Table of Contents
Upcoming Free Webinars for Professors
A Professor’s Guide to Protecting Retirement Wealth—TIAA, CREF, Vanguard,
IRAs, and Other Retirement Plans
Tuesday, January 25, 2022
10:00 am – Noon (Eastern): How Professors Can Protect Themselves and Their Families from Massive Taxation on Their TIAA, IRAs, and Other Retirement Plans
- The solution to one of the great mysteries of life: What is the most advantageous way to get your money out of TIAA and CREF when you retire?
- Gifting strategies to maximize family wealth.
- A quantitative analysis of combining multiple long-term financial planning strategies.
- How professors should respond to the sunset provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.
Which assets you should spend first and which assets you should spend last during retirement. Please note the answer has changed since the SECURE Act.
Click here to register
1:00 – 3:00 pm (Eastern): Pay Taxes Once and Never Again: The Ideal Roth IRA Conversion and Social Security Plan for Professors
“Some of the most useful material in the book concerns Roth IRA conversions. I have not seen a better discussion of the advantages and potential pitfalls of converting your IRA into a Roth. ”
―From the foreword by Burton G. Malkiel, Author of A Random Walk Down Wall Street, 50th-anniversary edition, 2022, and Professor of Economics Emeritus, Princeton University. Prior editions sold 1.5 million copies.
- The peer-reviewed math of Roth IRA conversions.
- Effects of the SECURE Act on your retirement plans and how Roth IRA conversions defend against the SECURE Act.
- Can you make a Roth conversion from your TIAA?
- Optimal timing for Roth IRA conversions.
- Why it may make sense to pay for a Roth IRA conversion with a home equity loan.
- The one single financial decision that can get you bigger Social Security checks.
- The synergistic calculation of optimal Social Security and Roth IRA conversion strategies.
Click here to register
Wednesday, January 26th, 2022
10:00 AM-Noon (Eastern): The Best Estate Plan for Married Professors Combined with Optimal Trust Planning for TIAA, IRAs, and Other Retirement Plans
Session 4: 1:00 – 3:00 PM (Eastern): Q&A with Larry Swedroe/Adam Yofan of Buckingham Strategic Wealth, and James Lange
Larry, Adam, and Jim will answer attendees’ questions submitted in advance of these online workshops as well as those submitted during the webinar. Take advantage of this opportunity to have your most nagging investment questions answered.
Larry Swedroe is one of the top financial authors in the world. His books include Successful & Secure Retirement and Reducing the Risk of Black Swans.
Adam Yofan works closely with Jim to ensure their mutual clients get the most out of what they’ve got.
It was Sunday night, December 5, 2021, and I was experiencing mild cold and allergy-type symptoms. This was before Omicron was so dominant. We were expecting overnight company so, just to be safe I did a COVID home test. I tested positive.
I’ve had two vaccinations and the booster. But the positive test result is a reminder that the purpose of the vaccines and the booster is to reduce symptoms and keep you out of the hospital, not to guarantee you won’t get COVID. Especially with Omicron, we can expect people who have had the vaccines and the booster to develop COVID and not know they have it. As a result, they will expose more people to the virus and start on their treatment later than they could have if they had known earlier.
Takeaway #1: Stock home test kits (after researching which kits are better) and test yourself and/or a loved one if one of you seems to be having cold or allergy symptoms—even if you think the chances are remote that you have COVID.
Be aware that home test kits can be hard to find on short notice at your local drugstore. Do a bit of research, find a test kit brand that your doctor recommends and/or has good reviews, and order them in advance to have on hand.
My wife, Cindy, tested negative with the home test kit, but also seemed to be having some symptoms. We immediately quarantined from each other and the rest of the world. Odd to be communicating via email with your spouse in the same house!
Takeaway #2: The more accurate PCR test will not give you quick results.
Cindy subsequently took a PCR test and tested negative again, but those results take much longer to comeback. The testing place told her to expect results in three or four days. She never developed COVID.
Takeaway #3: The chain is only as strong as its weakest link. You can’t let up even once, even if you are fully vaccinated and have received the booster.
Here’s the kicker. I have been one of the most careful people I know about staying safe from COVID. I likely got it from a colleague in Tucson who was near me for a while helping me with our most recent set of webinars. Other than Cindy, he is the only person I have had a lot of contact with since I came to Tucson and even then, only for producing the webinars. He had a slight cough, and I made the huge mistake of not telling him to leave or at a minimum requiring him to wear a mask. At the time, I was concerned about catching a cold from him. I thought he was vaccinated and boosted.
The fact that I have given away 50,000 masks to nonprofits, family, clients, and friends indicates the level of my concern for preventing transmission, always wear a mask when going to a public place, etc. didn’t help. All it takes is one misstep.
Takeaway #4: Not all doctors recommend monoclonal antibodies after a positive test. Do your research and make your decision ahead of time. Then, also ahead of time, if you decide you would like to receive them after a positive diagnosis, find a place where you can get them.
From the research and reading I’ve done over the course of the pandemic, it seemed that not only were monoclonal antibodies a good idea to get after a positive test result, but the faster you get them, the better. So, after the home kit results, I wanted to get monoclonal antibodies as soon as possible.
Different doctors gave me different recommendations on taking the monoclonal antibodies. One said definitely yes, the other said no. I decided to get them.
Takeaway #5: Decide ahead of time if you want to take supplements, and if you do, have them on hand.
I asked the doctor who recommended the monoclonal antibody treatment if there was anything else I should take? He said no. But other doctors and other sources that I trust recommended adding high quantities of vitamins C, D, and zinc. Then, another doctor said to add quercetin and fish oil. Other sources recommend even more supplements including melatonin. I erred on the side of taking too many supplements rather than too few.
I have to say, my immediate reaction after seeing the positive test was shocking. After that, I realized how lucky I was to have contracted it now:
- I am fully vaccinated and boosted.
- Monoclonal antibodies were available to me less than 24 hours after the positive test.
- Our daughter Erica is safely in Boston, fully vaccinated and boosted, staying with her boyfriend.
But luck only goes so far. After I drafted this article, the Tucson colleague from whom I likely contracted COVID, died. He was a healthy man in his 40s. He tested positive for COVID, was hospitalized in an ICU, and intubated. After a devastating and hellish week for my colleague and his family, he died.
I suppose we will never know if he was vaccinated and boosted. He did great work for me and made doing webinars and Zoom meetings from Tucson much easier. He became not only a colleague but also a friend. I didn’t want to burden his widow by asking her if he was vaccinated, and she did not volunteer that information to me.
It is possible, even likely, we had the same virus. For me, it was like I had a minor cold and for him, it was a death sentence.
Several of our older clients and others I have known have also succumbed to COVID. Every loss is tragic. So many families have suffered. But when death claims someone in his prime, someone you liked and worked closely with, the devastation of COVID transcends its statistics and hits home.
We send our deepest condolences to his wife and family, and to everyone who has lost a friend or family member to this disease. Several of my employees told me that my story of getting COVID inspired their children to get the booster which they were not planning to get. I loved hearing that.
So, at the risk of offending some because I am giving non-expert advice, I still encourage you to get vaccinated if you have not already. If you are vaccinated, get your booster unless there is a compelling reason not to. The unvaccinated put their lives at risk and the lives of others. Getting vaccinated likely protects you from some of the more dire consequences of the disease if you do get COVID. Among the vaccinated mostly mild breakthrough cases—like mine—are on the rise.
Please use rapid tests at the first signs of symptoms. You know how I feel about masks and please wear them properly.
I hope sharing my experience offers some helpful information.
Stay positive and test negative,
P.S. I have been criticized for sharing my health protocols in the past, just as I received criticism for distributing masks. Though I do make my non-expert opinions known, the point of the article isn’t to listen to me about medical advice but to make your own conclusions ahead of time and to be prepared.
P.P.S. As of now, I am completely symptom-free. I expect that because I was fully vaccinated, had the booster, and I received the monoclonal antibodies, that I will not suffer any long-term problems.