I was asked to take a look at the Tip$ter Retirement and Asset Allocation Planner by the creator Eric Cernyar and at first glance it is impressive.

I am assessing this as a Baby Boomer with a view to what it will do to help me as a Baby Boomer get some confidence in my own retirement planning process based on the value of my own nest egg.

(the chart opposite is not my nest egg. I just used $1M for the test)

Eric’s calculator is very comprehensive. I would need to spend much more than an hour or two playing with it to learn all its idiosyncrasies. It’s better to get it out there so you can try it yourselves.

In the short time I have  “played” with it here’s what I like about it.

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The US has freedom of speech enshrined in the US constitution. As we have seen anyone can say anything about any public figure and get away with it.

Witness the beauty pageant, Sarah Palin and others who have been vilified by blogger’s and news services alike.

But that’s the worst of it. The best of it is the open debates on Pelosi and what she knows and GITMO battle of the titans between Obama and Cheney.

In the financial sector we have Geithner, Bernanke and others all having to be mindful of what they say and what they do, but having to do it regularly. Geithner is on a power trip which he genuinely believes will enable him to save the US economy. We will see.

This is a good thing.

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I just read the statement “Everybody should be able to retire and make ends meet,” in the article, “Does America need a new retirement system?”

This is Euro-speak. It’s all about socialising your retirement savings to help out those that could not be bothered to save for their retirement. And it may well become a reality. It should read, “everyone should have the right to save for their retirement to make ends meet.”

I’m not talking about those who need out help through no fault of their own. I’m talking about people who chose not to take reasonability for their retirement when they could do so..

The full text is,

“Should we be rethinking our retirement savings system?

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Greg Heiple of Teeter Totter Principle (BalanceZone) fame emailed me this considered response to living benefit variable annuities. Right now with the world economy in turmoil the one rule must be to double check all retirement options and seek the best advice your can find. Greg provides food for thought and should help you think through the living benefit variable annuity as a retirement option.

No one knows how people are going to behave with these types of  guaranteed lifetime income contracts that are being offered through variable annuity company’s.

These guaranteed contracts are fairly new and they have never been tested. While the insurance companies run tests, make assumptions, and design hypothetical scenarios, to test how these contracts will perform, they are all educated guesses at best. No one can predict the future.

The questions that arise from the various variable annuity contracts that are offering guaranteed lifetime income are as follows: Read the rest of this entry »

The Wealth Management Industry is banking on your Nest Egg, but you are not. They get to pay themselves from your nest egg but you cannot touch your own money.

You need to be able to access your nest egg throughout your life. Let me explain. This is just an idea. It’s a variation on the Infinite Banking Concept.

You are encourage or forced by government decree to save a percentage of your salary or wages each month in a tax beneficial saving plan for your retirement. This starts the minute you join the work force and stops when you retire.

So it may be 40 years or more before you actually get to use your own savings for your own benefit.

You are told that Governments and Wealth Managers have  joined forces to protect your saving for your own good. For their “help and kindness” they get paid a small percentage of your money every day, week, month and year during and after you retire.

Everyone gets paid regularly but you;

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I have written three posts on Living Benefit Variable Annuities over the last month. I believe they should be given serious consideration as part of any Baby Boomer’s retirement pension plan.  (For those Aussie Readers this post is more relevant in the US.)

After my post, “Guaranteed Income for Life for Baby Boomers” a friend send me an email about some of his concerns with Living Benefit Variable Annuities. So I decided I’d write to John P Huggard an authority on variable annuities and the author of “Investing with Variable Annuities” and ask him to respond.

He expressed two concerns with Living Benefit Variable Annuities and these are; Read the rest of this entry »

As Charles Dickens opening sentence in the classic “Tale of Two Cities” says when we look back on this market we will say, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”.

We’ll say it was the worst of times because many of you have lost a large portion of your nest egg and unless the market comes roaring back may be forced to work for a few more years yet.

The markets were very corrupt, profits were being made by the few selling to the greater fool securities that were given triple A ratings.

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It might be worth visiting the web site Guarantee Your Money and its sister site Guarantee My Money because that is what they claim to do. These are not webs sites which are sales pages doing a hard sell. So take a look.

Glen Duggins is the CEO of the Prentiss Group. His company has a program they call U. R. The Bank and also uses a proprietary system they call GRIP.

U. R. The Bank

Simply put they take your money and set you up as your own bank. They then lend your money out at an interest rate normally much greater than what you can get yourself at a bank. That interest is paid to you as income less their expenses I believe.

They really do what the banks do but do it with your money, Read the rest of this entry »