Why Play The Game If You Don't Have To?

When you've tucked away sufficient cash to retire in comfort, why continue to invest heavily in the stock market?

How To Tell If Your Retirement Nest Egg Is Big Enough ...

During past bull markets, many Americans nearing retirement fleetingly acquired a nest egg adequate for later life. Then, as quickly as that nest egg came, it went -- leaving behind regret, sleepless nights, and in the worst case, panic selling near the bottom that eliminated any possibility of recovery. ...

When you've won the game, stop playing. ...

Take a few minutes. Add up your basic annual expenses, and make sure to include the taxes you'll owe on required and voluntary withdrawals from your retirement accounts, and on the income and capital gains in your taxable assets. Then subtract your Social Security and, if you're lucky, pension checks. This leaves you with your residual living expenses, or RLE.

If you need $70,000 a year to meet expenses and pay taxes -- and if your Social Security and pension income amounts to $30,000 a year -- you must come up with an RLE of $40,000. A good rule of thumb is to have, at the very least, 25 years of RLE saved up to retire at 60, 20 years at 65, and 17 years to retire at 70 -- or in this case, $1 million, $800,000 and $680,000, respectively. ...

Both historical back testing and Monte Carlo analysis suggest that a 65-year-old with only 20 years of RLE in his nest egg should hold no more than 50% of his or her portfolio in equities; if you have 35 years of RLE, then up to 70% is probably safe. ...

Here in the 21st century, with pension plans under stress and Social Security under political assault, it's wise to save as much as possible as soon as possible. Don't wait until you're fifty to think about putting money away. By that time there will be a huge amount of catching up to do.

As previously noted, Animation Guild members working under a Guild contract have several retirement advantages: they have a defined pension under the Motion Picture Industry Pension Plan (monthly annuity), they have a bucket of tax-sheltered money unde MPIPP (Individual Account Plan), and they have the option of creating a second bucket of money through the Animation Guild's 401(k) Plan.

Happily, the Guild will be holding many 401(k) enrollment meetings over the next month, so be there!

Disney Tujunga
Mon., August 29th - 10 am
Room 1700
6904 Tujunga Ave.

Dreamworks Animation - Main Campus
Tue., August 30th - 2 pm
Dinning Rooms B & C
1000 Flower St.

Disney - Hat Building, Riverside Dr.
Thurs., September 1st - 10 an
Room 2401

Nickelodeon Burbank - 321 W. Olive Avenue
Thurs., September 1st - 2 pm
Dora Conference Room B87

Fox Animation -- 5700 Wilshire Blvd.
Wed., September 7th - 2 pm
Family Guy Conference Room
5700 Wilshire Blvd.

Disney Sonora
Thurs., September 8th - 10 am
Room 1172

Disney TVA -- Empire Center
Thurs., September 8th - 2 pm
Room 5223

Disneytoon Studios
Tue., September 13th - 2 pm
Room 101


Cartoon Network
Tue., September 20th - 2 pm
Main Conference Room