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14 November 2026
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Many of us worry about retirement – can we afford it? will we enjoy it? will we feel like we’re on the sidelines of life? – but little is written about what that phase of life is actually like.
It is useful to think of your financial life and psychological adjustment in five stages: a family and career phase, pre-retirement, close to retirement, just past retirement, and then lifestyle downsizing.
Retirees should discuss goals and plans with their adult children, including wills, finances, consequences of incapacitation and current plans. Includes a suggested 'Goals and Plans' document to kick off the conversation.
Most people in retirement will have three financial goals in the decumulation stage to take account of the uncertainty of health, longevity and markets, and here's a framework to help.
Don replies to Peter. People saving for retirement should separate shallow and deep risk. Shallow risk, where prices fall, can be good in accumulation phase. Deep risk is a serious long-term deterioration.
Take investment risk in the early years when there is little financial capital at stake and lots of future earning potential, and follow a sort of glide path to reduce exposure to risk later in life.
Our retirement system asks one account to do two very different jobs. A dedicated "rainy day" account separating income from emergency savings could deliver better outcomes and greater peace of mind for retirees.
Democrats have regained control of Congress, changing the equation in Washington. Whether that proves positive for investors will depend less on the result itself and more on what happens next for growth and markets.
A reader query on the recent CGT reforms has revealed a bigger issue. One overlooked feature of the old system may have done more than compensate for inflation. As we move to indexation, are we forgetting to reward risk?
Rising yields have made bonds attractive again, but that does not mean they will behave as expected. As inflation, fiscal pressures and geopolitical risks reshape markets, the role of bonds may be more complicated than it appears.
Income investors have endured several lean years, but signs of a recovery are emerging. As opportunities improve, investors face an important choice between chasing headline yields and building a reliable source of income.
Investors love simple rules, especially when markets appear stretched. Yet some of the strongest returns have arrived when the outlook seemed least attractive. This leaves an important question that history struggles to answer.
Investor obsession with AI is attracting unprecedented amounts of capital and confidence. But beneath the excitement lies uncertainties about returns, funding and risks that enthusiasts may not be paying enough attention to.