- Mercer Advisors, Formerly Epstein & White

The Importance of Wealth Protection in Retirement

You’ve worked for your entire career to set up the life that you’ve always wanted, but that doesn’t always mean that the money and assets you’ve gained over the years will last. A part of retirement planning that people often overlook is wealth protection planning. Without a proper wealth protection plan in place, your savings may dwindle as you move into retirement, and there will be less available for your beneficiaries to inherit. The definition of [...]

Rebecca Mack2024-05-08T21:48:22+00:00May 8, 2024|Financial Planning, Investment Strategies|

Retirement Tips from Warren Buffet

Warren Buffet is one of the richest men in the world, and he is regarded as one of the savviest investors in history. Thankfully, he is fairly open about his investment strategies. If you are feeling a little lost about where to get started with your retirement plan, you may want to take a look at these tips. Here is Warren Buffet’s retirement strategy: Consider Paying Down Credit Card Debt. Buffet may be a wizard when [...]

Rebecca Mack2024-05-02T11:49:18+00:00May 2, 2024|Investment Strategies, Retirement Income|

Tips for Your Passive Income Strategy in Retirement

There’s a hack to retirement that you may not know about: passive income strategy. The usual tried and true plan for retirement, where you save money in a tax-advantaged account and claim Social Security, is a great backbone for your plan. But people often don’t think about what passive income can do for their savings. So, what is passive income? Passive income tends to come from investments that provide regular payouts. Here are some options for [...]

Rebecca Mack2024-04-25T14:59:29+00:00April 25, 2024|Financial Planning, Investment Strategies, Retirement Income|

The Generic 60/40 Portfolio May Need an Examination

As the holidays approach, you may be rounding up your finances for the end of the year. If so, one thing you may want to keep an eye on is the design of your financial portfolio. Your portfolio may not be set up with the best possible spread of investments and assets. If you’re using a generic 60/40 portfolio (60% stocks, 40% bonds), you may have noticed that the returns from this design have been lower [...]

Rebecca Mack2023-12-11T18:12:04+00:00December 11, 2023|Investment Strategies|

Reexamining the Retirement Investment Portfolio

When talking about retirement financial planning, we often take investment strategy at face value. But what does an investment strategy really consist of? An investment strategy is utilized to help your wealth not only retain its value against inflation but hopefully grow as well. When it comes to retirement, there’s another aspect of income generation that is introduced. But no matter if you’re considering wealth growth or income generation, your investment decisions will involve calculations around [...]

Rebecca Mack2023-10-13T15:48:54+00:00October 13, 2023|Investment Strategies, Retirement Income|

Should I Convert My 401(k) To A Roth IRA?

Let’s say you’ve just changed jobs. What are you going to do with your 401(k)? You may be able to convert your 401(k) to a Roth IRA, but is that a good option for you? In this article, we’ll talk about what happens when you make this conversion and give you some examples of different financial situations for when this could be the right move for you. Making the Calculation One of the most important things [...]

Rebecca Mack2023-08-30T18:08:03+00:00August 30, 2023|Investment Strategies, Retirement Income|

Target-Date Funds: The Backbone of Many Retirement Accounts

A target-date fund is an investing tool, often in the form of an ETF or mutual fund, that adjusts its investment strategy based on how much time there is until the target date. The investments are strategized for long-term growth when you are further away from the target date and strategized for wealth preservation the closer you get to it. Another name for these kinds of funds is age-based funds and life-cycle funds, and they are [...]

Rebecca Mack2023-05-23T14:27:07+00:00May 23, 2023|Investment Strategies, Retirement Planning|

Exploring The Difference Between an Investment and an Expense

In theory, the definitions of an investment or an expense are quite clear-cut. An expense, or cost, is simply the dispensing of time, money, or resources. An investment, while an expenditure, comes with the expectation of a return. [1] [2] While the two ultimately have the same goal –to acquire a good or service—their intentions and outcomes differ. So, let's discuss the main differences between an expense and an investment and why sometimes, the reasoning [...]

lonebeacon2023-04-14T20:18:12+00:00April 14, 2023|Financial Planning, Investment Strategies|

Don’t Forget the Tried-and-True Value of Compounding Interest

If you forgot what compounding interest was, let’s get a refresher on it. Compounding interest is the process by which the interest earned on an investment is reinvested, so that the initial investment grows over time. This is a powerful tool that can significantly increase the value of an investment over the long term, making it an important concept to understand when planning for retirement. One of the key benefits of compounding interest is that it [...]

Rebecca Mack2023-02-01T12:29:37+00:00February 1, 2023|Financial Planning, Investment Strategies|

2 Reasons the Generic 60/40 Portfolio Fails

Starting out your investing journey, you may have been advised to follow the 60/40 allocation strategy. This strategy tells you to put 60% of your portfolio in equities and 40% in bonds or other fixed-income offerings. For decades, this strategy has been revered for its balance, offering high growth potential from stocks and a safety net in bonds.[1] The assumption was that stock and bond markets would not dip at the same time, mitigating risk and [...]

Rebecca Mack2022-12-21T23:33:57+00:00December 21, 2022|Investment Strategies, Stock Market|