Category: Retirement

Save, invest, and plan for your retirement

Retirement

Do You Have Real Retirement Goals at Ages 20, 30, or 40?

Does the word “retirement” sound like a word in a foreign language? For a lot of folks, even thinking about retiring is a long and far away thought that is rarely discussed. If you’re a Gen Xer (born between 1965 and 1980ish) you might have it cross your mind, but if you are a Millennial (Generation Y born after 1980 to 1996) you probably think more about the toppings on your next pizza then any retirement goals, but should you? If you are now an adult, a 20-, 30-, or 40-something, do you have any real retirement goals or is it all just like a line from “Gone with the Wind”: “I’ll think about that tomorrow. Tomorrow is another day.”

20-something man fishing with retired man who’s living his retirement goals

The Numbers Just Don’t Lie

Too many Americans are unprepared for retirement, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers analysis. Around a quarter of all U.S. adults have no savings at all for retirement, and only about one third are on track in their planning. You should be making real retirement goals, based on your age, income, and marital status. Dare I repeat it again, start saving for it from day one when you get your first real job.

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Retirement, Saving & Investing

Don’t Screw Up Your Retirement Plan! 10 IRA Mistakes to Avoid

IRAs are the biggest places that people park their money for retirement in the country. In addition to direct contributions, a lot more money also comes from retirement assets from employers’ 401(k) accounts. According to the Investment Company Institute, Americans have over $35 trillion dollars socked away in total retirement assets right now. But here’s my warning: Don’t screw up your retirement plan with these IRA mistakes!

Money tree representing retirement assets and the 10 IRA mistakes to avoid

How Can Something So Simple Be So Dangerous?

Opening an IRA account seems like it’s a fairly simple thing. You go to a bank or you can pick a brokerage firm or a mutual fund company (even online), fill out a few forms, and then move some money into the account.

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Retirement, Taxes

Will Your Taxes on Social Security Income Spike When You Get Your Next COLA Increase?

At first thought, I was pretty happy about the idea of getting the largest Social Security COLA (cost of living adjustment) increase in decades, whether it is 6.0%, 6.1%, or 6.2%! It seems no matter what that final number is going to be, it will be a big increase. Let’s face it: even with all of the financial pressures and problems we have been dealing with for the past year and a half, the cost of living for Social Security recipients is always a topic of drama and concern. If you aren’t one of “us” now, you will be one day and then you will be much more sensitive to it, I assure you.

Elderly woman’s hands clasping her cane as she considers whether she will have to pay taxes on Social Security income

But what about your income taxes on Social Security income? If you receive Social Security, will your taxes spike because you just got a big COLA increase in 2022?

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Retirement

Retirement Plans: Do You Know What You’ll Do The Day After You Retire?

You’re focused on that big day, the day you retire. It’s something that you have been thinking about and planning for years now. You even have a “pre-retirement” checklist drawn up so you can get to your destination with ease. Well, maybe you do and maybe you don’t actually have it all written down and planned, but if I were to ask you, you’d probably say you did. But whether you have it all planned out and written down or not, there is usually one great big hole in just about everyone’s retirement plans and that is this: What are you going to do the day after you retire?

Senior woman holding her hat in front of blue sky, thinking about her retirement plans

“There’s Got to Be a Morning After”

Out of all the items that appear on your real or make believe pre-retirement checklist, having something to do after your retirement might be the most neglected item of them all.

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Retirement

Your 2022 Social Security COLA Increase May Be Huge

Update October 13, 2021: The Social Security Administration has announced a 5.9% COLA increase for 2022.

The pandemic we have all been experiencing has resulted in so many hardships. The ongoing spike in inflation that has Americans paying more for gas, food, cars, and many other things could lead to the biggest Social Security COLA increase in almost 40 years when officials announce the cost of living adjustment for 2022 in October. That’s just two months from now. And wouldn’t it help if that announced increase was to be a biggie? Well, it appears that it just might be. 2022 may see the largest Social Security monthly payout increases in almost 40 years!

Senior couple shopping in the supermarket after receiving a huge Social Security COLA increase

Social Security Changes – Are They on Your Horizon?

Every year some nuances are adjusted in the Social Security system. Usually it’s a modest increase in the amount you will receive and that is based on the CPI, the index that measures inflation each year. We can debate whether or not the index is a valid one. For years seniors have been claiming that it isn’t and doesn’t accurately reflect the “real” costs to seniors like medical costs.

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Retirement

5 Warnings About the Softer Side of Retirement

When you think about retirement, the planning stages seem to be pretty obvious and simple. You work all the years you want or need to, save some of your money, invest it wisely, and then at some point in time, you retire. Now after you do, life is easy, right? You might think so, but before you get surprised, let me give you some retirement warnings.

Retirement should be a great time in your life. But you'd better heed these 5 retirement warnings about things you might not expect.

Retirement should mean no more waking up at dawn, fighting the morning traffic, and dealing with a boss who you almost never agree with but have to deal with every day. Now you get to call the shots and enjoy life on your terms…finally! The plan seems perfect: work until about age 65 and then enjoy the good life of golfing, travel, gardening, and/or being a grandparent.

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Family & Relationships, More, Retirement

Why Future Shock Is So Scary and What You Can Do About It

Back in 1970, Alvin Toffler wrote a best-selling book entitled “Future Shock”. The book is about our present. But that present was based in a world of 1970 and the author’s theories on what our future would be like.

Future shock is what happens when we're overwhelmed by change. That can be scary, but there is something you can do about it...plan ahead!

Future shock is about what happens to those who are overwhelmed by change. Change affects our products, communities, organizations, and even our patterns of friendship and love. Fifty plus years later, we are still experiencing future shock and we are no better off at dealing with it today, so long after Tolliver first coined that phrase. That’s because our future is very scary. It always has been, and it always will be. But why is that?

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Retirement

Why Most Americans Do Not Prepare For Retirement

I just finished watching some really depressing information on CNBC today, information that I know is true, but still shocks the senses out of me when I hear and see it in detail. Americans do not prepare for retirement!

Have you done what you need to in order to prepare for retirement? Most Americans haven't prepared properly. Here's why and what can be done.

How it is possible that smart people like us (well supposedly smart, that is) just don’t take as much time looking at retirement as they do deciding what to order for dinner from Grubhub? That may be a small exaggeration, but you get my point. We tend to worry about retirement tomorrow a la Scarlet O’Hara in “Gone with the Wind”. So, why are Americans so unprepared for retirement?

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