March 2025 Best of the Web

This month’s resources provide a history lesson on the US stock market crashes and when international stocks have traditionally outperformed domestic stocks. They also provide a reasonable strategy to achieve tax diversification in your portfolio. We’ll also look at what role money should play in our lives. 

Finally, we’ll close out with a few fascinating, if less conventional, topics related to retirement planning. Enjoy and have a great start to your spring.

Social Security Claiming Strategies

Mike Piper breaks down Morningstar’s Latest Retirement Research (as it Relates to Social Security).

James Passman shares research from Vanguard. Social Security: For some, early claiming is better.

My key takeaway as you read these is to pay close attention to the assumptions used and consider if/how they relate to your situation.

Market History Lessons

This month, I republished Darrow’s classic post on Bear Markets to provide perspective on market history.

Emelia Fredlick provides additional perspective, writing What We’ve Learned from 150 Years of Stock Market Crashes.

Cullen Roche asks and answers: Why is International Investing Working Again?

Traditional vs. Roth vs. Taxable

This month, I refuted the idea of “The Middle Class Trap,” which suggests you consider bypassing tax-deferred retirement accounts because your money is trapped until age 59½.

Sean Mullaney provides a FI Tax Strategy for Beginners that provides a sensible strategy to achieve tax diversification for those saving enough to follow all of the steps.

Real Financial Planning

A client at Abundo Wealth recently shared his experience working with one of our advice-only financial planners on his blog A Journey to FI. Juan Fernandez writes Why We (Finally) Partnered With a Financial Advisor – and Why You May Want to Consider One Too.

We appreciate Juan taking the time to share his experience. One thing he didn’t mention that I find myself frequently talking to clients, who tend to be super savers, about is learning to spend more freely and joyfully.

So I related to Ben Carlson’s post What is the point of money? In it he writes, “When the numbers work, we love seeing pictures of clients enjoying their wealth. The point of money is to spend it.”

One thing that filled me with joy this month was meeting with a client who had been apprehensive about spending money she had worked hard to save and invest. 

She spent the first half of the meeting telling me about a big trip she had been wanting to take and how it exceeded all of her expectations, before discussing any technical planning issues. And I thought it was a meeting well spent! 😁

Travel Rewards Getting Less Generous

You may have noticed that we recently discontinued our affiliation with Card Ratings due to their cumbersome compliance procedures. However, I continue to be interested in credit card travel rewards and plan to cover this topic. Unfortunately, this month’s news on this front is not good.

Leslie Josephs reports United Airlines is raising annual fees for lounges and reward credit cards.

Southwest has traditionally been my favorite airline for its generous and easy-to-use rewards for family domestic travel. This month, they announced Changes to Southwest’s checked bag policy. They are eliminating their long-standing and wildly popular “bags fly free” policy. Fortunately, Southwest co-branded cardholders will still get their first bag free. However, I’m not encouraged by the way things are trending at this previously rewards-friendly airline. Stay tuned!

Thought Provoking Reads

Darrow and David shared the next two articles with me. Though not directly related to retirement planning, they are thought-provoking and worth your time.

Darrow recently shared the article Public Lands Threatened by Ken Driese. Free access to our public lands is a fundamental part of many early retirement lifestyles, and an issue that is close to our hearts, so we’ll continue to watch it closely.

David shared the article Is Domino’s pizza inflation proof? While I hope none of you are eating enough fast food that it will make or break your retirement, this article is a reminder that general inflation rates aren’t as important as your personal rate of inflation. And it is a fascinating and fun read!

Retirement Spending

Jeffrey Ptak provides a reminder about sequence of returns risk. He writes How to Avoid Outliving Your Retirement Savings? It’s All in the Sequence.

Rob Berger explores the pros and cons of a variety of retirement spending strategies, including original research Darrow published on the blog several years ago. 

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[Chris Mamula used principles of traditional retirement planning, combined with creative lifestyle design, to retire from a career as a physical therapist at age 41. After poor experiences with the financial industry early in his professional life, he educated himself on investing and tax planning. After achieving financial independence, Chris began writing about wealth building, DIY investing, financial planning, early retirement, and lifestyle design at Can I Retire Yet? He is also the primary author of the book Choose FI: Your Blueprint to Financial Independence. Chris also does financial planning with individuals and couples at Abundo Wealth, a low-cost, advice-only financial planning firm with the mission of making quality financial advice available to populations for whom it was previously inaccessible. Chris has been featured on MarketWatch, Morningstar, U.S. News & World Report, and Business Insider. He has spoken at events including the Bogleheads and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants annual conferences. Blog inquiries can be sent to chris@caniretireyet.com. Financial planning inquiries can be sent to chris@abundowealth.com]

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