The hidden risks in almost every retirement portfolio ...
Hi Fellow Investor,
Quick question: If you looked at your portfolio’s holdings side by side, how many of them do you think would actually move together in a downturn?
This question is harder than it seems, and it’s the exact starting point for our three-part online workshop we just laucnhed this month with Craig Israelsen, Ph.D. Many of you will recognize his name from past conversations we’ve had with him on retirement planning and portfolio analysis.
Israelsen has spent decades researching how portfolios actually behave across real market cycles, real withdrawal periods and real retiree outcomes. That’s why we enjoy partnering with him: When it comes to breaking down complex retirement subjects, Israelsen gives investors a clear-eyed look at what the data actually says.
There is still time to join the AAII Retirement Workshop. Catch up on last week's session 1, then join us for our second live session tomorrow, July 23, at 2:00 p.m. Central Time.
Session 1: Finding the redundancy hiding in your portfolio
A lot of investors make the same mistake at some point: holding several funds that look different on paper (different names, different ticker symbols) but are so highly correlated that they’re really just one bet wearing different outfits.
Last week's session, Israelsen went through:
How to avoid picking funds based on name recognition alone
A simple, practical introduction to correlation and why it matters more than people think
How to spot ETFs and mutual funds in your own portfolio that might be redundant
The risks of relying too heavily on market-cap-weighted U.S. large-cap funds
When you sign up today, you'll get access to the on-demand recording, plus Israelsen's presentation slides from last week, so you can catch up before the next two classes.
What's Covered In Sessions 2 and 3
Israelsen has plenty of content to cover in the next two sessions.
Session 2 will explore what diversification is actually meant to do: not just beat the market, but ultimately help you reach your goals with more consistency across a full investing life cycle.
He also plans to cover:
The full spectrum of asset classes that make up a truly diversified portfolio
How to recognize the “real world” signs that you’re actually diversified — not just diversified-sounding
Why diversification isn’t static, and how it should evolve across your investing life cycle
Classic examples of diversified portfolios, and how they’ve performed over the last quarter century
Session 3 will introduce Israelsen’s proprietary Retirement Portfolio Analyzer (RPA), showing how different withdrawal strategies hold up over time, including the often-overlooked risk of when market downturns happen during retirement.
In addition, Israelsen will go through:
How to build a realistic retirement budget you can plan around
How sequence-of-returns risk affects different asset allocation models — and why it matters more than average returns
Inflation-adjusted withdrawal results, so you’re planning with real purchasing power in mind, not just nominal numbers
As a seasoned investor, you know that retirement planning isn’t a single decision — it’s hundreds of them, made over decades, often without a clear way to know if you’re getting it right until it’s too late to adjust course.
The cost of overlooking something like redundancy or misjudging withdrawal risk isn’t abstract; it’s the difference between a portfolio that holds up through a downturn and one that doesn’t, at precisely the point in life when you have the least room to recover.
Why This Workshop Is Different
That’s exactly why we built this workshop the way we did. You don’t need more shoddy predictions or baseless opinions.
What you really need is a clear, research-backed way to see your own portfolio for what it is and understand the hidden risks before they ruin what you’ve built.
Just $99 gets you full access to this workshop — which, in our opinion, is a small price for education that could protect your retirement for years to come.
The best part: even though session 1 already happened, you can catch up at your own pace and still join sessions 2 and 3 live.
That’s what AAII has stood for since 1978, and it’s what Israelsen brings every time he teaches: real research, real passion and the kind of clarity that can turn overwhelm into a plan you can actually trust.
If this sounds like the education you’ve been looking for, we’d encourage you to sign up for only $99.
We hope to see you "in class" tomorrow for our live session, starting at 2:00 p.m. Central Time. Israelsen has prepared some great material on proper diversification, and we can't wait to get started.
P.S. If you join today for just $99, you'll get an email with access to the AAII Retirement Workshop YouTube playlist, where you can watch Session 1 and find the live links for the upcoming sessions so you can easily attend.
Disclaimer: This workshop is for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment, financial or tax advice. AAII does not recommend any specific securities, funds or investment strategies. Craig Israelsen, Ph.D., is presenting as an educator and researcher, and his comments do not constitute personalized investment advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results.
We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.
