Key Takeaways
- The importance of planning beyond just finances, including visualizing your retirement lifestyle and finding purpose
- How simplifying investment portfolios and focusing on cost-efficient funds can improve long-term financial outcomes
- The risks of holding too much company stock and strategies for maintaining diversification
- How women can strengthen their financial future, especially in light of caregiving responsibilities and potential impacts of divorce
- Why a phased approach to retirement, rather than an abrupt stop, can lead to greater fulfillment and longevity in both career and life
Christine Benz is director of personal finance and retirement planning for Morningstar and senior columnist for Morningstar.com. In that role, she focuses on retirement and portfolio planning for individual investors.
Benz is author of How to Retire: 20 Lessons for a Happy, Successful, and Wealthy Retirement (Harriman House, September 2024). She also wrote 30-Minute Money Solutions: A Step-by-Step Guide to Managing Your Finances (Wiley, 2010) and Morningstar® Guide to Mutual Funds: 5-Star Strategies for Success, published in 2005.
She also co-hosts a podcast for Morningstar, The Long View, which features in-depth interviews with thought leaders in investing and personal finance. She is a frequent public speaker and is widely quoted in the media, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, CNBC, and PBS. In 2020, Barron’s named her to its inaugural list of the 100 most influential women in finance; she appeared on the 2021 list as well. In 2021, Barron’s named her as one of the 10 most influential women in wealth management.
Before assuming her current role in 2008, she served as Morningstar's director of mutual fund analysis and was editor of Morningstar Mutual Funds and Morningstar FundInvestor.
Benz holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and Russian from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is president of the board for the John C. Bogle Center for Financial Literacy. Benz is also a member of The Alpha Group, a group of thought leaders from the wealth management industry from across the country. In her free time, she works with underprivileged women to improve their understanding of personal finance concepts.
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