Is the retirement crisis real? Whether or not you yourself are suffering, financial anxiety is acutely felt by many Americans. Research from the Employee Benefit Research Institute (ERBI) finds that the median retirement account balance for households led by someone between the ages of 55 and 64 is a mere $14,500. If you have more…
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Kathleen CoxwellAs a founder of NewRetirement, Kathleen is passionate about delivering empowering tools and articles to people who are concerned about retirement. She works with teams of writers and designers to deliver easy to understand information that help you make the right decisions about your financial future.
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Recent posts by Kathleen
Inflation is a dirty word when it comes to retirement finances. We have been lucky for a while. Over the last four decades the United States has enjoyed record low inflation rates. That might be changing and you may want to consider ways to protect your retirement from inflation — rising inflation. Is Inflation Coming?…
Job satisfaction in the United States has been falling since the late 1980s. Across all economic and age levels, around 50 percent of all American workers are unhappy at work according to the Conference Board who has been doing job satisfaction surveys for almost 20 years. Is retirement the answer? Are you retiring to run…
There are a lot of things that can potentially go wrong in retirement. Stocks could fall, inflation could skyrocket, high tides might flood your beach side retirement haven or maybe you tear your shoulder and can no longer golf or garden. None of these retirement events are out of the question, but they are not…
According to a report by NerdWallet, in 2018 84% of people made financial resolutions. If you are among these planners, but haven’t quite achieved your goals, it’s not too late. And, it can even be relatively easy! September, October, November, December… You still have four months to achieve your 2018 money related resolutions! Here are…
Doing a Roth conversion — also known as a “backdoor Roth IRA” — is perhaps even more appealing in 2018 than ever before. Why? Low 2018 tax rates. What is a Roth Conversion? Backdoor IRA? A Roth Conversion is when you convert money that you have in a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. This…
The stock market is enjoying a crazy long record setting expansion. By some measures, this is the longest bull market in the history of the United States. If this fact makes you nervous, you are not alone. No one wants their retirement savings at risk. So, Will the Stock Market Crash? Ha. Thought you’d get…
If you made it into the ranks of high income earners, you are probably going to be okay in retirement. If you are part of the working class, the news is not as great. The first victims of the income gap are beginning to retire and feeling financially secure in retirement will be difficult for…
It’s easy to assume that financial confidence increases over time. You make more money as you get older after all. However, the opposite appears to be true. Recent research suggests that financial stress — not confidence — increases as we age, peaks in mid life and then gets better through our 60s. This financial stress…
The more things change, the more they stay the same. In response to privacy concerns about the old Medicare cards that included your Social Security number on them, Medicare is in the process of issuing new Medicare cards. The new cards have a new number, but not much else is changing. Your wallet will hopefully…
When most people think about financial and retirement planning, feelings of stress, worry and anxiety rise in our throats. And, this stress exists for good reason. Less than 50% of people have a written retirement plan. The majority of people simply don’t have enough saved for this time of their lives. And, even if you…
We all love reading lists of the best places to retire. They interest us and they make us think about what is possible in retirement. Should you relocate? Or, is staying put one of the best places to retire? Why Relocate for Retirement? Days in a hammock on the beach? Fishing mountain streams? Long afternoons…
An Investment Policy Statement (IPS) is a document that is usually drafted by a financial advisor for their client. An IPS is meant to define: Investment goals Strategies for achieving those objectives A framework for making intelligent changes to your plan Options for what to do if things don’t go as expected Keep your retirement…
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. Wikipedia lists 185 different kinds of cognitive biases. While they are all probably somewhat damaging…
Jumbo reverse mortgages – also known as proprietary reverse mortgages – are loans designed and offered by financial institutions that enable owners of high-value homes to access greater amounts of their home equity than is available from the government insured HECM reverse mortgages. Unlike the standard HECM reverse mortgage, jumbo reverse mortgage products generally do…
Sometimes it feels like the world is designed for couples. People throw dinner parties for couples. Most forms ask about your spouse. And, let’s face it, retirement and aging — an era when you’ll genuinely sometimes need a helping hand — can feel kind of scary on your own. Whether by circumstances or choice, the U.S.Census…
Figuring out what you are going to do in retirement and how you are going to pay for it is not something you do once and just “forget about it.” You should plan for a quarterly retirement check in. Retirement planning is kind of like owning a house — you put in an upfront investment,…
Spiders. Snakes. The dark. Boogey men. Clowns. It’s likely that you have at least one of these fears. However, if you are around retirement age, then what scares you most is perhaps more menacing and real than any of those things. Transamerica recently published a new survey that lists the greatest retirement fears. Wouldn’t it…
Often times, a reverse mortgage transaction involves refinancing an existing “forward” mortgage into a reverse mortgage. However, it’s also possible to refinance an existing reverse mortgage to achieve a different interest rate or loan terms. Is reverse mortgage refinancing a good idea? A reverse mortgage is a loan that enables homeowners aged 62 or older…
The Internal Revenue Service (I.R.S.) is not usually thought of as an institution that adds a lot of value to our lives — to the contrary in fact. However, a few years ago, the researchers at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College came up with a simple and relatively safe retirement withdrawals strategy…
We might be getting older, but there is till time for learning some new retirement savings tricks. Do you have enough retirement savings? Are you feeling unprepared? Thanks to the following quick fixes, those worries end now. Old (and not so old) dogs can learn new tricks… Saving for retirement may seem daunting. You are probably…
We have announced this before, but it is true again: the NewRetirement Planner is now better than ever. We are VERY excited to announce the availability of 7 big powerful new features — some part of the PlannerPlus launch — a new premium subscription service. All of these new features are part of our continued…
Contrary to what many financial planners suggest, you can live on a lot less than 100% or even 80% of your pre-retirement income. In fact, a survey by T. Rowe Price of new retirees who have 401(k) account balances or rollover IRAs found that you can live comfortably on a lot less. The report suggests that nearly…
Social Security and Medicare are in real financial trouble. If you are of retirement age now, your benefits are probably not in peril. However, nothing is certain and if you dive into the numbers, you can see that there are very real concerns about the future of these programs. Big Problems for Social Security Become Real…
Preparing for retirement means having a financial plan as well as a good idea for what you want to do during this period of your life. Estate planning has a similar duo of goals: You want to establish a clear instructions for how your money and other assets will be distributed as well as figure…
