Comments on: In investing, as in life, flexibility is the key

By: Happy and Full Sunday | Personal Finance Blog by Money Ning

Happy and Full Sunday | Personal Finance Blog by Money Ning — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 16:51:51 +0000

[...] Capitalist tells us to remember to be flexible with investing! (I couldn’t agree more with [...]

By: Weekly Roundup: Another Baby Edition at Clever Dude Personal Finance & Money

Weekly Roundup: Another Baby Edition at Clever Dude Personal Finance & Money — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 03:50:17 +0000

[...] Canadian Capitalist tells us that you need to be a flexible investor. I would add that you need to be an informed investor as [...]

By: Dividend Growth Investor

Dividend Growth Investor — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:27:35 +0000

I agree that one has to be flexible in order to withstand the effects of market forces on their portfolios. In my opinion if you do have a diversified portfolio of income producing assets, you can still retire at the age you originally planned to..The trade-off is that you might have to start withdrawing a lower initial percentage than previously expected. (Say 3% instead of 4%).
You might not be able to control your investment returns ( unless you are a skilled day trader) but you can certainly control your spending (to acertain degree)..

By: squawkfox » Wrecked Wrist, Welcomes, and Links Oh My!

squawkfox » Wrecked Wrist, Welcomes, and Links Oh My! — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:28:53 +0000

[...] Capitalist: writes In investing, as in life, flexibility is the key and Getting your wills done through a [...]

By: Michael James

Michael James — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 01:58:57 +0000

Steve: Sure, leave it to the last minute. Forward thinkers start smoking early

By: Steve Heath

Steve Heath — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:55:18 +0000

I wonder why everyone mentions saving more and working longer, and they keep forgetting the third option…. die younger. I figure when I run out of money, I’ll just call Chuck Norris a pansy to his face and it’ll be over faster than I can blink

By: Phil S

Phil S — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:26:39 +0000

To the pessimist. I’m 40 and am already almost at the point where my investment income can cover my basic living expenses. However, even I cannot foresee a time when I will be completely “retired”. I think that my work life will shift over to doing things that I really enjoy doing – but for all of my life I had to work to pay the bills…

For example, after my employer boots me out the door, I plan to spend my time doing things like inventing stuff, writing music (or generally just kicking off a music career), coaching or managing sports teams, fixing up houses, I’d even thought about tending bar somewhere, etc. Some of them may be for money, others may be for capital gains or investment returns, yet more still being volunteer work for no pay.

That is my goal, to have the financial freedom to be able to do whatever I want – but I’m also not the personality type who will “do nothing” for very long. I’ll always have some kind of hobby or extra-curricular activity that I’ll be busy away at…

By: pessimist

pessimist — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 22:11:06 +0000

I keep hearing people say they’ll ‘just retire later’ as a solution but I have seen up close the immense difficulties faced by job seekers who are 50+ (to say nothing of people in their mid 60s). Any job in their field of choice becomes difficult to get (positions of responsibility especially). Yes, they can bag groceries but that kind of income will not solve anything more than immediate survival needs.

By: Canadian Capitalist

Canadian Capitalist — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:01:54 +0000

Rob: I agree that it seems intuitive that over a lifetime of saving, the expected outcomes are a lot narrower. Even that is likely to be a wide range. The good news is that our investing time frames are very long. A 45 year old investor’s time horizon could be as long as 40 to 45 years and the longer the time period, the less likely that the expected returns don’t pan out.

MJ, NN, Richard: Thanks for your comments. We can always be flexible and tweak our plans.

By: Richard

Richard — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:43:51 +0000

It’s hard to believe the outcomes fall in the same range if you actually invest over the whole time period, but no one does that study. Maybe it’s just not as dramatic. Even in the worst case scenario (1/3 of the best case) things might not be that bad. If the years following your planned retirement date have average returns it might only take 5-7 years to get back to the plan (which has to be a bit less than the best case). As Michael said, if the best case is earlier than expected the worst case should only be a bit later than expected.

My solution to this uncertainty is overkill. I’m simply trying to generate cashflow independent of my work as soon as I can rather than having a set retirement date. Even when I do retire I know that I’ll want to do things that are interesting to me and useful to others at least occasionally, but I’m not counting that in my plans yet.