Bogleheads On Investing Podcast · bogleheads

Episode 73: Christine Benz discusses her new book, How to Retire, host Rick Ferri

August 26, 2024·53 min·3 clips

David Blanchett's research points to a retirement spending smile and more spending early in retirement.

1. Bogleheads On Investing Episode 73 focuses on Christine Benz's book How to Retire and the retirement topics it covers. 2. Rick Ferri hosts the interview, Christine Benz is the guest, and Benz is the Morningstar Director of Personal Finance and Retirement Planning plus a Senior Columnist for Morningstar.com. 3. The episode asks what retirement planning looks like when the question is not just portfolio math but a full life transition. 4. Ferri and Benz discuss the 2024 Bogleheads Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota, scheduled for September 27th through 29th. 5. Benz says the conference has no booths, no marketing, no advertising, and no pay-to-play sponsorships. 6. She highlights the safe withdrawal rate lineup, naming William Bengen, Karsten Jeske, John Guyton, and John Reckenthaler. 7. She also notes that FIRE speakers Paula Pant and Karsten Jeske will be there. 8. Benz explains that How to Retire comes from 20 one-on-one interviews rather than 20 contributed chapters. 9. She says editor Craig Pierce at Harriman House first suggested a format built around her podcast-style interviews. 10. Benz describes the format as a way to bring humility into retirement planning and learn from specialists. 11. Jonathan Clements wrote the foreword, and Benz says his Wall Street Journal column shaped her own career. 12. Benz says Clements is continuing to write on the Humble Dollar website despite his cancer diagnosis. 13. Michael Finke's chapter focuses on visualizing an in-retirement lifestyle and thinking ahead to later-life changes. 14. Fritz Gilbert's Retirement Manifesto chapter emphasizes five-year, three-year, two-year, and one-year retirement checklists. 15. Laura Karstensen's Stanford research shows that later-life social networks can narrow while face-to-face relationships remain important. 16. Mary Beth Franklin covers Social Security claiming strategies for single, divorced, married, and similarly aged couples. 17. David Blanchett's research on the retirement spending smile suggests spending often falls over time, allowing more early retirement spending. 18. Jonathan Guyton discusses a dynamic guardrails spending approach instead of a straight-line withdrawal rule. 19. William Bernstein, J.L. Collins, and Mike Piper each bring a different angle on asset allocation, simple index-fund portfolios, and tax sequencing. 20. People who want practical retirement planning details across money, housing, health care, and lifestyle fit this episode, while listeners seeking a short celebrity interview may skip it.

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