Diane spent most of her career inside workplace retirement plans — fifteen years as a defined-contribution consultant helping employers design and explain their 401(k) and 403(b) menus. She has sat across the table from people five years from retirement and people five months into their first job, and she learned to translate fund fact sheets into decisions either of them could actually make.
She is fascinated by the unglamorous machinery of long-term investing: employer matches, expense ratios, the order you tap accounts in retirement, and the quiet violence compounding does over decades. She writes to take the anxiety out of those topics, because in her experience fear, not math, is what keeps most people from a comfortable retirement.
Asset Allocation by Age: How Your Mix Should Shift
The split between stocks and bonds matters more than any single fund you pick. The 'minus your age' rule, a by-age guide, and why your mix should get safer as you near retirement.
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Dollar-Cost Averaging Explained (With an Example)
Investing a fixed amount on a schedule takes the guesswork — and the panic — out of the market. How dollar-cost averaging works, a worked example, and how it compares to lump-sum.
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How Much Life Insurance Do You Actually Need?
Skip the vague 'it depends.' Two clear methods — the income multiple and the DIME formula — with a worked example, plus how long a term to buy and who can skip it entirely.
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