retirement: Senior Planet Aims To Be “Tech-Savviest Retirement Community On Earth”

August 12, 2019 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

From an MIT Technology Review online article:

That’s why Kamber created Senior Planet, a tech-themed community center that preps seniors to hack their way through a world conspiring to keep them sidelined. The glass door reads “Aging with Attitude.” With its sleek grays and wood tables, it rivals the WeWork next door in the Chelsea district of Manhattan.

Kamber is pretty exciting, but the place itself is a beehive. By the time he and I sat down to talk, I’d already bought some fingerless gloves from one of its graduates, Madelyn Rich, a fiber artist and entrepreneur who’d paid for her recent Caribbean cruise with her holiday glove sales, mostly online. In a computer lab, a class was learning to use Google Calendar and Google Hangouts. Rachel Roth, a white-haired sophisticate in aviator glasses, wheeled in a cart of her sea-salt-dusted chocolate almonds called Opera Nuts—she hawks them online and through West Elm, Pottery Barn, and Williams Sonoma—and doled out some samples to the staffers in her signature Chinese-takeout-box packaging.

Retirement, Reviews, Technology

Boomers Home Income : “RentTheBackyard.com” Will Build & Rent Studio Apartment For You

July 19, 2019 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

From a TechCrunch.com online article:

Rent the Backyard works with a partner to build the apartment, finances the construction, lists the property, selects the tenant, collects the rent and serves as the landlord. In exchange for all that, it has an ownership stake in the unit and keeps 50% of the rent.

The startup also handles the permitting, which co-founder Spencer Burleigh said has become much easier with recent changes in California law. In fact, he pointed to stories about how these changes have led to skyrocketing applications (16 in 2016, 350 in 2018) to build “in-law” units in San Jose, which is where the startup is focused for now.

Retirement, Services, Technology

Boomers Retirement: “Umbrella” Is An Online Home Repair & Services Marketplace For Seniors

July 13, 2019 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

From a Pymnts.com posted article:

“Umbrella is an app that’s meant to connect these people with each other, through a marketplace with a membership model. The app lets seniors sign up for “jobs” and provide their services, like mowing a lawn or painting a fence.

The jobs are charged around $20 an hour, and Umbrella keeps $4 of that. The neighbors can choose to make less money, and the difference goes toward cheaper work for lower-income seniors.

Umbrella costs $199 a year to join. The startup was co-founded by CEO Lindsay Ullman and President Sam Gerstenzang. Both worked at Sidewalk Labs previously, among other places.”