Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
December 20, 2014 -- Last December we posted an article asking women to tell us what they were looking for in a financial advisor, along with their war stories on how it went when they did find one. Many did, and others also asked us to continue on with a followup that summarized that input. So here goes. The first part of this article provides you with the insights and comments of those who responded to our request. Part 2 provides advice for women at 2 top firms on how to find and get the most value out of your financial advisor.
What you said
We were fortunate to receive a multitude (19) of different comments with a wide range of helpful advice. Although we recommend you read all of these comments in detail, this section summarizes and
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Published on December 20, 2014
Comments 16
Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
November 8, 2014 -- We retirees have a strong desire to leave something for the kids once we go on to baby boomer heaven. A recent study by the Population Research Center at the University of Texas found that 86% of people aged 59-96 expect to leave an inheritance to their kids and grandkids. In reporting that study the New York Times article, "The Children Will Be Fine: Spend Their Inheritance", called this perhaps "the height of foolishness". Let's take a look why.
About half of baby boomers are concerned they won't be able to maintain their standard of living in retirement. Yet the 86% figure from the University of Texas study shows that even people stressed by their retirement finances still hope to pass something on to the next generation. The irony
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Published on November 8, 2014
Comments 40
Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
October 23,2014 -- Monthly Social Security retirement benefits will increase 1.7 percent in 2015. The cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) begins in January 2015 and affects benefits received by more than 58 million Social Security beneficiaries. The Social Security Act ties the annual COLA to the increase in the Consumer Price Index as determined by the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. To read more, please visit www.socialsecurity.gov/cola.
More Changes
The amount that beneficiaries under age 66 can receive before having
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Published on October 23, 2014
Comments 4
Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
October 13, 2014 -- Their are plenty of theories for the perfect amount to take from your retirement assets like 401(k)s and IRAs. They all try to solve the problem that if you take out too much too soon you will run out of money late in retirement, but if you are too cautious you miss out on a richer life, leaving too much of your assets to someone else, possibly the government. In contrast to some of the more complex theories, some experts suggest using a simpler measure and one that is widely in use. Their idea is to use the Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) that the federal government requires retirees to take from their retirement assets beginning in the year
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Published on October 12, 2014
Comments 14
Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
October 6, 2014 -- According to the EBRI only 55% of retirees are very or somewhat confident about their ability to live comfortably in retirement. That leaves a lot of people worried, most of whom have very little savings and no pension to fall back on.
There is good news though
Fortunately, even if you have minimal retirement savings and no pension other than Social Security, all is not lost. You probably have a retirement piggy bank that you never even thought about - your home! Indeed for most people, the value of their homes is greater than all their other assets combined.
My home is a plus, you scoff?
After all, housing expenses consume more than half of the household income of 1 in 3 Americans over 50, according to a study by Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies and the AARP. The average person over 65 spends 30% of their income on housing. While the fact that
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Published on October 6, 2014
Comments 44
Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
September 26, 2014 -- Most people understand that some areas of the U.S. are cheaper to live in than others. For the majority of retiring baby boomers who are concerned about maintaining their pre-retirement standard of living, it make a lot of sense to act on those differences. This is highlighted by a recent study by Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies and AARP that showed that an increasing number of America's retirement age citizens are stressed by their cost of housing. The study also warned that "the nation is unprepared for both the financial and non-financial housing challenges that will accompany the coming explosion in the elderly population."
The Tax Foundation has developed some extremely interesting maps - by state, town, and part of the country - that shows relative differences in purchasing power. The scale is based on an a purchasing scale of $100: if you have $100 to spend, how much value will you get in different locations. Based on the difference in local prices, in some you can buy
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Published on September 25, 2014
Comments 52
Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
September 22, 2014 -- Just about everybody we know still has the same recurring college-days nightmare: the final is tomorrow, and somehow you managed to overlook going to class all semester. You have no notes, know nothing, and doom is imminent. Well add to that one more, real life nightmare - your unpaid college loans.
The GAO analyzed data from the Survey of Consumer Finances and found that about
3 percent of households headed by those aged 65 or older — about 706,000 households — carry student loan debt. This compares to about 24 percent of
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Published on September 22, 2014
Comments 7
Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
EDITOR'S NOTE: Sept 10, 2015 -- We did a new and different survey on this topic last week. Here is a link to the Summary of Results from that article: "Maintaining Pre-Retirement Lifestyle a Challenge for Many".
September 15, 2014 -- Thanks to the over 800 members who took the time to contribute their valuable insights to last week's "Retirement Confidence" poll. We appreciate that so many of you are community minded enough to share your opinions and attitudes! As promised, here is a detailed report on the findings. At the end of this article you will also find a link to a document with more than 225 individual responses to question 12, "Do you have anything else you would like to tell us about your retirement confidence, or the other questions on this survey"? See a list of our previous survey reports at the end of the article.
Highlights
It is always interesting to find out exactly how our members feel
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Published on September 15, 2014
Comments 6
Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
August 23, 2014. How much of your pre-retirement income do you think you can count on once you are retired? A recent survey from T Rowe Price. "Retirees Live on Less", found that most of the retirees in their survey are getting along on about 2/3 of their working days income.
The survey was conducted by the big mutual fund company among people who had money in at least 1 401(k) account. Their median household assets – investments and home equity minus debts – were $473,000. That would put the sample much better off than the average retiree, since only half of Americans over 45 have managed to save
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Published on August 23, 2014
Comments 33
Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
July 28, 2014 -- Every year the 6 Trustees of the Medicare and Social Security trust funds issue a Report on the state of these 2 popular programs. This year the big news is favorable for the Medicare program - the year in which its Trust Funds are exhausted has been pushed back 4 years - to 2030. The good news is attributed to lower than expected inpatient hospital utilization, among other reasons, and represents a big change since last year's report.
Over in the world of Social Security the news is the same as last year - the combined Trust Fund for retirement and Disability depletion date
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Published on July 28, 2014
Comments 15
