Outside of workplace retirement accounts, a Roth IRA is one of the most popular places to stash your retirement savings. Its benefits are many: Most people can open one with any bank or brokerage they want, you get tax-free withdrawals in retirement, and the government won’t force you to take money out before you’re ready. […]
Even if Social Security is not a big slice of your retirement income portfolio, it’s a valuable component. You get an annual cost-of-living adjustment, and benefits are backed by the U.S. government. Think of Social Security as “an inflation-adjusted lifetime income annuity,” said Jay Abolofia, a certified financial planner in Weston, Mass. “It’s a guaranteed […]
The 4% rule answers a question every retirement investor asks at some point: How much can I afford to withdraw each year from my savings, so that I don’t run out of money? While it’s great for planning to have an easy answer, there’s one big problem: The 4% rule may need to retire before […]
Though you should expect to collect some money from Social Security as a senior, and you may have a decent amount of retirement savings to tap, generating extra income during your later years is never a bad idea. You never know when costly home repairs or medical bills might creep up out of nowhere, and […]
For Americans with access to them, workplace 401(k)s can be the simplest type of retirement account. After all, signing up for one just involves doing a little paperwork and requesting to have money withheld from your paychecks. And in some workplaces, the default is to auto-enroll you, so you really don’t have to do much […]
Whether you’re starting out your career or getting close to retirement, your goal should be to pay the IRS as little tax as possible. And health savings accounts (HSAs) can help you do just that. HSAs are unique in that they’re triple tax-advantaged. Contributions are made with pre-tax dollars, investment growth in an HSA is […]
ou may not have started 2020 thinking about a move. But like it or not, many of us have had to reconsider our living situations during the pandemic. Maybe you’re one of the lucky ones who can now work remotely, or maybe you’re out of a job like millions of others. You may be wondering […]
The possibility of more campus closures has sparked a sudden interest in withdrawing from college before it’s too late. “All of us are counting down to the tuition deadline,” said Carla Voight, 20, a junior at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, referring to the last day students are eligible for some reimbursement if […]
Your 30s call for a lot of financial decisions. As you settle into your career, perhaps you see yourself applying for a mortgage on your first home or starting a family. These choices require having good credit and a bundle of savings that you hopefully started building early on in your 20s. But as you work toward these […]
If you’re saving for your first home, there’s no shortage of advice out there — some of it questionable, even if you do have an avocado toast habit. Still, it’s true that your down payment may be the biggest check you ever write. But once you move in, it’s also true that the cash tends […]
The mystery isn’t why so many people file for bankruptcy each year. It’s why more people don’t. Each year, only a fraction of the Americans who could benefit financially from bankruptcy actually seek relief. Economists say some don’t file because collectors aren’t aggressively pursuing them, while others may strategically delay filing because bankruptcy could benefit […]
Emergency savings can help you out if unexpected expenses arise. But the coronavirus pandemic has caused the majority of Americans to dip into their rainy day funds, with many expected to deplete them by the end of 2020. Roughly three in five Americans (61%) say their emergency savings won’t last through the end of the […]
