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Maria Bruno and Joel Dickson: 'Building a Better Retirement'

Maria Bruno and Joel Dickson: 'Building a Better Retirement'

FromThe Long View


Maria Bruno and Joel Dickson: 'Building a Better Retirement'

FromThe Long View

ratings:
Length:
59 minutes
Released:
Jul 24, 2019
Format:
Podcast episode

Description

Our guests for the latest installment of "The Long View," Maria Bruno and Joel Dickson, are both veterans of investment behemoth Vanguard. 
Bruno is the head of U.S. wealth planning research at Vanguard, leading a team responsible for conducting research and analysis on a wide range of retirement, wealth planning, and portfolio construction topics. She also contributes to the oversight of the investment philosophy, methodology, and wealth management strategies supporting Vanguard's advisory products and services. Bruno is a Certified Financial Planner, and she's a fount of wisdom on many subjects, but especially retirement planning. 
Dickson has worn many hats at Vanguard during his long career there. In his current position as Vanguard's global head of advice methodology, he oversees all investment methodology development for Vanguard's advice programs whose end consumers are individual investors. 
The transcript for this podcast can be found here.
Background Information

Maria Bruno bio
Joel Dickson bio 
"The Planner and the Geek" podcast series
Vanguard Research and Commentary Archive

How Retirement Savers Can Play Catch-Up
"It's the 'how much?' But then also how do you actually direct those savings?" (1:30-2:56)
"It's such an idiosyncratic or individual sort of consideration from a planning standpoint; there are plenty of people that have little wealth but high income." Whether traditional tax-deferred accounts are automatically better than Roth for people playing catch-up on retirement savings. (2:57-5:53)
"It's a little bit simpler when you're younger and accumulating." How basic savings and investing habits, combined with plan defaults, make the accumulation period much simpler than decumulation. (5:54-8:24)
'Off-Label Uses': Ways Supersavers Can Maximize Their Investments Aftertax
401(k): What it is and how heavy savers can take advantage of it. (10:41-12:55)

After-Tax 401(k), Bogleheads Wiki entry
"Should You Make Aftertax Contributions to Your 401(k)?" Morningstar.com article
"Aftertax 401(k) vs. Taxable Account? Evaluating Options for High-Income Savers," Morningstar.com article
"Heavy Savers, Meet the Mega-Backdoor Roth," Morningstar.com article

Backdoor Roth IRA: How it works, who should consider, and potential pitfalls to be aware of. (12:56-16:34)

"IRA Insights: The Benefits of a Backdoor Roth," Vanguard research
"Backdoor IRAs: What You Need to Know," Morningstar.com article

"There's more and more focus on minimizing income taxes during one's life than there is about avoiding estate taxes." Using a 529 as an additional tax-advantaged savings vehicle. (16:35-21:26)

Navigating College Savings episode from The Planner and The Geek podcast

Decumulation
"How do I meet my goals today but then also make sure that I'm protecting myself down the road?" Why setting spending rates can be so tricky. (21:27-24:26)

"Determining Withdrawal Rates Using Historical Data," research paper by William Bengen 
William Bengen bio
"How to Put a Dynamic Retirement Spending Strategy in Place," Vanguard research
"Spending Trends Boost Safe Withdrawal Rate for Retirees," Morningstar.com video
"The 4 Percent Rule Is Not Safe in a Low-Yield World," research paper by Michael Finke, David Blanchett, and Wade Pfau


"We're telling people to, on average, oversave and underspend." Balancing longevity, sequence risk with spending and quality of life. (24:27-28:35)

"Is There an Upside to Sequence of Return Risk?" Morningstar.com video 
Exploring the Retirement Consumption Puzzle, research paper by David Blanchett 

"At the end of the day you still kind of get to the same end result." How bucket portfolios may not look very different from traditionally allocated retirement portfolios. (28:36-31:30)

"The Bucket Approach to Retirement Portfolio Allocation," Morningstar.com article


"Retirees could be overexposed to equity risk." Whether retirees aren't derisking their portfolios. (31:31-32:41)

"Best Practices for Portfolio Rebalancing," V
Released:
Jul 24, 2019
Format:
Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

Expand your investing horizons and look to the long term. Join hosts Christine Benz and Jeff Ptak as they talk to influential leaders in investing, advice, and personal finance about a wide-range of topics, such as asset allocation and balancing risk and return.