{"id":706331,"date":"2026-05-31T19:11:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T19:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/706331\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T19:11:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T19:11:12","slug":"new-retirees-prepare-for-the-possibility-of-a-lost-decade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/706331\/","title":{"rendered":"New Retirees: Prepare for the Possibility of a Lost Decade"},"content":{"rendered":"

On this episode of The Long View<\/a>, we talked to Adam Grossman<\/a>, the founder of Mayport<\/a>, a fixed-fee wealth management firm. Grossman discussed asset allocation, inflation risk, and Bill Gates.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Here are a few excerpts from our conversation with Grossman<\/a>, a regular contributor to the Humble Dollar<\/a> website.<\/p>\n

Why Social Security Solvency Isn\u2019t the Biggest Risk<\/p>\n

Christine Benz:<\/a> What do you see as the biggest risk<\/a> for new retirees today? It could be something investment-related or maybe an economic risk or a systemic risk like the solvency of Social Security. What is the thing that is front and center in your mind that you worry about with respect to new retirees?<\/p>\n

Adam Grossman: I understand the concerns about Social Security<\/a>. To be honest, I don\u2019t worry about that because fortunately it\u2019s not a red state or a blue state issue. There are Social Security recipients in every state, and so I think that Congress will be very, very hesitant to really negatively impact Social Security recipients or future recipients. And I don\u2019t really worry about the US economy over the long term.<\/p>\n

What I do worry about, though, is that I think there could be a lost decade. I think that that\u2019s a very, very real possibility. I don\u2019t think the market is so overvalued. I don\u2019t buy the arguments that this is like 2000, but it could certainly go sideways for a period of years after the string of great returns that we\u2019ve had in recent years. So I think that investors can be reasonable in assuming returns in line with historical averages over the long term, over the entirety of their retirement, but they should be prepared for negative returns or at least a period of flat returns for a period of years. I think that\u2019s a real possibility.<\/p>\n

Asset Allocation Rules of Thumb Don\u2019t Work for Everyone<\/p>\n

Amy Arnott:<\/a> Is there any commonly dispensed retirement advice that you disagree with or you think that retirees can misinterpret?<\/p>\n

Grossman: I think that there are a lot of rules of thumb<\/a> out there that can be helpful, but it\u2019s important to take them with a grain of salt and to make sure that they really apply to your own situation. There\u2019s a common one, for example, to set your asset allocation in relation to your age. And so as you get older, your portfolio should become more conservative. And that makes sense in theory, but I think about Bill Gates. He\u2019s about 70 years old. Should he have the same asset allocation as his 70-year-old neighbor? No, of course not. And so I think it\u2019s important to consult rules of thumb but also to make sure that they fit because everybody has factors which are unique to them. It might be that one person could expect an inheritance<\/a>. Someone else might have a rental property. One person might be married, and someone else isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

And so, I think that it\u2019s important to take rules of thumb with a grain of salt.<\/p>\n

How to Approach Claiming Social Security<\/p>\n

Benz: I wanted to follow up on your comments about Social Security, Adam, and we often hear that people should delay if they can, especially if they think they have average or longer than average life expectancy. Do your clients receive that advice well, or do you sometimes get pushback from them that they want to claim earlier?<\/p>\n

Grossman: One of my little mottos is that there are two answers to every financial question. There\u2019s what the math says, and then there\u2019s how you feel about it. I think Social Security is very much in that category. What the math says is that pretty much everybody should wait until age 70 because if you wait until you maximize your benefit, then you have to live a certain number of years to make back the years that you didn\u2019t claim, but over time, you should exceed that and come out way ahead. So that\u2019s what the math says, but everybody has different considerations. I remember once someone saying to me, she said, \u201cI\u2019ve been paying into the system, sending money to Washington since my first summer job when I was 14 years old. And by golly, I want to see them sending me a check for a change.\u201d And so I think that it\u2019s important to balance what the math says and how you feel about it.<\/p>\n

And I think if you have other assets, if you\u2019re married especially, and then there\u2019s a natural hedge there, then I think those are reasons why one spouse might claim earlier.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think that it\u2019s a rule that people have to wait till 70. I think also another misunderstood aspect of the Social Security claiming decision is that it has to be on your birthday. So a lot of people think in terms of I\u2019ll claim at 67 or I\u2019ll claim at 68, but in reality, you can claim at any month. So if you want to claim at 68, six months, you\u2019re free to do that. So the benefit increases with each month that you wait. And I think that makes the decision easier, and it\u2019s probably easier to split the difference.<\/p>\n

Valentina Djeljosevic contributed to this article. <\/p>\n

More From The Long View <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On this episode of The Long View, we talked to Adam Grossman, the founder of Mayport, a fixed-fee…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":706332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[45,49,48,133,131,132],"class_list":["post-706331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-finance","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/706332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}