Introducing a New Retirement Planning Blog

Welcome to The Two Legged Stool. I am so glad you stumbled upon—or, even better, were referred to—this brand new blog.

The Two Legged Stool is all about financial planning for retirement. It is a place to explore the really tough financial issues facing all of us. While I’m working, how much should I save? When I’m retired, how much should I spend? How do I invest my funds along the way? What are the best savings vehicles for me? Simple enough questions; no simple answers. The Two Legged Stool will be a forum—to raise planning questions, to suggest answers, to share experiences, ideas and opinions. My first goal is for these posts to be concise, cogent, clear-eyed, insightful, unbiased, thought-provoking, far-sighted, accurate, and helpful. That’s my job. Your job is to add your voice and view for the benefit of the entire readership, to tell me where I’m wrong, to add your opinion and perspective, to share your experience, to react.

Why “The Two Legged Stool”? Traditionally, retirement is supposed to be built on a three-legged stool: personal savings, a governmental component (Social Security), and an employer-provided pension. But the third leg is disappearing (and the second leg is looking a tad wobbly). The traditional pension plan for life is largely becoming a thing of the past—like the VCR and the Walkman. According to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College (crr.bc.edu), only 38% of private sector employees who are covered by an employer retirement plan are accruing a traditional pension, down from 83% in 1980. Even if your employer has replaced its pension plan with a 401(k) plan or something like it, that just leaves you with a souped-up savings account. You’re still largely making your planning decisions on your own, balancing on a two-legged stool.

As individuals, we have to decide how much to save, how to invest it, how much to spend. These are difficult—perhaps impossible—challenges even for the most experienced financial professional. So how are we supposed to make these decisions? After all, we’re mail carriers, doctors, construction workers, shoe salesmen, lawyers, teachers, Indian chiefs; we’re not practiced in the black arts of financial planning. The Two Legged Stool is (or will become) a good place to start to lift the fog of indecision and to zero in on answers. So, if you are located somewhere between your first job and the grave, stay tuned.

Who am I; and why should you care what I have to say? My name is Martin Silfen, and these are my qualifications:
• I am retired.
• I have professional bona fides. I spent my entire career steeped in retirement planning. For 21 years I practiced law (primarily in Atlanta), specializing in retirement planning and estate planning. For eight years, I worked in the investment world, providing retirement planning (and other financial planning) advice to individuals throughout the country.
• I have written and spoken extensively on the subject, primarily for the professional community. That includes two books, now, sadly, out of print: The Retirement Plan Distribution Book (1999, National Underwriter Company), and The Retirement Plan Distribution Advisor (2002, National Underwriter Company). For eight years I served as Retirement Planning columnist for Personal Financial Planning, a professional financial planning journal, also, sadly, no longer published. For two years I wrote a Q&A column for BenefitsLink.com, the country’s leading website for employee benefits professionals.
• I am unbiased, clear-eyed, and wise.

Please let me hear from you. Tell me when I’m wrong. What specific topics should I cover? Let’s have a dialogue. We’re on our own, but we’re in this together.