Since WEALTHTRACK might be pre-empted because of public television fund raising drives this weekend, we are revisiting Consuelo’s interview with two Morningstar all-stars. You can watch it here.

Investing for retirement and the years in retirement is one of the biggest challenges any of us face. After extensive research on the topic, Morningstar’s Director of Personal Finance, Christine Benz has decided taking the “bucket approach” is a sound strategy.

She shares more on her contrarian strategy on getting more income from your portfolio here at Morningstar.

WEALTHTRACK Episode #1050; June 06, 2014

Listen to the audio only version here:
Christine Benz

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CHRISTINE BENZ

Director of Personal Finance, Senior Columnist
Morningstar, Inc.

With the market setting new records are investors missing a big income opportunity? Say what????  Aren’t income producing investments really expensive and yields really low? Well, yes they are which is why one of this week’s guests is telling investors to take advantage of income opportunities that are in “plain sight!”

According to Christine Benz, Morningstar’s Director of Personal Finance, income hungry investors should be taking some profits in stocks and using the capital gains proceeds as income, especially retirees. Here’s a link to her recent article on the topic.  (May require a free Morningstar account)

Earlier today Benz and I talked on the phone about her favorite retirement strategy, pioneered by financial planning guru and past WealthTrack guest, Harold Evensky. It’s called the “bucket approach” and it involves having three investment buckets, one short-term, another intermediate- term and the third, long-term. Benz will explain why she thinks it’s an approach that can work well for just about everyone.

She also makes specific recommendations for each bucket. One of them was Harbor Bond fund, the no-load version of PIMCO’s Total Return fund run by legendary bond investor and past WealthTrack guest, Bill Gross. I asked Christine about the controversy surrounding Gross and the underperformance of his famous fund over the past year.

Here is part of what she said:

We are not too concerned about the short-term underperformance, even though some of the calls have been off the mark recently. We still think that the resources that you get when you buy a PIMCO fund, particularly a core fund like that are worth sticking with… We’ve still got PIMCO Total Return as well as Harbor Bond at our highest rating, which is gold. So we are still standing by our recommendation of the funds.

Premium subscribers can hear the entire interview with Benz starting later tonight. We will also post it in EXTRA tomorrow night.

This weekend is the last of the two week fund-raising drives on public television so WealthTrack might be pre-empted once again in your local market. Consequently we are replaying the last interview I did with Christine Benz and her long-time colleague Russel Kinnel. Kinnel is the new Director of Manager Research and Editor of “Morningstar Fund Investor,” a monthly print newsletter for individual investors. Kinnel also oversees Morningstar’s fund analyst ratings, writes the “Fund Spy” column and a monthly mutual funds column For Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine. .

In the meantime, have a great weekend and make the week ahead a profitable and a productive one!

Best regards,

Consuelo

P.S. I have some very nice news to share with you. Last night I was honored at the Annual Dodge Dinner by the YMCA of Greater New York, the largest and oldest Y in the country. I have been privileged to serve on the board for nine years. I am sharing a video played at last night’s event, which gives you a good idea as to why I believe so strongly in the Y’s mission and accomplishments.  You will be so impressed by  Joshua Theodros, one of the evening’s Y emcees.

No Action Point this episode

No Bookshelf titles this week.

No One Investment this week.

Christine Benz Bucket List recommendations here.

No transcript available for this episode.

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Christine Benz Bucket List recommendations here.

also
I have some very nice news to share with you. This week I was honored at the Annual Dodge Dinner by the YMCA of Greater New York, the largest and oldest Y in the country. I have been privileged to serve on the board for nine years. I am sharing a video played at the event, which gives you a good idea as to why I believe so strongly in the Y’s mission and accomplishments.  You will be so impressed by  Joshua Theodros, one of the evening’s Y emcees.