Ed Slott’s Retirement Planning Advice

This is hard to believe, but I saw a TV show about retirement planning. Not only that, but it was two hours long. Not only that, but it was on a PBS station. Not only that, but it was shown as part of their annual pledge drive to get you to send them some dough. You’d think they would show reruns of Simon and Garfunkel in Central Park from 25 years ago; but, no, instead it was a lecture by noted authority Ed Slott on securing your retirement. (Thanks to my friend Denis who alerted me to the show, so I could DVR it and skip over the pledge parts.)

Of course, it’s hard to convey lots of good little ideas in a two-hour mass-audience TV show, but he did an excellent job of summarizing the big picture:
• Know where you stand;
• Educate yourself about your options;
• Get good advice;
• Take the long view;
• Take action in small consistent steps.

You’ve got to agree with him on these recommendations.

Not surprisingly, Mr. Slott turns out to be a big fan of the benefits of Roth savings. His take on it is that with the amount of borrowing we do as a society, and the concomitant deficits we’re running, tax rates are bound to increase, so it will turn out to be a bargain to pay your tax obligation on your retirement accounts now, when tax rates are at historic lows, before they inevitably rise to dig us out of the hole we’ve gotten ourselves in. It’s hard to argue with his logic.

Buried in Ed Slott’s big picture was a small-picture idea that I thought was pretty clever. I’ll use tomorrow’s post to pass it along.