Economics Matters with Laurence Kotlikoff

Scott Burns -- The Power of Couch Potato Investing

Sep 16, 2023

Retirement planning strategies, biases in financial services, inflation impacts, Social Security benefits, downsizing in retirement, imputed rent concept, couch potato investment approach, inflation index bonds, Scott Burns' wisdom on financial mindset and service deficiencies.

54:11

Creator website

Episode guests

Scott Burns

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Episode notes

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Downsizing for a better retirement highlights the importance of aligning living situation with actual needs to optimize finances.

Adopting the 'couch potato' investment strategy involves maintaining a passive and diversified portfolio for consistent long-term returns while minimizing expenses.

Deep dives

Retiring Now Instead of Later

Making a plan to retire now instead of later is a feasible approach for individuals of limited resources. An anecdotal example highlights how downsizing to a more economical living situation can significantly reduce expenses and enhance financial security. By carefully managing available resources and considering unconventional options like moving to lower-cost areas, individuals can create a sustainable retirement plan that prioritizes financial stability and well-being in later years.

Introduction

5min

Strategic Retirement Planning

8min

Exploring Options and Community Resilience

6min

Maximizing Social Security Benefits and Retirement Savings in an Inflationary Environment

26min

Exploring the Security of Bonds vs. Uncertainty of Stocks in Investing

4min

Insights on Stock Market Volatility and Long-Term Investing

5min

Professor Kotlikoff is joined by good friend and America's Premiere Personal Finance Journalist and author, Scott Burns. His website scottburns.com, is a treasure trove of financial advice and commonsense wisdom. Scott has been writing about personal finance for over 40 years for top newspapers and syndications. His common sense financial wisdom and extensive knowledge about all things financial has earned him a tremendous following. He's also chock full of insights about our global and national economies. Scott is also famous for his Couch Potato Portfolio investment strategy, which he developed decades ago. It's the everyman solution to investing, using index funds rather than managed funds or stock picking to earn high average market returns with essentially full diversification and rock bottom fees. Scott is the rare, perhaps only financial journalist, who reports from the field, not from the desk.

In this podcast, we discussed:

4:54 - Retirement now not later.
10:11 - Financial services bias.
18:33 - The broader issue with inflation.
19:42 - Social Security inflation.
22:48 - After inflation.
26:02 - Should you downsize your lifestyle in retirement?
30:25 - What is imputed rend?
32:13 - The process of regional arbitrage.
35:51 - What is the couch potato approach of investment?
40:34 - The asset class universe.
43:23 - Inflation index bonds.
47:43 - Couch potato mindset.
51:03 - Financial service deficiencies.

Economic Matters - The podcast is hosted by Laurence Kotlikoff and moderated by Alex Kotlikoff. Laurence Kotlikoff is a Boston University Economist, a NY Times Best Selling Author, President of maxifi.com, and Author of Money Magic. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Kotlikoff/ Twitter https://twitter.com/kotlikoff LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurencek... Substack https://larrykotlikoff.substack.com/ Books https://kotlikoff.net/books/ Company https://maxifiplanner.com/

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