Formerly: RPN Weekly

👋 Expenses higher, emergency funds lower. Approximately 60% of retirees reported having three months of emergency savings in 2024, a decrease from 69% in 2022. Nevertheless, one in three retirees (36%) have faced unexpected expenses since retiring (Source: EBRI).

NEWS FLASH

🤑 Cost Crusade: In its largest-ever expense reduction, Vanguard is slashing fees across 168 fund share classes, promising investors over $350 million in savings for 2025. The investment giant's CEO, Salim Ramji, frames the move as a continuation of founder Jack Bogle's mission to serve clients rather than extract value. The cuts span equity, bond, and money market offerings, with Vanguard's active bond funds now charging a mere 0.10% compared to the industry's 0.53% average. This marks Vanguard's 2,000th+ fee reduction since its 1975 founding, cementing its reputation as the cost-conscious investor's champion while delivering superior performance—84% of its funds have outpaced peer averages over the past decade.

📈 Market Shift: As 2025 kicks off, markets deliver a plot twist worthy of Wall Street's finest dramaturges. Europe stocks (+7.1%) unexpectedly steal the spotlight from the usual US stock market (+2.8%), while an upstart Chinese AI firm, DeepSeek, sends Nvidia tumbling in a historic $600 billion nose-dive. President Trump's return adds fiscal fireworks to the mix, with his America First agenda sparking bond market jitters before a softer inflation print soothes nerves. Meanwhile, commodities crash the party with a 4% surge, as gold glitters brighter under Trump's tariff threats. The story's moral? Market concentration has reached soap opera levels of drama, making diversification beyond US borders more crucial than ever.

🎉 401(k) Revolution: The great pension replacement experiment has finally hit critical mass: 50% of private-sector workers are now stashing cash in 401(k) plans, marking a watershed moment in American retirement planning. The surge comes as 70% of private workers now have access to these plans – up from 60% a decade ago – thanks to a perfect storm of policy pushes. New federal laws mandating auto-enrollment, state-level requirements, and small business incentives are transforming the retirement landscape. While the milestone is significant, experts note that roughly 40% of workers still aren't saving enough for their golden years, suggesting this retirement revolution remains a work in progress.

RETIREMENT ARTICLES

What We're Reading

• Should you choose your retirement location based on where your children live? (Claymore Thistle)
• Ranking of the best to worst states to retire in 2025 (WalletHub)
• Revisiting six widely held notions about personal finance (Humble Dollar)
• Could RMDs lead to premature asset depletion? (Morningstar)
• Tariff man is back and apparently more serious than ever (Cullen Roche)
• A simple weekend digital intermittent fasting protocol (Prime Cuts)
• How to get the most from your credit card reward points (The Wall Street Journal)
• The six stages of cleaning out your parents' house (Slate)
• 🎥 Should you wait to "buy the dip?" (Stay Wealthy)​

CHART OF THE WEEK

Inflation is the Biggest Fee of Them All: Since 1900, US stocks have delivered an average annual return of 6.65% (after inflation). "It's amazing how different the results are when you quote data in 'real' terms when compared to the (fake) nominal figures we usually hear about." ~Cullen Roche

RETIREMENT PODCASTS

Top Listens This Week

• Don't Fly by Feeling in Retirement (The Retirement Answer Man)
• Joe Saul-Sehy Shares How to Get the Most from Your Employee Benefits (Retirement Starts Today)
• The Hidden Risks of U.S. Stocks and Why Global Diversification Still Matters (The Long Term Investor)
• Fighting FOMO in Your Portfolio (The Financial Symmetry Show)

Thank you for reading!

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~ Team Go-Go