Terror about retirement spending is not uncommon. In fact, most people are worried about spending their nest egg and running out of money. After all, you have been conditioned for decades to earn, not spend. You were probably a teenager when you opened your first paycheck and officially started the cycle of earning and spending…
While we’re in the daily grind of working for a living, we often visualize life after retirement as happy, stress-free relaxation. Getting a little R&R is certainly important, but there is a limit to the amount of napping, puttering around the house and daytime television a person can take. Without a plan for life…
While pensions are not nearly as common as they once were, they are a very important part of the retirement plans for many of society’s most valued workers: teachers, police officers, fire fighters and more! However, it is surprisingly hard to find a reliable retirement calculator with pension inputs. 5 Retirement Calculators With Pension Controls:…
To build wealth, most people think you need a Wall Street job, good luck or just being born into advantageous circumstances. Those things definitely help, but building wealth can happen by following a few best practices and habits consistently. And, you can even begin building wealth in your 50s. It is definitely not too late.…
Your brain is not necessarily set up in a way that makes it easy to plan a secure retirement. You have cognitive biases — faulty ways of thinking that are unfortunately hardwired into your brain — that work against you. Behavioral finance and behavioral economics are the study of these phenomena. Understanding behavioral finance and…
Life expectancy has mostly been rising in the United States — overall. However, recent research has found that there are significant differences in life expectancy by county. In fact, in many counties, the average life expectancy is 20 years — TWENTY years — shorter than in other areas.The good news is that some areas of…
What happens to your debt when you die? It’s possible that an individual can have so much debt after they die that it will wipe out the assets that they’d hoped to leave for their heirs. In some situations, family members may be on the hook for their deceased relative’s debt.However, this all depends on…
When approaching retirement, it’s common for people to start thinking about legacy planning: how they’ll be remembered and what they’ll leave behind. In most cases, leaving a legacy for children, grandchildren, or charities – and other causes people are passionate about – takes careful planning and the advice of a financial planner. Read on for…
If you are counting down the days until you can launch into the next stage of your life – retirement – this checklist can serve as a helpful guide. In the past, many people thought of retirement as a time of life when things slowed down. Now, retirement is more of a blast off into…
Pensions have pretty much gone away. We spend 20 to 30 years in retirement. And Social Security covers only a fraction of our retirement expenses. This means we are pretty much responsible for saving everything we need for retirement on our own. This may seem like a daunting challenge; some people might consider the help…
Financial advisor fees can be confusing because different kinds of financial advisors have various ways of charging for their services. These are the most common types of fee structures: commissions; flat or hourly fees; assets under management (AUM); and fee-based (a combination of fees and commissions). All of these payment methods are used by legitimate…
Many people have never met with a financial planner because they are afraid. They might be afraid that they are going to find out that their finances are insufficient, they might be afraid that they are going to feel stupid, or they may have some uncertainty over how to start the conversation. The fear of…
Before retirement, life has a predictable routine. Work takes priority, and oftentimes everything else is scheduled around it. From laundry to mowing the lawn, many people plan and keep a routine so that everything gets done. After retirement, there’s nothing but time! So, it might seem that schedules aren’t crucial. But a routine might be…
It has been nearly 30 years since the hit television sitcom starred in living rooms across the nation. However, we may be just reaching the golden age of the Golden Girls. While their arrangement may have seemed unusual at the time, four adult women sharing an apartment may not be that far-fetched. In fact, many…
While financial and health concerns are a major part of every person’s retirement decision, it’s important to ask yourself questions that go beyond financial preparedness to help determine at what age retirement is right for you. Americans are living longer than ever. This means that many individuals will actually spend more years in retirement than…
If you want to achieve retirement security, it may not be adequate to just have enough money saved and have a detailed retirement plan. Even if you have guaranteed retirement income, you’ve maximized your social security, you have terrific supplemental medicare insurance, and you know exactly what you want to do in your golden years,…
Are you thinking about buying a car? Will you need to buy a car at some point when you are retired? Cars can be a big purchase, and you should think carefully about your car choice in terms of your overall financial picture. No matter when you need to buy a car, you should consider…
Many people are finding that they need to work at least part-time in retirement in order to support themselves. Some people also find that they want to continue working in order to stay active. Though retirees can offer an organization incredible experience and insight, not everyone who wants part-time work in retirement is able to…
If you are a typical American approaching retirement, chances are you’re carrying some form of debt. In fact, the median debt per American household is $2,300, while the average debt stands at $5,700, according to a study by Lending Tree. But retiring with debt can be detrimental to retirement planning, says credit counselor Thomas Nitzsche,…
Everyone knows that they need a retirement plan. But that means different things to different people, and not every plan counts as a truly useful retirement plan. Sometimes a retirement plan is something that is prepared for you by a professional. It is likely a thoughtful plan, but how exactly is it going to be…
What is a Roth 401(k) plan? The Roth 401(k) is like a regular 401(k) – only better (at least for a lot of people). The classic 401(k) retirement savings account is largely the same from employer to employer, although there are some subtle differences. The Roth option is a game-changer, and an increasing number of…
Annuities have a strange reputation. Some people think they are a great way to guarantee income in retirement. Other people think of them as a bad investment. So what’s the real scoop on lifetime annuities? Forget everything that you might have heard about lifetime annuities: they’re great, they’re dangerous, they’re safe, or you could lose…
After a lifetime of working and saving, you’ve finally come to the point where you feel comfortable enough to retire. Though the long-winding path to reach this milestone was supposed to bring more peace of mind; instead, now that you’ve left the workforce, it has precipitated a fear of outliving your money. “The main financial…
You’ve probably read somewhere that you need $1 million in savings in order to retire. While that is not entirely true, we are here to tell you that it is possible to have a million-dollar retirement (even if you haven’t started saving quite yet).A recent report from the U.S. Federal Reserve found that nearly a quarter…
Saving for retirement is hard. However, when you are still working, creating a retirement investment plan can be seem straightforward. The goal is to simply grow the money. But when you retire, your investment goals become multi-faceted, layered, and downright complicated. You still want your money to grow, but you should take less risk. Plus,…