We took a vacation in September – this blog is about retiring after all! While on the beach, we talked little about finances and pretty much stayed in the present moment. In October we both celebrated anniversaries and vacationed some more and didn’t get together for any analysis.
We met in November to catch up. I shared my research on annuities. With my risk-averse preferences, the idea of a guaranteed monthly income is appealing. Millions of retirees enjoy the security of a monthly income through work pensions. Those were eliminated for the most part by the time we retired and we’re on our own to manage our rolled-over 401Ks to achieve the same effect. I like the idea of the single premium immediate annuity for at least a portion of my income.
Getting a little more adventurous, we talked about crowdfunding. This is an investement option where you invest in a startup. If they get the necessary funding from “the crowd”, the project is launched, hopefully with future returns of your principal and some interest. Lending Club and EarlyShares are a couple of portals to explore as well as the charitable Kiva site
We both identified several smaller tasks that we need to wrap up. I need to follow up on some deed paperwork the lawyer was supposed to file and apparently didn’t. I need to figure out how to plan for my “digital” assets, i.e., when you die, how to close down blogs, emails, accounts online, etc. And I need to move my investments more toward the allocations I want to have, despite the market going way up.
Topics to explore more in the future – our money market funds safe? Do we have them allocated to be appropriately insured?