Investing Blog Roundup: 2018 “Can I Retire” Now Available

The 2018 edition of Can I Retire is now available (print edition here, Kindle edition here). That’s (finally) the last of the 2018 updates to reflect the new tax law. To be clear, the biggest change with this update is simply new tax information. So if you’ve read a prior edition, there’s probably not a lot to be gained from buying/reading the new edition as well.

For anybody who hasn’t yet read the book and is curious what’s in it, the table of contents is as follows:

Part One: How Much Money Will You Need to Retire?

1. How Much Income Will You Need?
Calculating your expenses
Adjusting for inflation
Adjusting for taxes
Adjusting for pensions, Social Security, and other income

2. Safe Withdrawal Rates: The 4% “Rule”
Why only 4%?
Volatility is bad news when selling.
Sequence of returns risk
It’s only a guideline.

3. What if 4% Isn’t Enough?
Possible options
Increasing returns isn’t easy.

4. Retirement Planning with Annuities
What is a SPIA?
Annuity income: Is it safe?
Minimizing your risk

5. How Much (and When) to Annuitize
Creating a safe floor
Annuitizing as a backup plan
Social Security as an annuity

Part Two: Managing a Retirement-Stage Portfolio

6. Asset Allocation in Retirement
Assessing your risk tolerance
There’s no “right” answer.
Stocks vs. bonds
Bond risk levers
Stock risk levers
Rebalancing your portfolio

7. Index funds and ETFs vs. Active Funds

8. 401(k) Rollovers
Reasons to roll over a 401(k)
Reasons not to roll over a 401(k)
How and where to roll over a 401(k)

Part Three: Tax Planning in Retirement

9. Roth Conversions
Roth conversions & retirement planning
How to execute a Roth conversion
Roth conversions of nondeductible contributions

10. Distribution Planning
Fill your 0% tax bracket
Taxable account before retirement accounts
Roth before tax-deferred?
Social Security: It’s complicated.

11. Asset Location
Tax-shelter your bonds
The role of interest rates
Tax-shelter your REITs
Foreign tax credit

12. Other Tips for Taxable Accounts

Again, you can find the book here on Amazon.

Other Recommended Reading

• How I Review Existing Term Life Insurance Policies from Lawrence Keller
• Here Come No-Load Insurance Policies from Ben Mattlin
• Are SUVs Ruining Retirement Savings? from Ben Carlson
• Why You Should Slack Off to Get Some Work Done from Clive Thompson
• Will Other Brokers Match Vanguard and Make All ETFs Commission-Free? from Harry Sit
• Monte Carlo and Tales of Fat Tails from Dirk Cotton
• How America Saves, 2018 from Vanguard
• The Lazy Person’s Guide to Successful Investing from Paul Brown

Thanks for reading!