CJ(Chris)Cagle

The "Fountain of All Good" in Retirement

February 15, 2024

There are many good things about retirement. Some examples are more free time and greater flexibility in how we spend our time, less stress from work...

The Curious Concept of "Retirement Ruin"

January 17, 2024

In some previous articles, I've discussed longevity risk, withdrawal rates, and Dave Ramsey's 8% withdrawal rate recommendation. These topics can quickly get...

Reflections After Five Years of Retirement

December 27, 2023

I recently realized that I've been retired for five years. (My wife says that I'm not really retired, but you know what I mean.) Wow, time flies! I retired...

Messy World, Glorious Messiah

December 15, 2023

I recently came across a little book about Christmas titled Christmas Uncut: What Really Happened and Why It Really Matters by Carl Laferton. The title...

Retire Like Dave: Part Two—Maybe You Can Withdraw Eight Percent

November 29, 2023

A sustainable withdrawal rate is integral to a wise retiree's financial stewardship plan. Your withdrawal rate determines how much money you'll take from...

Figs, Faith, and Thanksgiving

November 22, 2023

Thanksgiving is here, and we'll soon enter the Advent season leading up to Christmas. I've never had it, but I understand a festive dish known as "figgy...

Medicare Commercials: The Hilarious But Confusing Comeback Tour You Didn't Ask For

November 15, 2023

Yes, they're back, and oh, the joys of turning on the TV and being bombarded by Medicare Advantage Plan commercials. It is, after all, the middle of...

Avoiding Probate: Issues and Options

November 8, 2023

My wife and I recently had the privilege of assisting a widow in our church with some legal/financial issues after her husband's passing. It was my first...

Invest and Retire Like Dave?

October 11, 2023

I recently discussed asset allocation and diversification with some friends, a couple in their 50s. In the context of that conversation, they asked me what I...

How Higher Interest Rates Are Impacting Retirees

September 20, 2023

In a previous article, I touched on the risk that rising interest rates present to retirees. There are risks—the negative impacts of rising rates—but there...

Dealing With Financial Risk in Retirement

September 6, 2023

In the last article, we looked at what I believe to be the greatest risk in retirement: retiring without a clear sense of calling and purpose. But I also...

Our Greatest Risk In Retirement

August 23, 2023

If you're young, the most critical retirement risk you face right now is that you may be hoping to retire someday, but you haven't given much thought to...

What Condition is Your (Retirement Financial) Condition In?

August 9, 2023

I recently had the opportunity to do a seminar on a Christian's retirement at a church that's part of our denomination. It's a large church with a sizeable...

Sustainable Retirement Income—Part Two: Variable Withdrawals

July 26, 2023

In the last article, we examined the first of two main types of systematic withdrawal strategies for sustainable retirement income: fixed withdrawals. In...

Sustainable Retirement Income—Part One: Fixed Withdrawals

July 12, 2023

In a recent article, I discussed spending in retirement and whether our costs go down as we age. In this article and the next, we'll look at the other side...

Social Security Mythology

June 21, 2023

The 2022 Social Security Fund Trustees' Report is out, and here's the latest on Trust Fund solvency: The Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund,...

Space, Time, and Retirees

June 7, 2023

As retirees, we rarely discuss time unless it's to inquire about the current hour. When was the last time you were at a dinner party and someone asked you,...

Does Retirement Cost Less As We Age?

May 24, 2023

There are two prevalent assumptions about the cost of living in retirement. One is that most retirees can live on 70% to 90% of their pre-retirement income....

Stewarding Your Digital Assets–Part 4: Phishing

May 3, 2023

I recently assisted the wife of a good friend in unwinding one aspect of a set of problems they had due to a phishing attack. She was pretty distraught over...

The Majesty of Simplicity

April 19, 2023

Perhaps like many of you, I recently filed my 2022 tax returns. I always try to itemize my deductions, and this year, as I was working on them, I was struck...

Back to Work

April 5, 2023

Did the title of this article (or the image above) surprise you? Perhaps you think I may have rejoined the workforce in a full or part-time paid position?...

Back to Basics

March 15, 2023

Many books and articles have been written about Christians and money, and some about retirement. This blog is about Christians and retirement, and I often...

Buckets and Ladders

March 1, 2023

It took me a while to publish this last article (at least I think it's the last one) in this series on bonds, bond funds, bond ladders, and Treasury...

Why a TIPS Ladder?

February 8, 2023

So far, we've discussed bonds, bond funds, bond ladders, and TIPS in particular. In this article, we'll look at TIPS ladders, which many retirement...

Why Invest in TIPS?

February 1, 2023

The last three articles discussed why retirees might want to own bonds and possibly individual bonds instead of investing in a bond fund. Bonds come from...

To Ladder or Not to Ladder?

January 25, 2023

In the last two articles, I discussed how retirees (and others) use bonds as part of a diversified portfolio because of their stabilizing effect in times of...

Individual Bonds or Bond Funds?

January 18, 2023

Suppose you've decided to keep a portion of your portfolio in bonds, perhaps with a higher allocation percentage than stocks. In that case, you have another...

The Secure Act 2.0 May Have Passed While You Weren't Looking

January 11, 2023

The Secure Act 2.0 was finally passed as just one part of a massive funding package by the outgoing congress just before Christmas on December 23, 2022, and...

Do Bonds Still Belong in a Retiree's Portfolio?

January 4, 2023

An important preliminary note: Given what took place in both the stock and bond markets in 2022, I'm starting the new year with a short series of articles...

I Want to Grow Old Like Simeon

December 21, 2022

A character in the story of the birth and early days of Jesus we often overlook is a man named Simeon. Simeon was a devout Jew who regularly worshiped in the...

Looking Forward to Making Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs)

December 7, 2022

Now that I've reached age 70, I'm looking forward to getting just a little older. Why? Because when I reach age 70½, I'll be eligible to make Qualified...

Received an Inheritance, Now What?

November 16, 2022

An increasing number of boomer-aged families are receiving inheritances; it's all part of a trillion-dollar transfer of wealth that will happen over the next...

The Four Paths of Retirement

November 2, 2022

I recently read an interesting study on retirement from A.G. Edwards and AgeWave. It was published earlier this year. The study covered a lot of ground and...

Celebrating an Anniversary, a Birthday, and Reflecting on the Brevity of Life

October 19, 2022

I recently re-read Tim Challies' article titled "Rule #5: Ponder the Brevity of Life (8 Rules for Growing in Godliness), in which he wrote the following:...

Thinking (But Not Too Concerned) About RMDs

October 5, 2022

If you read much about retirement finance, you'll see a lot of hyperbolic rhetoric about "Required Minimum Distributions," or "RMDs." You'd think RMDs are...

Navigating Politics and the Culture Wars as an Older Christian

September 21, 2022

The mid-term elections are nearing, and the next presidential election is only two years away. There's already a significant uptick in the super-charged...

How Sequence Of Returns Affects Your Retirement

September 7, 2022

I have written about the significant changes in the U.S. and the world economies and how they might impact our retirement portfolios. These changes are not...

Is It a Good Time to Retire?

August 17, 2022

I have friends who are thinking about retirement. Each has their reasons, but I imagine they may be wondering, "is this a good time to retire?". Some might...

Stewarding Your Digital Assets (Part 3)—Multi-Factor Authentication

August 3, 2022

Most of my posts focus almost exclusively on retirement stewardship and planning issues but with a holistic approach (time, talents, treasure, and...

Am I a 'Guru'?

July 20, 2022

Off the bat, I want to make clear I'm talking about the word 'guru' here, not the cartoon character "Gru," villain and master of the Minions. However, one...

The 'Stewardship of Life' (Part Five)—Hybrid Long-Term Care Insurance

July 6, 2022

Quite a while back, I published a series of four articles about care in later life. In articles three and four, I touched on various insurance products you...

The Ordinary Christian Life in Retirement

June 22, 2022

I recently read this quote by Tim Challies: "We please God—we thrill God—when we live as ordinary people in ordinary lives who use our ordinary circumstances...

Beware the Free Steak Dinner and Financial Advice Retirement Seminar

June 8, 2022

I recently received another one: an invitation in the mail to a "free dinner and retirement discussion." It seems like I've been averaging one every few...

Faithful Investing

May 25, 2022

Some months ago, I received an email from a reader who was considering a particular mutual fund investment and had this question: I was looking at the...

Responding to "Epochal Change"

May 11, 2022

If you believe, as I do, that we're likely in a period of "epochal change" (which I defined as the next few decades not being like they were for the last...

Are We Experiencing "Epochal Change"?

April 27, 2022

I recently came across the phrase "epochal change." It was used to describe the domestic and global economic changes that I discussed in a recent article...

Living the "Good Life" in Retirement

April 13, 2022

This article is being published during the week before Easter. Considering the glory and magnitude of what Jesus did for us on the Cross, it might seem glib...

Does Cryptocurrency Belong in Your Retirement Portfolio?

March 30, 2022

Like millions of others, I watched the Super Bowl this year, which some dubbed the "Crypto Bowl." The reason? A bunch of crypto exchanges (places online...

Should You Buy Gold?

March 16, 2022

To say that we live in tumultuous times would be an understatement. We're experiencing turmoil and upheaval in multiple areas: political, financial,...

A Challenging Time for Retirement Investors

March 2, 2022

(Note: We all have our eyes, hearts, and prayers directed toward what is going on in Ukraine. But with everything happening in the world—globally and...