With the downturn in the market these past long months there is increasing talk about the pros and cons of converting an existing diminished IRA account into a Roth IRA. Both types of IRAs are designed to help you save for retirement while providing a tax advantage, but they do so in different ways. We thought it might help to [...]
While we often think of retirement in terms of ‘having enough money’, there are other considerations to think about. This week’s article does a good job talking about them by dividing considerations into three categories: Regret, Health, and Identity. Interestingly, the author tells us that financial worries weren’t among the top three considerations of the over 15,000 retirees over the [...]
Because one consequence of a recession can be layoffs from work, many of you are asking what a recession has to do with you if you're nearing retirement or are planning to leave the workforce soon anyway. You should also know that during a recession, another consequence is that stock values could plunge. And if you were relying on income from [...]
This is a phrase you may be hearing more frequently as the market dips lower and lower. It is a term often used when discussing how those who are near retirement can prepare when they know their future years of employment and wages are coming to an end, and their savings have dwindled dramatically due to stock market losses. The [...]
While inflation has certainly been in the news lately, one topic that doesn’t seem to be discussed all that often is private pensions, unlike Social Security payments, typically don’t offer a cost-of-living adjustment that keeps pace with inflation rates. While State and local government pensions do typically offer increases, that sometimes causes those who are in the private sector to [...]
There was a great article in the Wall Street Journal this past week that discussed a thought that the current tight labor market coupled with all of the remote and otherwise flexible opportunities in the job market might actually be a good time for retirees to think about going back to work in one form or another. That thought brings [...]
“On the surface, retirement planning hasn’t changed all that much over the years. You work, you save and then you retire. But while the mechanics may be the same, today’s savers are facing some challenges that previous generations didn’t have to worry about.” Those challenges are things we have often spoken about, a longer life expectancy probably being the most [...]
Tax-advantaged accounts, or qualified accounts, allow your portfolio to grow without the impact of taxes, a major benefit when it comes to savings for your goals. For retirement, there are multiple account options to choose from, and tax rules will most likely vary for each of them. It is very important to remember, however, that where you end up [...]
It is a natural inclination to worry more about our dependents then ourselves, and the same is true when it comes to life insurance. Two of the most frequently asked questions when considering life insurance are what financial resources will be available to survivors after your death and, what will their needs be? There are generally three categories of resources: [...]
Slow and steady wins the race is an idiom we have all heard, but rarely do we think to apply it to how we approach retirement planning. Taking a slower, more consistent approach often leads to a better outcome. It is easy to forget that and to take risks in order to ‘catch up’. With retirement planning there is no [...]