The answer to that question varies per person. How much salary should you defer into a retirement plan? Ultimately, the answer is “however much your budget allows you to contribute”. The big-picture question, however, is whether you need to contribute more to your retirement savings in...
Little things to keep in mind for life after work. Decades ago, there was a popular book entitled What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School. Perhaps someday, another book will appear to discuss certain aspects of the retirement experience that go unrecognized - the...
Investing timidly may shield you against risk ...
Dollar cost averaging offers you a way to invest consistently and a chance to exploit some great buys. Are you investing inconsistently … or not at all? Inconsistent investment can sabotage your retirement savings efforts. There’s a way to avoid that problem: a strategy called Dollar...
Many people underestimate lifestyle costs, medical expenses and inflation. What is enough? What is not enough? If you’re considering retiring in the near future, you’ve probably heard or read that you need about 70% of your end salary to live comfortably in retirement. This estimate is...
A noted economist disputes that generalization. True or false? You may have heard this claim before (or something like it): “Many Americans are being forced to retire later because their savings and investments took a hit in the Great Recession.” Recently a big-name economist disputed that belief....
Meeting your obligations and finding some opportunities. After you turn 70½, the IRS requires you to withdraw some of the money in your retirement savings accounts each year. These withdrawals are officially called Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs).1 While you never have to make withdrawals from a Roth...
Two-thirds of us have no financial plan. 64% of Americans have no financial strategy at all. That’s right – no plan whatsoever to build wealth or keep it. That finding comes from the 2009 National Consumer Survey on Personal Finance conducted by the Certified Financial Planner...
While the idea of retirement has changed, certain financial assumptions haven’t. We’ve all heard about the “new retirement”, the mix of work and play that many of us assume we will have in our lives one day. We do not expect “retirement” to be all leisure....
Benefits increase for 2012. Ideas for reform are numerous. Social Security gets its first COLA since 2009. As moderate inflation has made a comeback, the federal government has decided to boost Social Security benefits by 3.6% for 2012. This means an average increase of $39 per...