It’s a fairly common practice for some people that before they make a major purchase, they do whatever they can to try things out first. Sometimes this is literally a “test drive,” as one would do before buying a new automobile. Some individuals might even try to rent a home in a new neighborhood before committing to move there and buy one. This same “test drive” concept can even be applied to various types of life decisions as well. For example, some young couples choose to live together before deciding whether or not to get married. You can even...

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If you have a pension that you’ll be able to draw upon during retirement, then there’s a good chance that you’re in a better financial position with respect to retirement than many others. The more sources you have to draw upon for retirement income; not just pensions, but also Social Security benefits, as well as your IRA and 401(k) accounts; the better. But many pensions provide their beneficiaries with a choice on how to receive their benefits: either to receive monthly payments for the rest of their lives, or to receive a single lump sum as soon as they retire. ...

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For many individuals, saving for retirement is a somewhat unusual concept. On the one hand, the general concept of saving for retirement is easy to understand – you’ll need a lot of money to live off of once you stop working, so you need to be sure to save throughout your working years in order to accumulate enough money. On the other hand, knowing how much is “enough” and the best path to get there can be quite difficult to figure out. There is no one-size-fits-all approach that will work for everyone, so the way to find the best solution...

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Many economists believe that one of the big financial “ticking time bombs” in the U.S. is the fact that current levels of retirement savings are very low, and that the Social Security retirement program – which was never intended to be the primary source for an individual’s long-term retirement income – is under stress. In an effort to get more people saving, the President in his 2014 State of the Union Address proposed the creation of a new retirement savings vehicle. This new account structure has tentatively been designated the “myRA” (short for “My Retirement Account”). While it’s still likely to...

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Like any other personal finance goal, getting to retirement with a healthy nest egg requires long-term planning and effort. But the plan you might have come up with early in adulthood might no longer be the best way for you to reach your retirement savings goals. It’s important to remember that you need to revisit your long-term financial plans from time to time, and make changes to that plan if necessary. Fortunately, you may not need to start over from scratch – instead, you simply may need a retirement savings tune-up. Here in some retirement advice on five steps...

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Effective retirement planning is much more than just plugging a few numbers into an online calculator in order to come up with an amount that you need to save each month. Unfortunately, it’s easy to fall into a mindset of thinking that coming up with a long-term retirement plan is just that simple. The retirement planning process is actually highly individualized, and the best way to come up with a plan for reaching your goals is to avoid taking a “cookie cutter” approach. Instead, you can start by asking yourself the following most important retirement planning questions, then using...

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The state of health care in the United States continues to be one of the most controversial issues of the day. Many things are starting to change in response to the Affordable Care Act, for example, as are the ways that we approach health care in general. By the same token, more attention is being paid to how senior citizens are dealing with their retirement years from a financial perspective. With such a large number of baby boomers entering retirement over the past few years, the issues surrounding healthcare during retirement are becoming increasingly significant. Here are some of the...

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As increasingly larger numbers of baby boomers reach retirement, some are being faced with an uncomfortable reality – namely that they’re not in as strong of a financial position as they assumed they would be. In many cases, the financial realities of the situation are making it so that some of these individuals have to change their retirement plans. While it might be tempting to attribute most of the situation to the recent financial crisis, the truth is that every generation has seen significant market declines (and usually multiple declines) in the time between entering the workforce and retirement. Let’s...

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Even after you enter retirement and are no longer earning a wage (or even if you just cut back your work schedule for a “working retirement”), you still need to do tax planning. Your retirement income is still generally subject to federal taxation, regardless of whether its investment income from your 401(k) or Traditional IRA, pension income, or even in some cases Social Security income. But while you won’t be able escape your liability for federal taxes, you have a greater degree of control over how much you’re liable for in state taxes. Different states have different ways of generating...

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With seniors enjoying longer lives, but having fewer defined benefit pension plans to rely on to fund their retirement years, many are finding creative ways to cut back on their living expenses. Those who haven’t been able to save enough to enjoy the type of retirement they once assumed they’d have are now adjusting their lifestyle expectations accordingly. One way seniors are cutting back is by using a car sharing service instead of owning and maintaining their own automobiles. Because car sharing is still a relatively new industry, it may not be familiar to many of us. Here are some...

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