Retirement Planning

When it comes to retirement plans, what’s best for most people may not be best for you. You may sometimes need to go against traditional advice instead to create your optimal retirement plan. Consider how these common tips could affect you before deciding whether to incorporate them into your retirement plan. Rethink Retirement Advice to…

Some things, you can set and forget. They’re better off left alone. Like roses, for example. The more you fuss over them the more they’ll grow sickly. But growing your money isn’t like raising a beautiful grandiflora specimen. Retirement planning requires attention, and it needs it regularly. You don’t have to be a financial expert…

Single parents are powerhouses of efficiency. But one real drawback is that you might spend so much time focusing on providing and holding together the household that your own future gets put on a back burner for later. Kids might need braces, and there’s college on the horizon, too. But you can’t help everyone around…

A whopping 86% of Americans feel there is a retirement crisis upon them, and many have little faith in the government to help. How big is the crisis? Who is to blame?  What can we do to protect ourselves? How Big is the Crisis? So, how many people are truly financially unprepared for retirement?  The…

Retirement calculators are everywhere now, and the better ones can help you save more money. That means more retirement income when you need it, and a more effective way of getting it. The calculator idea is simple, at least from the front end. Enter your information, and out pops your summary. On the back end,…

You might not earn as much as a professional athlete, but if you want to retire early you could face some of the same challenges. Traditional retirement planning advice doesn’t lean toward deliberately short careers and long retirements. It’s usually just the opposite. So if you’re a high earner and do want to leave the…

The day you decide to do it is your lucky day – Japanese Proverb Have you ever thought that some folks are just born lucky? Sometimes it’s not really luck at all, but good, solid planning and a keen eye for making the right choices at just the right time. As it applies to retirement…

Whether retirement is near or a long way off, your plans could probably use a boost. Once you’ve been in the workforce long enough, you’ll know that cost-of-living increases are a fact of life. And chances are by the time you retire, the economy will bear little resemblance to what it’s like now. This is…

It’s no secret that Americans’ retirement security is shaky at best. But when the President is worried about our financial security, that should be a wake-up call —  no matter your political affiliation. “Too many older Americans leave the workforce without having saved enough for retirement,” Obama said during the recent White House Conference on…

The times… they are a changin…. again…. And changing is what we are doing.  In fact, 16% of workers say the age at which they expect to retire has changed in the past year, according to the 25th annual Retirement Confidence Survey, conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and Greenwald & Associates. Of…

It’s never too early to think about how you’ll one day transition out and retire. Leaving the workplace for good can be a shock, regardless of whether you’re looking forward to it or not. Many people spend years planning for retirement and looking forward to the day when it arrives. But for others who really…

It doesn’t matter if you’re just starting out or getting a late start with financial planning for retirement. All of it can look confusing before you have a plan, regardless of where you are in life. But you shouldn’t let the complexity of the details intimidate you. Retirement is one of the loftiest goals that…

No matter how much retirement planning you do, you cannot know whether your plan will work for you until you put it into action. Much like test-driving a car or trying on a shirt before you buy it, testing out your retirement plan to see if it fits can be a great way to see…

Are you worried about outliving your money? Join the club. This is one of Americans’ biggest retirement fears. More than half (57%) of CPA financial planners cited running out of money as the top concern for their clients, according to the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) Personal Financial Planning (PFP) Trend Survey. The 2015 survey…

No life is perfect, and things happen. Life happens. For whatever reason, the traditional retirement planning advice of starting early and contributing often doesn’t always work out. Many Americans get a later start than what’s ideal, but that doesn’t mean there’s no hope. There is a solution in most cases, and a retirement calculator can…

The retirement that you’ve always wished for won’t happen on its own. Unless you’re independently wealthy, or have a wealthy benefactor, it takes discipline and thought to save up for and plan retirement. Planning takes much more than one act, one decision, or one goal. It’s a lot of actions that evolve over time, ending…

Preparing for retirement can be a daunting task, so it helps to know what advice the best financial advisors have to offer. Here is retirement planning advice from 10 of the best-known personal finance experts. Suze Orman: Prepare for the Emotional Aspects of Retirement Suze Orman suggests that at least part of the decision about…

Retirement calculators give you a quick peek at what you will need to retire, and how your current plan is helping you reach that goal. But it’s more than just a snapshot tool. The real benefits come in the insight they offer. Retirement planning is more than following a step-by-step procedure to get from point…

“You will never retire.” Those are four dreaded words no person wants to hear, especially those nearing retirement — even those who have not saved for retirement have hopes of retiring. One in five people who are near retirement age have no money saved, according to a survey last year from the Federal Reserve. The…

The tools for financial independence are at your fingertips, as long as you know where to find them. In this interview, Mark H. of SimplePlanning.net talks about financial planners and calculators and how they can help individuals plan for retirement, college, and just about anything else. But savings isn’t all these planners and calculators help…

The U.S. is in the midst of a growing retirement crisis, and it’s only getting worse as an increasing number of Americans are less prepared to live on their savings than ever. According to “The Reality of the Retirement Crisis,” a report released this year by the Center for American Progress (CAP), more than 50…

If the thought of retirement has you furrowing your brows in anguish, you’re not alone. The possibilities of high medical bills, running out of savings and not being to afford daily expenses are Americans’ top three concerns around retirement, a recent Bankrate.com survey reveals. Other factors like the viability of Social Security weigh heavily on…

Sometimes it’s hard to even think about retirement when you have yet to find a job that really embodies what it means to work for a great company. Kim Peters of Great Place to Work has made a living out of identifying places of employment that go above and beyond what many expect from traditional…

Retirement for Baby Boomers and subsequent generations will look much different than it did for our parents and grandparents. Due to lifestyle changes and advances in medicine, Baby Boomers have a much longer life expectancy than previous generations. In fact, it’s increased more than six years since 1980, says Marc Des Rosiers, fellow of the…