Is Hiring an Advisor 'Worth It'?
A key consideration: How many parts of your financial life can the advisor impact for the better?
Christine Benz
Christine Benz is Morningstar's director of personal finance and retirement planning and author of 30-Minute Money Solutions: A Step-by-Step Guide to Managing Your Finances and the Morningstar Guide to Mutual Funds: 5-Star Strategies for Success. Follow Christine on Twitter: @christine_benz.
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3 ETFs for Equity Exposure With Low Volatility
How retirees can find less-mercurial equity exposure.
Give Your Portfolio a Fresh Start This Spring
Dump the clutter and reveal some overlooked opportunities.
Learning From My Financial Mistakes
And you can learn from them, too!
4 Niche Funds for a Sliver of Your Portfolio
Diversify your core holdings with a wafer-thin taste of the specialized arena.
3 Stock Funds for Retirees
Christine Benz features a trio of equity funds in the third bucket of her model portfolios for retirees.
What You Can Learn From Your 2018 Tax Return
Your just-completed return carries valuable intelligence to help manage future tax bills and understand your overall financial health.
Legislation That Aims to Help Workers Save
Aron Szapiro discusses the Secure Act and its potential to plug some of the holes in U.S. retirement planning.
Find the Value in ETF Value Investing
Alex Bryan shares research and fund-specific suggestions.
3 Funds With Tantalizing Dividend Yields
These fine options balance yield-seeking with sensible risk controls.
What's Driving the Bond Market's Performance?
Fixed-income funds of all stripes did well during the first quarter. Can it continue?
Growth Funds Flourish in the First Quarter
Russ Kinnel breaks down how mutual funds performed during the market rally.
First-Quarter Proves Positive for ETFs
At the cost of being vanilla, investors push into low-cost ETFs.
Are Dividend-Paying Stocks a Good Substitute for Bonds?
What you need to think through when building a retirement plan around income-producing equities.
3 Great Fund Pairings for Your IRA
Russ Kinnel discusses how teaming up two complementary mutual funds can help build a well-diversified IRA.
How to Get the Most From Bucket 1
Christine Benz looks at how retirees can make the best use of the cash bucket.
Pre-Retirees: Are You Taking Too Much Risk?
Obviously overvalued market segments aren't the only way investors can fall prey to the "greed" part of the fear/greed cycle.
Friendly Fees Spell Success for Passive Foreign-Stock Funds
Index funds are gaining ground on their active counterparts in this arena.
HSAs Offer Another Path to Tax Deductions
Christine Benz spotlights attractive HSA features to remember before the tax-filing deadline.
2019's Hearty Start for High-Yield Bond Funds
Senior analyst Brian Moriarty explains the performance and shares some favorite ideas.
IRA Tips for Later in Life
Christine Benz discusses what older adults should consider when making IRA contributions.
3 Bond ETFs for Retirees
Christine Benz shares her favorite fixed-income picks for the intermediate-term portion of her ETF bucket portfolios for retirees.
The Recipe for Finding Fantastic Funds
Russ Kinnel discusses the criteria he uses to compile his annual list of top funds.
6 Tips for Last-Minute IRA Contributions
Christine Benz discusses some key areas to consider when funding an IRA.
3 ETFs That Are a Good Fit for IRAs
Ben Johnson offers his picks ahead of the contribution deadline.
Should Your Withdrawals Mirror Your RMDs?
While RMDs are usually pretty conservative, that doesn't make an RMD-based withdrawal system ideal.
Kinnel's Top 3 Picks for an IRA
Russ Kinnel shares three funds that are particularly worthy core holdings in IRAs.
Who Should Consider a Backdoor Roth IRA?
Christine Benz explains this maneuver for investors who are over the income limits for contributing to an IRA.
Your RMD Amounts Are More Conservative Than You Might Think
Retirees are often concerned that RMDs could lead to premature asset depletion, but should they be?
3 Things to Be Aware of Amid ETF Fee Wars
Ben Johnson reviews the Vanguard ETF fee news and gives his thoughts on cutting through the noise.
What Do the Bucket Portfolios Yield?
Yields have come up substantially over the past 18 months, but still aren't at subsistence levels for most retirees.
4 ETFs for IRAs
Alex Bryan's ETF picks include one that's plain-vanilla, two minimum volatility options, and a dividend-payer.
3 Good Ideas for IRAs
Christine Benz offers her picks for IRAs ahead of the April deadline.
How to Benchmark Your Portfolio
If you're evaluating your portfolio, make sure you're using a benchmark that reflects what you're actually trying to see.
Index Funds Aren't All Passive
Even plain-vanilla index funds that track the S&P 500 are making some active bets that investors need to be aware of, says Morningstar's Ben Johnson.
4 Hidden Benefits of Roth IRAs
Christine Benz discusses some under-the-radar reasons why Roths may benefit some investors.
Do Tax Law Changes Affect IRA Deductibility?
And if you can deduct your IRA contribution, should you? Or make a Roth contribution instead?
How Did Our Saver Portfolios Hold Up in 2018?
The index portfolios outperformed the more active portfolios in a rocky market. Is that supposed to happen?
3 Strategies for Generating Cash Flow in Retirement
Christine Benz walks through the pros and cons of three approaches that retirees should consider.
How Did the Bucket Portfolios Hold Up in 2018?
Conservative was better and cash was king--for a change.
Bucket Portfolios Faced a Real Stress Test in 2018
In a tough market, holding a cash bucket prevents selling depressed assets and also facilitates rebalancing.
Don't Count on Active Funds to Provide Downturn Protection
A well-diversified portfolio, not active stock-picking, is the key to building a portfolio with downside protection, says Russ Kinnel.
Do You Know These Obscure IRA Rules?
Ed Slott highlights some useful but little-known IRA rules for investors.
3 Funds for an IRA
Christine Benz discusses three very different investment ideas for an IRA.
Morningstar's Model Retirement Saver Portfolios
For investors who are accumulating assets for retirement, we create strategic ETF and mutual fund portfolios.
The Less Understood Sides of Jack Bogle
Christine Benz and Russ Kinnel discuss the late Vanguard founder's belief in costs, index funds, and his role as a motivator.
Empty Nest Phase a Crucial Catch-Up Time Before Retirement
Raising children is expensive, so use the empty nest years to redirect your savings toward retirement and avoid lifestyle creep, says financial planning expert Michael Kitces.
How Did the Bucket Strategy Work in 2018?
Neither stocks nor bonds performed especially well last year, so what happens if cash is running dry?
Build a Strong Foundation With These Core Funds
Alex Bryan says investors should prioritize their risk capacity and risk tolerance when choosing asset allocation, and he offers three core building blocks to start with.
How to Decide Where to Put Your Investment Dollars
Retirement expert Ed Slott shares some guidance on how to decide between different types of plans and accounts.