Retirement Quick Tips with Ashley

Welcome back to Retirement Quick Tips. I'm your host, Ashley Micciche, and today's episode is a little different. There's no retirement topic, unless you consider my summer sabbatical a lesson in mini-retirements.  Instead, here's a quick update on what's happening with the podcast this summer. As many of you loyal listeners know, I am pregnant with my 5th child. Hard to believe myself, as I never...

We talked about why inflation is so dangerous in retirement, how stocks can help you stay ahead of inflation, why dividend growth matters, how bonds behave in rising rate environments, and how tools like TIPS and I Bonds can fit into a broader strategy. We also talked about practical steps like reducing high-interest debt and managing spending more intentionally. Today I want to zoom out and talk...

Yesterday I talked about TIPS and I Bonds—two investment tools designed to help offset inflation. But today I want to zoom out and talk about something just as important: the practical, everyday decisions that can help you fight inflation outside of your portfolio.

Today I want to talk about two tools that are often used specifically for inflation protection: Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, or TIPS, and I Bonds.

Yesterday I talked about why stocks are one of the best long-term inflation hedges. But today I want to get more specific because not all stocks perform equally well during inflationary periods.

Today I want to talk about one of the best long-term inflation hedges available to retirees: stocks.

This week I'm going to talk about how retirees can build a portfolio that is better designed to withstand inflation. We'll cover stocks, dividend-paying companies, bonds, Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, and practical steps you can take to protect your purchasing power.

The question of whether to stop saving for retirement before you actually retire is more nuanced than it might seem, but it is absolutely a legitimate planning strategy for the right person in the right situation.

If you're going to coast and stop contributing, make sure the number you're projecting to end up with at retirement is not the bare minimum. You want to build in a bigger buffer and a bigger safety net so that you could still retire even if the number ended up being less than projected.

Here's how I would approach answering this question.

Now let's talk about some reasons why you would seriously consider stopping contributions so close to retirement.

Before I get into why you would want to stop contributing or why that might make sense, I first want to talk about why you would want to continue contributing. For many of you -- and I would put myself in this boat as well -- it would be too scary to sit there and coast and say okay, I think I've built up enough, now I'm going to let compounding take me the rest of the way here to retirement. I li...

The point you can stop saving for retirement happens when your current portfolio is large enough that, even with no further contributions, it is projected to grow to your target retirement balance through compounding alone by your goal retirement date.

Did you know there comes a point when you're getting close to retirement that saving more every year or maxing out your 401k no longer matters?  When you reach the point of "coasting" to retirement, the annual returns far outpace your annual savings, making them a drop in the bucket.  For example, I have a client with a 3.5 million portfolio. He has a gain of about 8% this year, which translates t...

No matter how you feel about Trump - hate him, love him, or if you're among the 12 Americans who are totally indifferent to him, the new Trump accounts for kids are an incredible savings opportunity, and one that you don't want to pass up if you have minor children or grandchildren.  And if that child is eligible for the $1,000 seed contribution because they were born between 2025-2028, then it's...

No matter how you feel about Trump - hate him, love him, or if you're among the 12 Americans who are totally indifferent to him, the new Trump accounts for kids are an incredible savings opportunity, and one that you don't want to pass up if you have minor children or grandchildren.  And if that child is eligible for the $1,000 seed contribution because they were born between 2025-2028, then it's...

No matter how you feel about Trump - hate him, love him, or if you're among the 12 Americans who are totally indifferent to him, the new Trump accounts for kids are an incredible savings opportunity, and one that you don't want to pass up if you have minor children or grandchildren.  And if that child is eligible for the $1,000 seed contribution because they were born between 2025-2028, then it's...

No matter how you feel about Trump - hate him, love him, or if you're among the 12 Americans who are totally indifferent to him, the new Trump accounts for kids are an incredible savings opportunity, and one that you don't want to pass up if you have minor children or grandchildren.  And if that child is eligible for the $1,000 seed contribution because they were born between 2025-2028, then it's...

No matter how you feel about Trump - hate him, love him, or if you're among the 12 Americans who are totally indifferent to him, the new Trump accounts for kids are an incredible savings opportunity, and one that you don't want to pass up if you have minor children or grandchildren.  And if that child is eligible for the $1,000 seed contribution because they were born between 2025-2028, then it's...

No matter how you feel about Trump - hate him, love him, or if you're among the 12 Americans who are totally indifferent to him, the new Trump accounts for kids are an incredible savings opportunity, and one that you don't want to pass up if you have minor children or grandchildren.  And if that child is eligible for the $1,000 seed contribution because they were born between 2025-2028, then it's...

No matter how you feel about Trump - hate him, love him, or if you're among the 12 Americans who are totally indifferent to him, the new Trump accounts for kids are an incredible savings opportunity, and one that you don't want to pass up if you have minor children or grandchildren.  And if that child is eligible for the $1,000 seed contribution because they were born between 2025-2028, then it's...

Happy belated Mother's Day to all the mothers out there! The day this episode goes live, I'm on my way home from a weekend at the Oregon coast with my husband and kids, and the weather is supposed to be perfect. Playing on the beach, relaxing, and hoping that I don't have to do much on Mother's Day - exactly the kind of quiet, relaxing weekend I'm envisioning.  I hope your Mother's Day was just as...

So the big takeaway here: You cannot time the market. You cannot know whether you will retire into a bull run or the next 1968. But that uncertainty does not have to be paralyzing, because the strategies in this series are not about predicting what happens. They are about building a retirement structure that can absorb the worst and still keep you on track.