Apr 21, 2017

Weekend Links - 4/21/2017

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Retirement is expensive."

"In general, the life-cycle model research shreds conventional wisdom regarding one-size-fits-all rules of portfolio design and management. There appears to be neither an optimal allocation for all seasons nor an optimal withdrawal rule for all portfolios."

                                                         - Patrick Collins

CHART OF THE DAY




RETIREMENT FINANCE AND PLANNING

 4 Ways to ManageSequence of Returns Risk in Retirement, Pfau.  Attempting to sustain a fixed living standard using distributions from a portfolio of volatile assets is an inefficient retirement income strategy. This is a unique source of sequence risk. Four general techniques for managing sequence risk in retirement are highlighted in Exhibit 1.  

The Ultimate Guide to Safe Withdrawal Rates – Part 13: Dynamic Stock-Bond Allocation through Prime Harvesting, Earlyretirementnow.com  Prime Harvesting is an intuitive method to dynamically shift the stock/bond allocation in retirement. In the past, it would have sustained slightly higher withdrawal rates than the fixed percentage rule when it mattered the most: when stocks did poorly right after retirement. We propose one improvement to this methodology; use a smoother version that avoids selling massive amounts of equities all at once. Letting equities rest at the upper guardrail and skimming only the excess equity wealth above the guardrail seems to be a more sensible approach. It not only avoids the discontinuities and jumps in the final asset value chart above but also tends to afford slightly higher SWRs. 

Retirement Roulette, Dirk Cotton.  Like roulette, retirement funding is a series of "rounds"(typically years) during which the retiree makes a series of decisions (bets) and the universe responds. These first two characteristics define what game theorists refer to as a sequential stochastic game against nature. 



Intention to Unretire, ssrn.  Although nearly half of retirees follow a nontraditional retirement path that involves partial retirement and/or unretirement (Maestas, 2010), unretirement has received little attention.  [Me, I'm shooting for 2018 for those that are interested and/or opinionated]

From Failure to Success: Replacing the Failure Rate, Estrada,  This article introduces a new variable, years sustained, that focuses on success rather than on failure. The ratio between its mean and standard deviation, risk-adjusted success, is the single variable proposed here for a comprehensive evaluation of retirement strategies.  



Longevity Risk And Retirement Income Planning, Literature Review, Collins, Lam, Stampfli 2015. [tipped off to this by a reader.  Geared towards practitioners and researchers I think but if you know the topic area this a preternaturally good and synoptic cover of the source materials]  

MARKETS AND INVESTING 

What’s Past is NOT Prologue, [on the weakness of using track records]. ElmFunds.com All this discussion on the low value of historical returns in most investment contexts may leave you feeling either depressed or liberated, depending on your perspective and occupation. If you’re an investor, it’s really not so bad: just stick to investments where you don’t need to rely on the track record to make your decision. That leaves almost all of the direct, cost-efficient, investible universe open to you– bonds, equities, real estate and any strategy where you can produce a reasonable forward-looking return estimate without relying on past returns.  

An Integrated Investment Plan Is Key. Swedroe.  Today I will focus on mortality and longevity risk, and using “tax alpha” strategies to improve the odds of achieving your financial goals.  


ALTERNATIVE RISK

A Simulation-Based Rebuttal to Research Affiliates, Newfound.  We believe that a sufficient proportion of the shortfall can be explained by estimation error in their process and, therefore, we should refrain from drawing conclusive results until more evidence is published.  

How Do You Know If Your Investment Strategy Has StoppedWorking? Cordant.  Periods of low returns, while not a lot of fun to sit through, should be expected. As Ed Thorp remarked about his approach to blackjack (and later investing), if our performance falls within the range of possible outcomes, it shouldn't cause us to doubt our results, or our strategy. 

SOCIETY AND CAPITAL

Securities-based loans are scaring fiscal experts. NYpost.  Forget subprime mortgages — one of Wall Street’s biggest risks doesn’t even show up on most banks’ balance sheets. 

Characteristics of US Minimum Wage Workers. Tim Taylor.  I'm of course well aware that few people will dramatically alter their opinion about the minimum wage based on these kinds of facts… Still, having an agreed-upon fact base may at least set boundaries of realism that rule out some of the more extreme claims… 

Poverty lines vs GDP per Capita, Data visualization from OurWorldInData.com  






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