Retirement Planning

“What is your greatest retirement fear?” If you ask retirees that question, “outliving my money” may likely be one of the top answers.  Retirees and pre-retirees alike share this anxiety. In a 2014 Wells Fargo/Gallup survey of more than 1,000 investors, 46% of respondents cited that very fear; 42% of the respondents to that poll…

Decades ago, retirement was fairly predictable: Social Security and a pension provided much of your income, you moved to the Sun Belt, played tennis or golf, and you lived to age 70 or 75. To varying degrees, this was the American retirement experience during the last few decades of the previous century. Those days are…

You can invest your IRA assets in different ways. Should you invest a portion of those assets in real estate? At first thought, putting real estate into an IRA may seem like an off-the-wall idea. It is one you might want to consider, but you must be aware of the rules. The concept is not…

The journey to and through retirement occurs gradually, like successive chapters in a book. Each chapter has its own things to consider. Chapter 1 (the fifties). At this stage of life, retirement becomes less like a far-off dream and more like a forthcoming reality. You begin to think about when you can retire, and about…

If you own a traditional IRA, perhaps you have thought about converting it to a Roth IRA. Going Roth makes sense for some traditional IRA owners, but not all. Why go Roth? There is an assumption behind every Roth IRA conversion – a belief that income tax rates will be higher in future years than…

(This a guest post submitted by the CFP Board) Washington, D.C., November 12, 2015 – For many Americans, retirement is something to look forward to – a time to celebrate years of hard work, enjoy family and friends, and embark on new adventures. But filing for government retirement benefits can be daunting, and new Social…

Over the past 12 months, consumer prices have increased very little. The latest Consumer Price Index (September) shows 0.0% yearly inflation and only 1.9% core yearly inflation. That means no cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security, and very few IRS adjustments to retirement plan contribution limits. Roth IRA & traditional IRA contribution limits stay the same…

What if you are laid off or forced into retirement before 65, or even before 60? If that happens to you, what do you do in response now that the next phase of your life is starting sooner than you planned? As a first step, gauge where you stand financially. It could be that the…

How does retirement planning differ for single people? At a glance, there would seem to be no difference in the retirement saving effort of an individual versus the retirement saving effort of a couple: start early, save consistently, and use vehicles that allow tax-advantaged growth and compounding of invested assets. On closer inspection, differences do…