IndependentInvestor eLetter 130C of 29 01 2012 

Today's quote:People, the same people who are worried about saving for their retirement and their children's college costs, think it's perfectly normal to spend $200 a month on phone plans. I think it's nuts. $24,000 over 10 years for something that is not essential, steals your liberty, and makes normal human exchange anachronistic, seems silly. Dinosaur Trader

 

Hello [NAME],

This is our hundredth-and-thirtieth newsletter on current events and new developments, always from the viewpoint of the independent investor. 

If you are a new member, click here for general information about our newsletters.

Our Newsletters typically contain an in-depth commentary on a timely subject. The most recent commentaries are on our home page. Older commentaries can be found in our Archives, where can be found by scrolling through the headings or by using the Search (Filter)  function.

New

On JANUARY 1ST WE LAUNCHED OUR NEW SITE: INFOINVESTDUJOUR.COM . The site contains an electronic calendar called All about Investing. It provides, on every day of the year, information selected from the best texts from our existing site, plus additional, never published, information. It will notify you when North American markets are closed for the day, key Canadian tax dates, anniversaries of people who historically have played important roles in the world of finance, and much more. WE ENCOURAGE ALL MEMBERS TO CONSIDER SIGNING UP TO  INFOINVESTDUJOUR.COM, for only $2.19 plus applicable taxes for each period of 30 days.The revenue from the new site should allow us to continue to offer FREE membership to our existing site. 

In this commentary we present the 2nd of our commentaries on a US government report on retirement  and investing.

Retirement investing challenges-- US GAO report- Part 2

Retirement raises new investing challenges: for instance, how much can I safely withdraw annually from my portfolio, and should I purchase an annuity to create my personal pension plan? Life expectancy is increasing, in itself good news but at the same time complicating these challenges. Ironically, more and more private-sector employers have, at the same time, elected to start offering defined contribution retirement plans and cease offering traditional, defined-benefit plans thereby increasing the responsibility for workers and retirees. To look at the implications, a branch of the US government, the Government accountability Office or GAO, has published a report. This is a rare opportunity for investors to read objective, unbiased information on the challenges of retirement investing, and how to minimize the so-called longevity risk i.e. the risk of outliving their assets. This is Part 2 of a 2 part review of the GAO report;for Part 1, click here .

To read the balance of this commentary, please click here to access the full text on our site.