Category: Retirement

Save, invest, and plan for your retirement

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The Investing Strategy Wall Street Doesn’t Want You to Know

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For today’s guest post on a personal investing strategy, please welcome fellow personal finance blogger Joseph Hogue.

Making investing personal will not only make investing cheaper but will motivate you and help you reach your financial goals

Two stock market crashes in less than a decade into the new millennium and a lot of people wonder if investing is worth the risk and the worry. Keeping up with the ups-and-downs of the stock market and picking the best investments can seem like a part-time job.

You wouldn't know it from listening to Wall Street and the investment industry, but the best way to invest is with a personal investing strategy. Making it personal will help you get where you want to go financially.

But investing doesn’t have to be like that.

In fact, the best investing strategy is one about which you don’t worry at all. Continue reading

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Today’s Mail Brought Me an Unexpected Financial Windfall!

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Today started like any ordinary day around here. Had my breakfast, watched a little CNN, checked out my emails, and played a bit of free online slots. It was a typical Monday morning here in exciting retirement land. Yeah, real exciting, huh? Well, nothing like a financial windfall to add a little pizzazz to your day!

I am thrilled to receive an unexpected financial windfall, but I should have known it was coming. Make sure you know what your retirement situation will be.

I am a creature of habit these days and although there are a few surprises here and there that do happen, what happened today was totally unexpected! I am still pinching myself and I am overwhelmed. Today’s mail brought an amazing letter from one of my former employers, R.H. Macy. Continue reading

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The Chances of Living to 100 and Why You Should Care

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You may be wondering “Why should I be reading about living to 100 and what does this have to do with me and my personal finances?” Interestingly enough, you do have a good question there. You might be in your 20’s, 30’s or 40’s and thinking, “Please Gary, I have so much to worry about, why that subject now?” Well, truth being told here, you probably won’t live to be 100. But what if you do?

Your chances of living to 100 are increasing as time goes by. Here's how to make the best of those chances and the most of your older years.

How many people are living to 100?

Centenarians, once a rarity, are the world’s fastest growing age group. Since 2000 when there were 50,281 of them here in the US, the group has grown by 44% to 72,197 (as of 2014). That makes this age group just about 0.003% in the United State, yes still small, but almost three times as many as there were in 1980 according to a report by CNN in 2016. Continue reading

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Social Security COLA for 2018: Is It All Good News?

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If you’re looking for information on the upcoming COLA for 2019, please see Anticipating Social Security COLA 2019 – Where Are We Headed?

Update 10/13/2017: The Social Security COLA for 2018 has been announced at 2 percent.

Right about now, retirees and Social Security recipients are anxiously awaiting the Social Security Administration (SSA) announcement of what might be a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) (if there is one) for 2018. I say “if” because as we have seen in recent years, the COLA adjustment hasn’t always been there for the many who depend on it to survive in a very costly 21st century world. So, will it be all good news?

It sounds like Social Security will announce a COLA (cost of living adjustment) for 2018, but is it all good news? Check out the reasons it might not be.

Social Security beneficiaries have lost almost one third of their buying power since the year 2000 as the cost of things purchased by these recipients, typically the elderly, have continually outpaced any inflation adjustments made by the government and the SSA according to a recent report by The Senior Citizens League (TSCL). Continue reading

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21st Century Retirement Strategies That Will Make You Secure, Part 2

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In part one of 21st Century Retirement Strategies, I talked about the need to start your retirement plans at the very beginning of your working career. I wasn’t kidding. I have a hard time believing that people don’t think about it 100% of the time. It should be done as soon as you are employed and eligible to participate in your employer’s retirement plan, or if self-employed able to contribute to a plan you create yourself. Not only that, it should also be a consideration when you are interviewing for a job, even when changing jobs. Finding out what the benefits are when it comes to retirement plan options may not seem that important, but it is.

In Part 2 of 21st Century Retirement Strategies, I cover the different factors and investment vehicles you'll want to consider in a well-rounded plan.

Retirement planning is as much of a skill as just about anything you that you do in life. The main problem is that for most of us there isn’t much education or preparation for it and we have to learn as much as we can on our own. Fortunately, you might say, we have a fairly long period between day one of work and retirement day to figure it all out. Today, I’ll cover some of those retirement strategies that can help you secure your golden years. Continue reading

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21st Century Retirement Strategies That Will Make You Secure, Part 1

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Having reached the age of 67, it’s only now that the realities of retirement have actually sunk into my brain. After all, like most of us, that kind of event always seems like it’s far off in the distant future. It’s a lot like thinking about your long term health prospects in that you seem invincible in some respects and working every day fortifies that feeling.

In the 21st century, retirement strategies are changing. In Part 1 of this series, I discuss how health and Social Security will impact your retirement.

Realistically, we all know that retirement is coming whether it is in a far distant future or just peaking over the horizon. But even knowing that, we sometimes don’t paint a realistic color to what it will actually be like. Will it be a time of exploration, fun, and peace of mind? Or will it be a time of struggle, difficulties, and a less comfortable lifestyle? The way your retirement unfolds is never 100% under your control but the ways you prepare for it are for sure. That’s why you need some solid retirement strategies. Continue reading

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Why Senior Citizens Want to Stay in the Workplace

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Most people think of a “senior” or a retired person as someone who sits around in the back yard snoozing on and off or perhaps hitting the golf course for a round with his retired friends. After all, most retirees have spent decades rising and shining every day and working there as$$es off to provide for themselves and their families and deserve some time to relax and have some fun in their “golden years”. And in most cases, they really do deserve a chance to just hang out and not carry the weight on their shoulders they have had for most of their lives.

Senior citizen jobs are becoming more important & prevalent as retirees go back to work. Here's some of the reasons why they want to stay in the workplace.

But a not-so-funny thing has happened to many older people these days. Many of them have found out that sitting around in retirement isn’t all that it was cracked up to be. There are a lot of reasons for that, so today’s post is something I can write about firsthand and with absolute certainty: why senior citizens want to stay in the workplace. Continue reading

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How to Maximize Your Social Security Benefits

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I don’t care who you are or how old you may be, you have thought about Social Security from time to time. It may be because you are wondering if there will even be such a thing when you retire. Perhaps you are approaching your retirement years and are wondering exactly what you will be getting every month once you start to draw upon it. Whatever the reason that Social Security has crossed your mind, the time for thinking about it isn’t when you are turning 66 or 67. Figuring out how to maximize your Social Security benefits starts long before that.

If you want to know how to maximize your Social Security benefits, start thinking about it now! Here are 12 ways to increase your benefits.

In fact, the time to think about your Social Security benefits is always now. Here’s why. There are a dozen factors that determine what you will get as your monthly payment when the day finally arrives for you to collect. Many of those items are things you do when you are young, middle aged, and then finally retired and each of those things will affect the amount you receive. Don’t believe me? Here are 12 ways you can increase you Social Security payouts when you retire by simply following these behaviors along the way starting right now! Continue reading

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Deep in the Heart of TAXES

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Benjamin Franklin once said “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”. Particularly here in the USA, you certainly can’t deny that, can you? You can’t really ever avoid the subject of taxes, especially right around now since the big and dreaded April 15th deadline (ok, this year it’s April 18th) is less than a month away! The truth however is this: income taxes are not the only taxes we have to deal with every day, and retirement and taxes is something we need to plan for. It’s not something that is new and it’s not something that is going away.

Taxes are an inevitable part of life, but when you mix retirement and taxes you know you need to do some planning. Here are some tax situations to consider.

The net is this: my paycheck is gross!

Back in the days when I used to get an actual paycheck, the first thing I would look at was the “net” amount of my check compared to the “gross”. There was always a big difference between those two numbers and most of it was centered on taxes. It always amazed me how many different ways they could slice up my paycheck and no matter what my salary was that number was always smashed by those payroll tax deductions. Continue reading

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What Will a Fed Interest Rate Hike Mean to You?

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Update 03/15/2017: The Fed has announced a quarter point increase as expected.

For almost 10 years, while our economy has been struggling to recover from the recession, one thing that has been a big plus and important to people has been the historic lows in interest rates, but that may be about to change. While the job market was down, the stock market was down, and the emotions of the American people were down, interest rates were adjusted so that many people were still able to afford to buy a home and use their credit cards. But, the Federal Reserve Board (a.k.a. the Fed) raised interest rates last December for just the second time in the last 10 years. That may be the beginning of a huge change over the next couple of years, and that begs a lot of questions.

On Wednesday, it's pretty likely that we'll see a Fed interest rate hike. Here's what that means for the different areas of your financial future.

What a Fed Interest Rate Hike Could Mean

1. How certain is a rise in interest rates?

There is little doubt that interest rates will go up again, beginning this coming week. On Wednesday, March 15th the Fed is expected to announce just that. It’s a move that was almost guaranteed by the good news about the job reports released last week, increases of 235,000 jobs and the drop of the unemployment rate to a low 4.7%. There was also good news about wage growth that further indicates the recovery is moving along at a much better rate than before. Continue reading