A New Role for Stocks in Retirement Funds?

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If you are counting on any percentage of conventional stock or bond funds to provide your basic retirement income needs, you are making a mistake. The work of Prof. Zvi Bodie shows that stocks do not become less risky over the long term. The market failures of 2008-2009 can easily happen again, early in your retirement. Inflation is a slow killer and no conventional funds can save you from that. Secure your basic retirement income needs with I-Bonds and TIPS. Risk only what is left over.

Mark Patterson of TN 12:22AM September 26, 2009

you might want to consider symbol "VT", an exchange-traded fund from Vanguard that is designed to track an all-world performance measure with 2748 stocks in twenty-some world markets. It's about half USA and half not. A big risk going forward is the U.S. dollar.
You might also want to consider that stocks are being traded more and more frequently by managers and funds---and faster and faster with so-called flash trading in seconds or fractions of seconds right ahead of you and your order. The notion that the stock market is like a casino has never been more true. The realization by the big players that the market overshot to the downside at the March lows (when many of them had shorted the market too much) is THE ONLY reason it has gone back up in the last six months. Regulation anyone? You have never needed it more since the time of Roosevelt.
If you can't get it now with Obama and a Dem Congress, you can't get it ever.

Muser of NM 12:11PM September 25, 2009