<p>^ Where are you going to live while you rent out your house?</p>
<p>First, I suspect that the difference in the two reports reflects the difference between “average” annual return and CAGR (compound annual growth rate), which is what really matters.</p>
<p>Second, in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2013, vbinx returned 12.1% percent. Yep, those guys are geniuses all right.</p>
<p>Third, I should say that (as I am sometimes wont to do) I overstated the case about 8% CAGR. I should have said something like "if anyone promises you 8% CAGR and you are anywhere near retirement, you should grab it and run like a bandit.</p>
<p>I like this…</p>
<p><a href=“CAGR of the Stock Market: Annualized Returns of the S&P 500”>http://www.moneychimp.com/features/market_cagr.htm</a></p>
<p>first rule of investing is; never lose money 
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<p>And you’re making my point. Holding your FP’s feet to the fire for 8% annual return? is not pie in the sky. It’s should be a rule of the game. And makes 6% for projections sake? arguably “conservative”</p>
<p>The past is the past…</p>
<p>Most people are not 100% invested in stocks. </p>
<p>8 percent returns are not a rule of the game. 8 percent returns are not pie in rhe sky but may not be achieved in the future.</p>
<p>Those are returns before taxes.</p>
<p>Stock market drops can affect future returns if an investor is withdrawing money. </p>
<p>I want to think about this example a little bit which is why I erased it .</p>
<p>
Yes, sort of. Probably your overall tax rate will be lower on lower overall income, but your marginal rate might be exactly the same, and that’s what matters on your next incremental dollar. </p>
<p>Re backdoor Roth: they are limited to a relatively low amount. My wife has no deductible IRAs from the past so it was worth the minimal record keeping required, she had no more tax advantaged space, and it would have just gone into taxable space. So, we did it. </p>
<p>I, otoh, have a fair amount of deductible IRAs from the past, and we felt it was too much work for a very limited benefit, so we did do one for me. </p>
<p>Horses for courses. </p>
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<p>There’s something to be said for always having at least 25% in stocks and never more than 75%, no matter your age.</p>
<p>When market drops occur can effect a portfolio…</p>
<p><a href=“Home | S&P Global Ratings”>Home | S&P Global Ratings;
<p>Both rate of return and volatility of returns are important if you are withdrawing money.</p>
<p>I am afraid to ask my DH how much of our investments are in stocks.</p>
<p>@jym626, my wife isn’t very interested in how I invest, but at least once a year I run her through the various accounts and assets that we have. It is important to know, if not in detail, roughly what your joint risk tolerance is (which will in turn drive your asset allocation). </p>
<p>I have instructions on online passwords in our safety deposit box. </p>
<p>I have him run me through it more often than he wants. It just doesnt stick in my head, and then he changes stuff. I need to get an updated list of locations and passwords, whats in stocks, bonds, mutuals, IRAs, Roths, I Who to contact about the pension, etc.I am embarassed that its so over my head.</p>
<p>No disrespect intended towards your husband, @jym626, but if it’s over your head then it’s too complicated, and probably unnecessarily so. If he were to predecease you, I’m sure that it’s not his intention that you not be able to manage it yourself, thus making you vulnerable to the land sharks that like nothing more than someone who needs help managing their money. </p>
<p>It is too complicated. And he is consolidating some things. Its beyond the scope of what we should discuss in an open forum, but when he simplifies it the investments arent as lucrative. So if heaven forbid he dies before me (I’ll kill him) I’ll contact USAA’s WM office and contact the other FA we have (hes a bit of a shark, but still I can call on him I think) and cry…</p>
<p>My wife isnt interested in financial details. If I die soon, and I dont plan to die, I told my wife every account is on the tax return . Just take some cash and buy the s&p 500 index and enjoy yourself.</p>
<p>Financially, she will be better off if I am dead. :)</p>
<p>@dstark, pretty much the same advice as Warren Buffett gave his wife. My wife’s improved financial situation when I die is what got me to cancel my term life insurance; no sense making the temptation overwhelming 
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<p>IxnayBob, Lol!</p>
<p>(I also got rid of my term policy).</p>
<p>It’s important to document where everything is, what/where the accounts are, and have some idea of the financial goings-on in your family.</p>
<p>After my FIL passed away, my MIL got a statement from some brokerage she never heard of. It seems various shysters were cold-calling my FIL, and as his mental capacity diminished (he had Alzheimer’s) he would get talked into opening an account, would send off a check, and then forget he had ever opened an account. My MIL had no idea.</p>
<p>Most were not mailing paper statements; if that one hadn’t mailed one, she would never have known about it. So on a lark she started cold-calling all the brokerages to see if her husband had an account.</p>
<p>She wound up locating over $25,000 in these accounts. He had handled everything financially related, so she had no idea how much money they had, what they were invested in, etc.</p>
<p>^Haha, I am also worth more dead than alive.</p>
<p>Fortunately, DW seems to like me more than money. So far.</p>
<p>Ixnay and dstark- stay away from the steps</p>
<p>Lol…</p>