Given all the challenges we are facing with our current economy, the topic of retirement financing is frequently discussed among Sun City neighbors. In times past, we relied on financial planners to provide the expertise, prudence, and guidance in managing our investments to provide for retirement. I am finding that many āretireesā have not really retired at all. They are working as self-employed investment managers, trying to recover in the short-term what they lost over the last few years via the decline in their IRAs and 401Ks. Their strategies, tactics, and opinions on how to finance retirement vary widely from the traditional and conservative approaches of investing in low risk, fixed income bonds to more creative and riskier methods that have the potential for faster and higher gains. The resources on the internet have significantly influenced this new breed of āmoney managers.ā Popular websites like Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance, and Google Finance provide a constant flow of finance news. I recently learned of another free online resource that provides a different āspinā on this topic. Itās called Seeking Alpha (www.seekingalpha.com). Seeking Alpha focuses on opinion and analysis rather than news.
According to Google Analytics, Seeking Alpha currently has 6.5 million unique monthly readers. Its readership includes money managers, research analysts, investment bankers, as well as individual investors. This opinion-based resource provides a wide variety of ideas on investing and places the burden of choosing an investment strategy on the reader versus sole reliance on an investment manager. (A word of caution – this self money-management approach is not for everyone.) Within the Seeking Alpha website, there is a segment that seniors may find particularly interesting ā āInvesting for Income.ā This segment contains a number of articles expressing opinions on how to manage a portfolio of investments that focuses on generating income versus long-term growth. I found the diversity of approaches very interesting. One particular contributor to the Seeking Alpha site, David Van Knapp, professes a strategy of investing in dividend-growth stocks versus bonds to generate a stream of income and also hedge against inflation. Van Knapp is the author of TOP 40 DIVIDEND-GROWTH STOCKS FOR 2011: How to Create Wealth or Income from Dividend-Growth Stocks (January, 2011). Van Knapp also has his own website (www.sensiblestocks.com). Of course, there are a number of postings to the Seeking Alpha site that profess counter opinions, and that is what makes the site most interesting. For you savvy self money-managers, it is worth browsing. Happy investing!
Keep those letters coming, folks. Send your ideas to: The Frugal Forum, P.O. Box 693, Huntley, IL 60142 or by email to: thefrugalforum@gmail.com.
