How are your investments doing?

[CH4Ohio]

I want a one-time study and model for spending down retirement savings. (which are still growing after 25 years retired).

I manually input our data to PlanVision's back-end eMoney modeling service. Then clicked on Fidelity's Retirement Planning and discovered Fidelity also uses eMoney for modeling. And my Fidelity data was already filled-in live in eMoney, as seen through Fidelity's portal.

I can't speak to PlanVision. I wouldn't link anyone that I found online unless I had an actual working relationship to them. Just my opinion.

Question -- since you've discovered Fidelity's Planning tools, why don't you just use their site to stress test your retirement plan? Increase your monthly spend level on their eMoney retirement planner until you find the "spend down" that you're looking for. Very easy to tweak the variables and free for you to access as often as you like.

 

[California]

I can't speak to PlanVision. I wouldn't link anyone that I found online unless I had an actual working relationship to them. Just my opinion.

Question -- since you've discovered Fidelity's Planning tools, why don't you just use their site to stress test your retirement plan? Increase your monthly spend level on their eMoney retirement planner until you find the "spend down" that you're looking for. Very easy to tweak the variables and free for you to access as often as you like.

My intention is to do both, Fidelity plus an independent view by a fiduciary.

I had a bad experience with a Fidelity advisor long ago who had contacted us after we passed some level. We assembled our data and went to see him. After 20 minutes I realized he wasn't considering what would have been our primary income after we retired, our state government pensions. He said he wasn't allowed to include that in his analysis.

We got up and walked out.

I like your idea to devise a Stress Test and plug that into the model.

 

[CH4Ohio]

My intention is to do both, Fidelity plus an independent view by a fiduciary.

I had a bad experience with a Fidelity advisor long ago who had contacted us after we passed some level. We assembled our data and went to see him. After 20 minutes I realized he wasn't considering what would have been our primary income after we retired, our state government pensions. He said he wasn't allowed to include that in his analysis.

We got up and walked out.

I like your idea to devise a Stress Test and plug that into the model.

Yeah . . . I don't use Fidelity for advice either. I just left some money there because I like their eMoney software and their website interface. No fees for the accounts and it's free to use the Planning software.

 

[CH4Ohio]

I like your idea to devise a Stress Test and plug that into the model.

You don't really need to "devise" a stress test. Just get to the retirement planning tool and start increasing your monthly spend till you "break" the model and start seeing a shortfall before the end of your time horizon. Sounds like that's what you're looking for. You can just enter a single monthly dollar amount if you like. No need to itemize or get detailed unless you want to. (Doesn't sound like you need to.)

I certainly wouldn't pay anyone to tell me how to spend my savings. . .

 

[steve tym]

I usually leave them open for 5 days. It did fill at $15. I put a sell stop in at 12.50, 20% at risk. Lets see what it does.

The fall in Bitcoin has made for some opportunity in companies wanting to raise money to buy bitcoin while it's cheap. I still think bitcoin is a ponzi, but I will ride the wave through 3rd parties. I'm not holding this for long term, so their underlying long term strategy is meaningless to me. I am just chasing volatility.

What is a "sell stop"?

 

[CH4Ohio]

What is a "sell stop"?

That would be your basic Stop Loss order. It just says to sell if the price drops to a certain price or by a certain percent.

 

[drssg]

I want a one-time study and model for spending down retirement savings. (which are still growing after 25 years retired).

IMHO, you are over-complicating it. I made up an Excel spreadsheet with annual projections for the total value of my liquid investments. It can't possibly be right, due to all the unknowns of how long I live, how the investments will perform, and unplanned major medical expenses.

I still made a projection and left a good buffer at the end of life. If things are progressing ahead of plan, then I can feel more comfortable with non-essential spending. I ran it past my financial advisor, and his only feedback was that my estimate for investment return was low. So far, he has been right.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

When I use the Mutual of Omaha calculator for retirement draw downs...

Adjusted for inflation... Out retirement savings will continue to grow until we die, at our current burn rate, adjusted for inflation.

Our annual burn rate is only about 1.5% of the capital.

 

[grsthegreat]

The drop off from last week is all over, and my stocks came up to their high point again today.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

The drop off from last week is all over, and my stocks came up to their high point again today.

Should have sold and then bought back today! Lock in those losses!

 

[steve tym]

That would be your basic Stop Loss order. It just says to sell if the price drops to a certain price or by a certain percent.

That sounds like "buy high, sell low" I never sell at a loss.

 

[Hay Dude]

I usually leave them open for 5 days. It did fill at $15. I put a sell stop in at 12.50, 20% at risk. Lets see what it does.

So for example, if I have 3 stocks in a SEP IRA and a “cash” account and I put a sell stop in on them and say 1 goes down and the sell stop is triggered, is what’s left after the sell just directed into the cash account?

 

[DarkBlack]

That sounds like "buy high, sell low" I never sell at a loss.

I do. Years back when I was first learning trading, I used to hold loosers, hoping for a future turnaround. Bad strategy with looser stocks.
Not to be confused with good company stocks experiencing occasional earnings misses , bad news days, etc. Those tend to favor holding , what usually ends up being temporary downturns

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

The drop off from last week is all over, and my stocks came up to their high point again today.

Every time my 16 year old son looks at his investments on a down day and talks about how ****ty the markets are… I roll my eyes and say, “so, you are new here, huh?”

All of my 30%-40% years, had down days… people focus on the wrong ****. Never mind the 200+ days that trade positive.

I am glad he is investing and going through his emotional phase while at home with me. Hopefully when he is older, he will remember this and stop being so soft.

 

[DarkBlack]

So for example, if I have 3 stocks in a SEP IRA and a “cash” account and I put a sell stop in on them and say 1 goes down and the sell stop is triggered, is what’s left after the sell just directed into the cash account?

Before you get into such, I’d recommend you read up on stop loss orders vs stop limit orders (as the 2 main types among others) before you proceed. Both will trigger during normal market times, but one of them will likely be skipped over during a drastic SHTF drop event, which might be what you want protection from

 

[grsthegreat]

Should have sold and then bought back today! Lock in those losses!

I dont do day trading. Ive left this stuff alone for almost 20 years. Has built up to several millions. Im not playing with it.

 

[California]

I certainly wouldn't pay anyone to tell me how to spend my savings. . .

I'm assuming modern models are more refined than the Quicken-based retirement planning stuff I used in the mid 90's to project what the future would look like. I retired much earlier than I had expected to, age 54, base on my analysis. Now, things have played out better than I projected.

But now in my 80s and never thinking about planning for 25 years, our savings continue to grow (but exceeding the inflation rate ??). I'm out of touch with modern planning models and would like someone who does keep up, to give a second opinion. Mom's older sister lived to 107, I might have another 25 years I need to plan for.

So engaging a flat-fee fiduciary for a one-time review seemed prudent.

Just inputting the data has opened my eyes to some considerations I hadn't thought about, nothing critical, but enlightening.

 

[Snobdds]

Very interesting!!

My only brokerage accounts are at Fidelity and Schwab. I don't see an option to place a "bid order" at a higher price at either firm. There are "Limit" orders and "Market" orders, of course. A "Limit" order would immediately buy at the lower current market price. I don't see an option to wait until something goes higher and then buy at the higher price. Obviously I'm missing something . . . What platform do you typically trade on?

Years ago it was Ameritrade, then it went to TD Ameritrade, and now it's Schwab trading, powered by Ameritrade. I still call it simply, Ameritrade.

After the stock went up, MFI, I moved my sell stop from 12.50 to 15.50. I now am slightly above break-even and near break even on the pre-marginal tax basis. I am tempted to take my 5.50 profit or 36% and sell before the holiday. However, RSI has a ways to go before it gets to oversold.

I use limit orders, mainely.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

I dont do day trading. Ive left this stuff alone for almost 20 years. Has built up to several millions. Im not playing with it.

Same here. I review our investments annually, but actual changes are rare. After 15 years it’s grown to a couple million. I’m 48, so I won’t touch it for a while… it’s more than I’ll ever need, so I’m not motivated to change course.

 

[CH4Ohio]

Years ago it was Ameritrade, then it went to TD Ameritrade, and now it's Schwab trading, powered by Ameritrade. I still call it simply, Ameritrade.

After the stock went up, MFI, I moved my sell stop from 12.50 to 15.50. I now am slightly above break-even and near break even on the pre-marginal tax basis. I am tempted to take my 5.50 profit or 36% and sell before the holiday. However, RSI has a ways to go before it gets to oversold.

I use limit orders, mainely.

No denying that you were right that MFI was about to pop! It was $16ish this morning and now over $20. You're making me rethink my whole approach to saving/investing. Thanks!