https://www.marketwatch.com/story/what-should-your-retirement-wish-be-for-2020-2020-01-08Opinion: What should your retirement wish be for 2020
Which of the following retirement scenarios would you want to come true in 2020?
Lower interest rates along higher stock and bond prices, or higher interest rates and lower stock and bond markets? If you’re like most retirees and soon-to-be retirees to whom I pose this question, the answer is a no-brainer: Of course your fervent wish is for the former.
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And how may he assume that some folks don't use part or all of their RMD from IRA's as a form of annuity payments throughout the year.
I'm not about to send him an email to ask him to expand his view.
My 2 cents worth, inflation adjusted; of course.
Have a good remainder,
Catch
Well, my wish is that our health remains in as good shape as our retirement income. At the moment, that may be somewhat optimistic.
On another point (excerpt): “Japan is the obvious recent example of this, of course. Their long-term interest rates have been low or negative for several decades, and their economic growth has been disappointing, to say the least. The Nikkei Dow index NIK, +1.76% is today barely half of where it stood at its all-time high in 1989.”
It’s startling to think that Japan’s major stock market is but half way back to it’s all-time high reached in 1989. Does anyone know whether if a Japanese investor had diversified globally or put 100% of his money in the U.S. market back than it would have helped? I suspect the answer lies in exchange rates (Dollar vs. Yen) and that the benefit would not have been so great.
PS - I don’t have a particular wish, but would like to wish everyone good health and happiness.
This Nikkei graph is view only; but provides a look back to 1970 representing your notations about performance.
Had a brain fart with this........old habit; well, don't know. Hoping nothing more than a short period brain fart.
Take care of yourselves in your neighborhood.
Catch
BTW - I remember well that period. Everybody was trying to figure out why Japan seemed to be so far ahead of the U.S. financially. Delegations were sent to Japan by U.S. businesses and schools to try to get at the answer. Quoth one after returning: “I don’t get it.”
Good Health - Every thing else will take care of it's self !!
Japan's economic rise is understood. Their mediocrity since is less, but likely due to poor government economic policy and the rest of the world catching up with outsourced labor costs and more efficient technology.
+1
The only issue I might have is that looking at this question in such a simplistic manner leaves out a lot of contributing factors. Japan’s industrial base had been devastated during WW II. So they were ramping up production at brand new state-of-the-art plants, while U.S. plants were more dated. Japanese cars at first were smaller and more fuel efficient - able to profit from the (unexpected) 1970s OPEC Oil Embargo. Prior to that game-changer, fuel in the U.S. had been plentiful and relatively cheap. And, we haven’t even gotten around to the question of labor unions (like the UAW) that sought and received living wages and generous fringe benefits for workers, putting the U.S. at a disadvantage to Japan where labor was cheaper. You’re right. U.S. politicians and auto execs didn’t “get it” at first.
My brief (quoth) remark pertained to one public school educator from an excellent system here in the U.S. who visited Japan in the late 80s (about the time the Nikkiei was peaking). By than Japan was all the rave. Japan could do no wrong. He sought to compare classroom experiences of Japanese students than with those of the system where he worked. He did not observe a significant difference. If anything, he reported that the students he observed in Japan appeared less attentive and more prone to arriving late / leaving early than in the system where he worked. I must caution that was just one person’s limited experience and may not have been representative of Japanese schools at large. Equally likely, the school where he worked wasn’t representive of all American schools.