Christine Benz
@christine_benz
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Director of personal finance and retirement planning for Morningstar. Author of How to Retire, on sale now! https://t.co/keI2Q2bpla
Chicago, IL
Joined October 2009
I've had my head down working on a book project over the past year. How to Retire, a true labor of love, is coming out on Sept. 17 but is available for pre-order now.
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I am delighted to add “roaching” to my vocabulary. 😂 And do follow @IvePetThatDog ; trust me on this one.
I pet Cocoa. She is a 6 year old Greyhound and a retired racer. Her racing name was DC Chocolatedrop. She was not good at racing, but she is good at roaching on the couch. Roaching is when Greyhounds lie on their backs with their legs up. Cocoa likes swimming and her honking pig.
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I’ve said it before but it bears repeating: One of the unsung advantages of being a long-term investor—perhaps better yet an index investor—is that you don’t have to waste a bit of mental energy trying to figure out what’s happening with the likes of GameStop or AMC.
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Whew, talk about an emotional moment: I finally got my hands on “How to Retire.” 😭❤️
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The cat's out of the bag on this and I couldn't be more excited! 🥂✨🌟. Coming fall 2024, from @harrimanhouse and with thanks to the dream team of experts who are contributing insights.
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The more I know about investing, the more boring, vanilla, and minimalist I get. It's not the snappiest sound bite but it's the truth.
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One cycle I wish we could break: The one where investors begin a mad search for noncorrelated/diversifying assets AFTER the markets tank, then capitulate and sell the diversifiers when their performance struggles and conventional assets start performing better. 🤦♀️.
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Most common portfolio issue that I observe in real people's portfolios: Low-cost index funds augmented by mega-cap individual-stock holdings that completely duplicate the holdings in the index funds. Anyone else?.
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A financial “advisor” knocked on the wrong door. Mine.
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I'll say it: Individual stocks are TERRIBLE investments for people just starting out. I know that many people learned about investing through their Disney shares yadda yadda but I think we need to be clearer about this when we discuss financial education.
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Taylor Larimore, one of the original @bogleheads, a war hero and veteran of the Battle of the Bulge, and an all-around prince of a man, celebrated his 100th birthday in Miami today. It was such an honor to celebrate him along with his family and friends. ❤️✨
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If your friend or loved one is working on a book, please don't ask "How's the book going?" or "Are you done with the book?". But when it's done, ask away! Coming September 17, available for pre-order now.
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I've focused on investments for nearly 30 years. And yet I just advised a friend that if a prospective financial advisor talks too much about investing and the markets and not enough about other aspects of her financial life, that's probably a bad sign. 🤷♀️.
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I'm a killjoy on the idea of young people dabbling in individual stocks for this reason: If a 19 y.o. loses the better part of the $200 he put in, there's a risk that he'll conclude that investing is a crapshoot and not come back for another decade. That's a big opportunity cost.
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My only regret: that my mom and dad aren't still around so they could stumble across this in their Sunday @chicagotribune while drinking their tea at the kitchen table. 🫖🗞️🤗.
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Much of the $GME narrative is around the idea of the little guy "sticking it to the man." But please let's not forget that the late Jack Bogle created an entire SYSTEM for doing just that. It's called buying (and holding) index funds.
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Hey, have you hugged your value fund lately? From a cool compendium of charts by @LauricellaTom
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Friend: My mom has a great financial advisor. Me: How do you know the advisor is great?.Friend: Because her portfolio has performed well for a long time. Me: The market has performed well for a really long time. Friend: No, seriously, I think this guy is really good. Me: 🤦♀️.
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I wrote about the tyranny of what can be measured in investing (Sharpe ratios, alpha, etc.) and the value of incorporating what can't be.
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A short, sweet Trader Joe’s story from this morning: My cashier commented on the flowers I was buying, and I told him I was bringing them to someone in the hospital. Cashier: “Do me a favor and pick out another bouquet for yourself on the way out.” ❤️💐❤️🌹❤️🌸❤️.
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The speed with which @x went from being really fun and useful to abject terribleness has been breathtaking and depressing. The end.
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I'm not saying a 60/40 portfolio is the be-all end all; one size can't possibly fit everyone. But any time I see people asserting that 60/40 is dead, it seems like a good reason to hang onto your wallet. Expensive merchandise and/or complicated strategies coming right up.
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It's so depressing when I make a charitable contribution and watch the charity send it right back to me in the form of expensive mailers to my house. Charities should always provide donors with the option to select e-contact only.
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One of the things that seems to routinely shock my friends and family members is that I pay almost no attention to my own investment portfolio from day to day or even year to year--apart from contributing. They seem amazed that I could be so lazy and hands-off. Anyone else?.
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I'm thrilled to announce that I'm FINALLY working on a book about the financial and nonfinancial aspects of retirement! @harrimanhouse will publish it in fall 2024. (Thank you, @brianportnoy for intro'ing us.). Some of you have been helping behind the scenes. Grateful for you.🙏
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I’m casually watching some of the Sunday morning shows and it’s stunning how much the finserv advertisements focus on “trading.” It makes me want to scream. For the vast majority of people, investing successfully has nothing to do with trading acumen.
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The current inflation discussion is a perfect illustration of how many people make pronouncements about future economic events with a sense of absolute certainty, when in fact they're just kind of guessing. More humility, please.
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One thing I find myself shaking my head over pretty much daily is the size of the financial complexity complex v. the ease/simplicity of setting up a reasonable portfolio of cheap index funds. Why are so many people engaged in making it seem harder than it really is?.
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One thing I've observed: People are super-willing to ascribe their investment success to an advisor or to their specific investments, rarely pausing to consider that THE MARKET has been fantastic for a long time (at least until very recently). 🙄.
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Rest in peace, my friend. You were the conscience of the financial services industry and leave an awesome legacy of genuinely improving investors' lives. I never thought this day would come.
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Laddering bonds is overrated/over-recommended for smaller individual investors, IMO. It can be complicated and difficult to obtain diversification, and in the end the investor builds something that looks an awful lot like. a bond fund.
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There's been a lot of ink spilled over why this market is different from the late 1990s. But there's a troubling common denominator: inexperienced newly arrived investors aided and abetted by financial services companies looking to make a buck off them. This will not end well.
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Growth stocks' recent fall has been well documented, but I don't think we're talking enough about how style diversification has helped YTD. Vanguard Growth Index: -20.98% (1/1/22-5/4/22). Vanguard Value Index: -2.98% (1/1/22-5/4/22).
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I had a bit of a revelation about index investing over the weekend. I was reading about Nvidia and thinking about what its competitors might be. Then I thought, wait, what do I care? Owning the whole market is kind of an open-ended bet on PROGRESS. And I like the odds. 👍.
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Contrarian point of view: The whole "spend on experiences" mantra is overstated. The most worthwhile experiences involve connecting with other human beings and that can be done very cheaply AND OFTEN--e.g., walking with a friend or inviting people to dinner. No bucket lists!.
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I've been screening for mutual funds on a major brokerage platform for the past few hours. My god there are still a lot of garbage-y funds out there. 🤦♀️.
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I'm SO proud to announce that all of the 2023 @bogleheads conference sessions are free and available via the website of the John C. Bogle Center for Financial Literacy.
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Last night while teaching an investment course to very beginning investors with very little money, I thought about how INSANE it would be to recommend anything but index funds/ETFs to them. Especially if I might not ever see them again.
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Vanguard's 10-year Capital Market Assumptions (as of 9/22), stated in a range:. U.S. equities: 4.7%–6.7% .Developed markets equities (unhedged): 7.2%–9.2% .Emerging markets equities (unhedged): 7.0%–9.0%.U.S. aggregate bonds: 4.1%–5.1% .Global bonds ex-U.S. (hedged): 4.0%–5.0%.
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It is with a heavy heart that this onetime coffee achiever must report that she is now "no caffeine past noon" years old. 😢☕️.
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Hill that I will die on (investing-wise): . Target-date funds are by and large perfectly solid one-stop options for retirement savers. And if you have a BIG issue with them, you're selling something.
People love to hate target-date funds. @christine_benz explains why these funds may deserve broader adoption outside of company retirement plans.
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Amazon Prime Day observation: I want nothing. I need nothing. Feels pretty good!.
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I love these Chicago-based companies bringing people back to the office at the beginning in January. Making everyone get back to commuting in the heart of a Chicago winter—that’ll boost employee morale for sure. 😂.
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I have had contact with a lot of professional financial people over the years. One observation: I've seen no rhyme or reason in where the most impressive ones went to school. Big state U, Ivy League, small no-name college. Impressive people come from all of these places.
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Maddening story of the day: . A friend's dad is in assisted living and had almost all of his money in CDs that had matured. Bank received the proceeds and parked the money in an account yielding less than 1%. Doesn't it seem like the bank should have called him re. next steps?.
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Whew, what a day @FutureProof_HQ ! 🌞 A full afternoon of meeting friends and signing books followed by a visit to the @harrimanhouse booth. Great fun to see my book there with @morganhousel @Downtown @JLCollinsNH @danielcrosby etc.
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Sigh. I'm not saying TD funds don't deserve scrutiny, but I can think of about 10,000 aspects of the finserv industry that are more worthy of criticism. These funds really simplify things/improve outcomes for a lot of people. #GoodBeatsPerfect via @WSJ.
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On becoming a minimalist, fighting the financial complexity complex, and talking about the hard stuff. Reflections on my 25 (🤔😬🤓🤗!) years @MorningstarInc:
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I'm getting sick of this battle over the merits of target-date funds. If the criticisms stick and the investing public comes away with the notion that TDFs are suspect or not a solid choice, the critics will have done mainstream investors a grave disservice. Amen to Good>perfect.
This is another ‘in theory you could do better’ attack on tgt date funds. TDFs aren’t perfect but succeed in way they automate tasks that can otherwise bedevil investors who don’t have the ‘time and diligence’ (or nerve!) to build their own. Good>perfect.
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So everyone knows they're following the right Christine_Benz:. If your investments are dull, you're doing it right. Dogs rule. I'd eat a board if it had Trader Joe's Sriracha BBQ sauce on it. Fallingwater is one of the greatest pieces of American art of the 20th century. 🤗.
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Serious question: Do people's kids have classes on how to be a smart consumer of information and how to discern disinformation? It's starting to seem that that's as important a life skill as any.
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“If your burn rate in retirement is 2% or 3%, it doesn’t matter what’s in your portfolio; you’re going to be fine.” Bill Bernstein on safe withdrawal rates at the annual @bogleheads conference. #Bogleheads.
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Welp, in true Cook County fashion, I got to vote twice this year! My mail-in ballot was not showing up as having been received, even though I dropped it off at a polling place last Monday. So I had to cast a provisional ballot in person. Not sitting this one out!
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This strikes me as something we should all be able to agree on. This shouldn’t be allowed. 👇🏻
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Lots of smart people clearly disagree! My main point is that while expense tracking might work for some, for many people it’s better to set a savings target, automate contributions, and live on the rest. A granular spending assessment might be warranted but it might not be.
💯! I’ve come to believe that “track your spending,” that mainstay of personal finance guidance, is a colossal waste of time that gets in the way of achieving financial goals.
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Whoa, 🤯 JLCollinsNH getting a much-deserved shout-out here (watch the clip👇🏻).
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Surely the best thing any of us will see on Twitter today.
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“I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed.”--Lloyd Dobler.
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There’s this narrative (and indeed real research) that spending on experiences delivers a higher happiness ROI. But I’m not sure how to square that with the fact that some of my favorite experiences haven’t cost much/anything. It’s much more about *time* w/people.
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Working through my parents' estates these past few years, I was struck by the fact that there were a few items that would have been tremendously helpful but are often unaddressed by conventional estate plans.
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I loaned this book to a friend quite awhile ago and he just returned it. I’m so glad he remembered! 😍
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Today’s must-read, from one of my heroes, @ClementsMoney . Jonathan is an absolute giant in his chosen field and an even better human being. ❤️❤️❤️❤️.
What would you do if you were told you might have just 12 months to live? For me, this isn't a theoretical question.
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Insanely thrilling, top 100 for all books. 👇🏻 At some point I might be blasé about it but not yet.
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First bookstore sighting. 🤩 NGL—it is a thrill!.
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Not everyone who wants to attend a @bogleheads conference can afford to, which is why we hire a professional crew to videotape all of the sessions. I'm proud to announce that you can now view EVERY conference session via the Bogle Center's website. Enjoy!
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At this stage in my career, I really only want to work on things that are educational and don't contribute to the din. Like if you acted on the information in one of my articles and presentations and I never saw you again, you'd be OK. Kind of like this.
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💯! I’ve come to believe that “track your spending,” that mainstay of personal finance guidance, is a colossal waste of time that gets in the way of achieving financial goals.
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I'm toying with starting a "Get on With Your Life" Investing Club. Key principles:. Get educated/make money doing something you enjoy. Save and invest regularly in something reasonable (60/40, 80/20, whatever). Don't peek. Go do other stuff. Who's in?.
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And another thing about Social Security: People REALLY don't love it when you say it's a good idea to delay! One of my readers sends me near-daily emails about why I'm wrong about this. I'm half expecting to find him sitting in my living room some night when I get home. 🙄.
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When I reflect on my failings as an investor, it's nothing as dramatic as panic selling when stocks are down or buying into bubbles. Instead it's inertia, laziness, complacency, being too busy. THOSE are the behavioral biases we need to be talking about more.
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I wish investment firms gave you the option to not see your balance when you log on. I’m on Vanguard’s site retrieving some tax docs and am literally averting my eyes. 🤦♀️.
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Overdue.
Tonight I introduced legislation to ban Members of Congress (and our spouses) from trading stocks. 3/4 of Americans agree!.
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The case for adding non-US equities looks pretty meh, given rising correlations. I'm curious: Are people keeping the faith in investing overseas? Why or why not?
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If you’re super-concerned about what might happen in the market tomorrow, you’re very likely focusing on the wrong stuff. G’night!.
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I've become a huge evangelist for people loosening the purse strings earlier in their retirements, thanks to the work of @michaelrpiper and my own personal story. 👇.
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"If everyone with a Planet Fitness membership showed up at the gym at the exact same time there would be chaos at the squat racks. The same thing applies to banks." Great discussion from @awealthofcs
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TFW you open a bubbly gift from your publisher. Thanks for everything, @harrimanhouse team! ✨🥂🤗
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Just finished an article about annuities. The variations among these products are so immense that it seems like the blanket term isn’t helpful and is certainly contributing to consumer confusion. Kind of like the term “financial advisor,” TBH. 🤷♀️.
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I am sitting in a ballroom full of “Bogleheads” from around the country (and some from overseas!), all here to celebrate Jack Bogle’s life and legacy. It’s impossible to imagine any other individual in the investment industry inspiring that kind of devotion.
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1099s for taxable brokerage accounts from 2022 provide a wonderful lens to assess how good your "asset location" is. If you received big capital gains in a losing year (e.g., from mutual fund capital gains distributions), it's time to look at a more tax-efficient portfolio mix.
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I’ll say it again: Could we possibly be complicating this investing thing a wee tiny bit? Because this isn’t that bad, right?.
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"Access to institutional-quality opportunities." (Just heard that in a podcast ad.) 🤯 Translation: The financial complexity complex is trying to sell you some complicated gobbledygook you don't need.
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The biggest financial planning opportunity to emerge from SECURE 2.0, IMO, is the widened window between retirement and the start of RMDs (age 73 this year and moving up to age 75 in 2033)--and the ability to convert traditional IRAs/401(k)s to Roth during that time. 1/.
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"I don't want you thinking like that. It makes you small." . I don't think @ramit ever said those words to me personally, but they've been hugely influential in how I think about money. I don't want to be small. 1/.
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One thing that seems to get lost in the shuffle: A lot of financially independent people are still working for money because they genuinely like their jobs.
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@ENVDani My personal solution is to just unify the 401(k)/IRA contribution limit. So rather than $20,500/$6,000, it's just $26,500 however you choose to deploy it. No 401(k) or lousy 401(k)? Put the whole $26,500 into an IRA. Gold-plated 401(k)? Put the whole $26,500 into the 401(k). 🤷♀️.
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In hindsight, I worried disproportionately about the following during childhood:. Being sucked into quicksand. Electrocution. Getting lockjaw. Getting into deep trouble from overdue library books.
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I've always been kind of obsessed with this graph--price/fair values for all of the companies in our equity analysts' coverage universe. Stocks currently trading at about a 15% discount to their fair values. 1/
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With Jack Bogle's passing, one thing that I haven't seen discussed much is his influence on Vanguard's culture. Great organizations operate with a belief system; they stand for something. All of the Vanguard employees I know are true believers in doing right for investors.
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This one is really sticking with me. After the late 1990s bubble, I vowed I would speak up the next time I believed a lot of consumers were hurtling toward what is likely to be a painful outcome. It feels like that time is here. 1/4.
Shiller's Bubble Checklist: . Sharp increases in asset prices.Public excitement .Media frenzy.Stories of people earning a lot of money, causing envy .Interest in the asset class among the general public.“New era” theories to justify price increases.A decline in lending standards.
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One thing I scratch my head over is why major investment firms heavily market TRADING (including options trading) as a productive activity for individual investors, even though it's not likely to lead to positive outcomes and trades are free. What are their major motivations?.
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I’ve lost track of what number Morningstar conference this is but I am ready to go and rocking the @MorningstarInc red. (I’ve also quadruple-checked my session times.) Can’t wait to see everyone! #MICUS
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U.S. total market style box currently. I don't track this kind of thing super-closely anymore, but this doesn't seem great.
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I just heard an ad for a trading platform that offers tools "that make it easy to execute complex trading strategies." . I sound like a broken record but investors can be highly successful without complex trading strategies. End of rant. (For now.).
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Good grief, with the prime rate at 8.25%, most 401(k) borrowers are paying interest of more than 9%! . Time to mark 401(k) loans with a skull and crossbones?.
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