For years, many workers nearing retirement have professed plans to work part-time during retirement. But few retirees have actually continued working part time. Things are changing. A recent survey of pre-retirees and retirees shows that the gap between planning to work in retirement and doing so has narrowed. I have to confess I was a […]
On a recent weeknight, Dahlia and Adam Brown came home to their spacious Colonial on a quiet cul-de-sac in Marietta, Ga. The Browns both work demanding jobs and have two young sons. They bought the house in June using Knock, a company that’s trying to revolutionize the real-estate industry with a “home trade-in platform” making […]
Members of Generation Z (age 22 and under) are now the youngest employees in the workforce. But as they start their professional careers, many are failing to focus on a key aspect of their personal finances: their savings. In fact, 57% of Gen Z has no idea how much they have in personal savings, compared […]
You’ve probably already heard about the FIRE movement. FIRE stands for financial independence, retire early. Usually, the people who follow it are in their 20s and 30s and saw what happened to the economy in 2008 and have decided to put saving above all else in a bid to free themselves from worry. They’re having […]
If you are in your sixties or seventies you are probably spending a fair amount of time trying to figure out what the next decade or two of your life is going to look like. I can relate. In the past few years, the non-financial side of retirement planning has been the most popular topic […]
Most Americans would probably have a hard time wrapping their heads around a $350,000 salary. In fact, government data cited by Sam Dogen of the Financial Samurai blog shows that some 95% of U.S. households don’t pull in that much. The median household income in the U.S. is $57,782, with places like San Francisco and […]
When it comes to the forecast for your Social Security benefits in 2020, there’s good news and bad news. Your Social Security checks are poised to grow next year; however, the annual increase likely won’t be as much as you got in 2019. That’s according to The Senior Citizens League, which on Thursday released its […]
It’s a fact: low-wage workers don’t save much for retirement. States are aiming to fix that. But here’s a question: is it really a problem that needs to be fixed? How hard should we push the poor to save for retirement? Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that 75% of workers in the upper half […]
If you’re your own boss, chances are you aren’t doing enough to save for retirement. Just over 1 in 10 of self-employed individuals in a single-person business is currently participating in a workplace retirement plan, according to data from The Pew Charitable Trusts. In comparison, 72% of employees in larger companies utilized a 401(k) at […]
Do you expect to spend the same amount in each and every year in retirement? Of course not. Yet many financial plans nevertheless assume that you will. The famous 4% rule, for example, grew out of research about what steady withdrawal rate you could maintain throughout retirement and never run out of money—even if the […]
More Americans have retirement accounts today when compared with past decades – but that doesn’t necessarily mean everyone is saving enough to live comfortably throughout their later years. According to a new study from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the percentage of households with retirement accounts – including defined contribution (DC) plans and IRAs – […]
Saving for your kid’s college education isn’t easy, but you can probably save a lot more than you think. Here are six important things to know to start squirreling away and investing money in a smart way, including how to save in a 529 investment plan. 1. Save as much as you can for college; […]
