Observations: Planning: Subject Index

PLANNING & OTHER POSTS
An index to supplement the stock & bond market post index.
(Note: Some parts of this index are still under construction.)

SPREADSHEETS & CALCULATORS

TECHNOLOGY, SPORTS AND OTHER STUFF

ADDITIONAL SITE NAVIGATION AIDS

Personal Strategic Planning

The Core, 3-Step Process
Discovering Your Vision: The first step in the planning process.
Identifying SWOTs (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats): developing mat'l for your plan.
Creating a Personal Strategic Plan: using SWOTs to develop your goals & strategies and write your plan.

Additional Personal Strategic Planning Posts
Do You Need a Personal Strategic Plan? Situations where strategic plans are especially valuable.
A Personal Strategic Plan Example: A more detailed intro with more examples
Mission, Vision & Values: For readers willing to spend more time in order to develop a more robust plan, and those developing family strategic plans.
Optional Plan Development Activities: more optional tasks during plan development
Implementing Your Personal Strategic Plan: implementation hints

Creating a Mini-Personal Strategic Plan: taking about 1/2 hour to create a plan for just one important area of your life.

A Career Planning Approach: An example of strategic planning limited to one life area.
Personal Strategic Planning Schematic: A schematic showing the relationship between all of the personal strategic planning posts.
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Housing

Housing General/History
100 Years of Housing Price History: Robert Shiller's index of housing prices since 1900, plus an intro to the economics of real estate.
100 Years of Inflation-Adjusted Housing Price History: The above in constant dollars.
100 Years of Inflation History: U.S. yearly inflation since 1900, includes an overview of the impact of inflation on residential real estate investments.
Comparing Housing vs. Stock Market Growth.
Housing vs. Stock Market Growth Revisited

Planning to Buy A House
The Risks & Disadvantages of Buying a House: The pros are well advertised, but there are cons as well.
Planning to Buy a House Spreadsheet: A home purchase planning Excel spreadsheet
Can I Afford this House?/A Borderline Home Buyer as Benchmark: A great benchmark to compare yourself against.
Planning to Buy a House: discusses some ways to increase your chances of becoming a successful homeowner.
The Risks & Disadvantages of Low (3%, 5%, 10%) & No Down Payment Mortgages: The impact of leverage on low down payment mortgages.
Why Investing in the Stock Market for Less Than 5 Years is Risky: Risks of putting down payment monies in the stock market.
Do You Need a Personal Strategic Plan? Strategic plans are especially helpful at key points in your life such as when planning to buy your first home.
My Favorite Personal Finance Books: see especially, Quinn (Making...), and Shiller (Irrational...).
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Retirement Planning

How Much Money Will You Need to Retire? Establishes benchmark targets for all salary levels.
Start to Invest When You're Young: The importance of starting early. The magic of compound interest.

What Percent of Your Salary Should You Save For Retirement? by starting age

How Much Should You Have in Retirement Savings? by age

How Much Should You Have in Retirement Savings? eligible for Social Security
High Income - Eligible for Social Security
Not Eligible for Social Security

Assumptions for the 4% Withdrawal Graphs: assumptions underlying the above graphs
My SIMPLE Retirement Savings Calculator/Spreadsheet: my simple approach to calculating how much you need to save. The source for the above graphs.
The Life Expectancy Problem: How Long Will I Live? One of the biggest unknowns in retirement planning.
Build Your Own Pension Using Immediate Annuities One way to deal with life expectancy uncertainty.
How Much Will You Receive in Social Security Benefits? The cornerstone for most retirees' plan.
What Percent of Your Salary Should You Save for Retirement?: an introduction to the planned savings portion of the traditional retirement planning spreadsheet below.
How Much Money Will You Need to Retire?: an introduction to the savings needed portion of the traditional retirement planning spreadsheet below.

A Retirement Calculator/Spreadsheet: A traditional retirement planning spreadsheet showing accumulation and distribution phases of retirement planning.

A Retirement Income & Spending Plan: adds retirement income graph to the traditional retirement model.
Do You Need a Personal Strategic Plan? Strategic plans are especially helpful at key points in your life such as when planning for retirement.
My Favorite Personal Finance Books

Retirement & Inflation
The impact of inflation rate on retirement planning: 100 year inflation graph, + impact on retirement planning.
The Declining Value of a Dollar: 100 Year History: Inflation's past impact on purchasing power.
How Much Will $100 be Worth 10-20 Years in the Future? The value of your cash/pension in 1-50 years.
The Observations Inflation Calculator/Spreadsheet Calculate the inflation rate & change in purchasing power between any two years -- e.g., 1929 and 1932.

Retirement & Stock Market Returns
Don't Plan Retirement Assuming Average Returns Looks at the distribution/variability of 20-year returns between the minimum and maximum. Includes table showing, e.g., chance of returns being less than 5%/year, 6%/year, etc.
How Much Will a $100,000 Stock Market Investment be Worth in 20 Years?: Similar to above, but focusing on the variability of 20-year returns in dollars. Answers questions like "How Much Will a $100,000 Investment be Worth in 20 years?"
The Variability of 10-Year Stock Market Returns, in Dollars: Similar to the above, but for 10 years. Answers question such as "What are chances $100,000 will grow to $400,000 in 10 years.
Why Investing in the Stock Market for Less Than 5 Years is Risky: Similar to the above two, but for 1 & 5 years.
Retirement Planning: Distribution of 10-Year Returns: similar to above. Includes table showing, e.g., chance of returns less than n%/year for 10 years.
Range of Stock Market Returns in Dollars for 10-100 Years, 1-10 Years. An important and overlooked perspective -- especially in retirement planning.
Implications of Stock Market Dollar Returns on Retirement Planning: What happens if you get worst-case returns.
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Additional Site Navigation Aids

Most popular posts: See the sidebar on the left or the menu bar for Top 10 All-Time, & lists of recently popular posts by category/subject area.
Subject Indexes: for the major categories/subject areas (e.g., "stock market"). Located in the header at the top of each page.
Snapshots of graphics from all posts, most recent first, with short description. Preview the graphic then click through to the post.
Label Cloud: See the sidebar for a list of labels used on this site.
Stock Market Spreadsheet and Data Navigation Guide: partial listing

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