When you are retired, or near retirement, it is generally a good idea to have a percentage of your savings in investment vehicles that are lower in risk. However, it can be difficult to find low-risk, high-return investments — especially now with Certificate of Deposit (CD) and savings account rates at less than one percent.…
How are you going to pay for retirement? How is everyone else doing it? What is the average retirement income for 2021? Has it changed a lot from past years with the pandemic? Are you anywhere close to average? 2020 was a devastating year for the finances of many households. And surprisingly, it was also…
Early retirement is a dream for many. However, a really early retirement is fairly rare. According to research published on LIMRA, only about 20% of all Americans retire in their 50s or before — with most of those happening after age 55. For those that do retire early, figuring out how to fund expenses can…
Let’s get real about investing in real estate for retirement. Investing of any kind can be complicated at any point in your life. However, investing in or near retirement can be especially arduous. At retirement you need your assets to be relatively free of risk while keeping pace with inflation. In many cases, you need…
You may have seen the news: Interest rates in the United States are at historic lows. That sounds great. But is it really? What are the effects of low interest rates on your retirement? Read on to see the pros and cons of low interest rates on your retirement plan. And, how to make the…
Retirement tax planning is a critical part of preparing for a secure future. The good news is that with so many possible retirement income sources, you have many different opportunities to potentially reduce your tax burden. And, you may even discover that reducing taxes can enable you to retire a little earlier than you might…
There are many guidelines around how to drawdown your savings in retirement (the 4% rule, the multiply by 25 rule), but what if you don’t have to spend your savings? You can generate retirement income with dividend stocks, and in a world where savings accounts produce less than a 1% return, dividends can provide a…
You’ve worked diligently and paid your taxes along the way. When retirement finally arrives, you deserve to collect at least some tax-free retirement income without Uncle Sam coming back for more. With a bit of strategic planning, it’s possible to enjoy much or even most of your retirement income tax-free. The following seven sources are…
After the stress of building careers and raising kids, most people’s happiness seems to start increasing at around age 65. And, we keep getting happier until it peaks at around age 85. Want to do a little extra to make sure you have a happy retirement? Try these tips: Think About Your Death Yes, you…
If you’re reading this, you’re likely someone who: saves money, has built up some assets, and is starting to think about how to create a retirement drawdown strategy – a plan for how to turn your assets into income that will last for life. Having a sound retirement drawdown strategy and keeping to it is…
One of the biggest fears you probably have about retirement is if your money will last as long as you do. It is likely that you are also asking: How much can I spend? How much do I need? How much do I actually have? There are so many questions. Good news: the Stanford Center…
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…
“The most important thing you can do for your retirement is have a plan, specifically a retirement income plan. A plan covers far more than what investments to pick. Investments are the last part of the plan; the icing on the cake. They should come only after you have the main meal menu in place,…
This deep dive into the concept of using an income floor to establish a three bucket plan for retirement income needs comes from Glen Nakamoto. First of all, just to make clear, I am not a financial advisor or anyone who has any background in financial planning. Before I retired, I was a cybersecurity analyst…
We’ve spent our whole lives working, spending the money we earn and hopefully saving a little too. When we retire, everything we have ever experienced about managing our own finances gets turned upside down. We no longer earn as much or any money from work. We have to figure out how to make do with…
William Sharpe is a Nobel Prize winning economist and the professor of finance, emeritus, at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. His Nobel was awarded for developing the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). He is also well known for the Sharpe Ratio, a number designed to summarize the desirability of an overall investment strategy. However,…
Believe me, you are not alone if you have nervously asked yourself, your spouse or even a financial advisor: “will my retirement savings last as long as I do?” Concerns about running out of money in retirement are almost universal — no matter how much money you have. After all, there are many unknowable variables…
Passive income streams are income sources that you benefit from without too much effort — the money just flows in. Create passive income streams and just enjoy retirement… Passive income streams are therefore ideal for retirement. In retirement we are trying to maximize the time we spend on leisure activities while minimizing work or burdensome…
If you own a home, it was likely one of the smartest lifelong financial moves you have ever made. In addition to providing a safe haven for living your life, it is also a forced savings account and a hard asset that can appreciate over time. However, did you know that it is also a…
Retirement is a big deal and a huge life change. You have a whole new lifestyle and need a very different way of thinking about your money. In fact, your financial mindset needs to get flipped upside down. You need to go from a focus on accumulation (saving, saving, saving) to spending (efficient use and…
Earlier this week I traveled to Chicago to attend the Retirement Income Summit — a financial advisor industry conference focused on the latest ideas about how to improve and secure retirement income. I saw presentations, met up with insiders in the financial services industry and found a few ideas to help you have a better…
Whether retirement means kicking up your feet, pursuing a new career or enjoying a favorite hobby, there’s one looming concern most Americans share: running out of money. A study from Allianz Life Insurance found that most Americans fear running out of money in retirement more than they fear death. Sixty-one percent of all respondents said…