Guide
Expected Return and Retirement Strategies
Expected return is a planning assumption, not a promise: retirement strategies work better when estimates reflect asset allocation, inflation, costs and the risk of disappointing markets.
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MarketReview author profile
Robert Paulsen
Personal Finance Writer
ActiveRobert Paulsen has spent more than a decade writing about the financial choices people make in everyday life. His work covers income, spending, saving, debt and long-term goals, with close attention to the circumstances that can make the same advice sensible for one household and unsuitable for another.
Personal finance is often reduced to slogans: spend less, save more, avoid debt, follow a fixed rule. Robert looks beyond those formulas. He examines the trade-offs behind a decision, the priorities it serves and the costs or constraints that may not be obvious at first glance.
At MarketReview, his articles are intended to help readers organise choices around their own needs rather than an idealised financial plan. He does not treat good personal finance writing as a list of instructions; he treats it as a way to make the reasoning behind competing options clearer.
Areas of coverage
- Personal finance
- Income and spending
- Saving
- Debt
- Retirement planning
- Insurance
- Mortgages
Published work
Latest work by Robert Paulsen
News, analysis and evergreen financial guides credited to this author.
Guide
Employer Contributed IRAs
Employer-funded SEP and SIMPLE IRAs can add workplace retirement savings beyond a personal IRA, but their contribution rules, limits and trade-offs differ sharply.
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Guide
The Benefits of a Roth IRA
A Roth IRA trades an upfront tax deduction for tax-free qualified withdrawals, flexible access to regular contributions, and no lifetime RMDs for the original owner, but income limits and five-year rules still matter.
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Guide
The Benefits of a Traditional IRA
A traditional IRA can reduce current taxable income for eligible savers and shelter investment growth from annual tax, but those benefits need to be weighed against future taxable withdrawals and required distributions.
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Guide
The Suitability of IRAs
An IRA can be an effective retirement account, but its suitability depends on your tax position, liquidity needs, workplace benefits and the purpose of the money.
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Guide
The Many Rules Surrounding IRAs
IRA rules determine how much you can contribute, when a tax deduction is available, how withdrawals are taxed, and what happens when money is moved or inherited.
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Guide
The Rationale Behind IRAs
IRAs exist to help people build and preserve retirement savings outside an employer plan, using tax advantages, portability and withdrawal rules to favor long-term saving over current consumption.
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Guide
Improving Health Care & Health Insurance
Improving health care requires more than cutting insurance costs: provider prices, benefit design, payment incentives, coordination and financial protection all shape what patients and payers ultimately spend.
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Guide
Heath Insurance as a Social Program
Health insurance becomes a social program when public policy uses coverage, subsidies and access rules to protect people from medical costs they cannot reasonably bear.
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