The coronavirus pandemic has led to a dramatic decline in mortgage rates. But that doesn’t mean now is a good time to refinance for everyone. Last week, Freddie Mac FMCC, -0.94% reported that mortgage rates hit a new record low for the fourth time this year, with the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage […]
If you’re looking for a safe place to keep money that you don’t intend to spend soon, you may want to consider a Certificate of Deposit (CD). What You Need to Know About CDs Money expert Clark Howard says that CDs can offer higher interest rates than simple savings accounts and they don’t expose you to the risks […]
Amon and Christina Browning retired at age 39 and 41, respectively. But it didn’t just happen overnight. For eight years, the couple found creative ways to reduce their cost of living while saving as much as 70% of their paychecks. It required a lot of forethought, but once they automated their money they found that […]
When it comes to retiring, few people want to quit work cold turkey. Close to 6 out of 10 workers around the world would like a phased transition — a gradual shift from full-time work into part-time or freelancing — as they enter retirement, according to a survey from the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies. […]
As Americans deal with financial fallout related to the coronavirus pandemic, the IRS released new guidance hoping to give relief to some retirement savers. The CARES Act allowed individuals to skip taking their required minimum distribution in 2020, but some people may have already taken it prior to the onset of the policy. This week, […]
Roughly 58% of Americans say the coronavirus pandemic is having a negative effect on their retirement savings, while 72% say the crisis has made them rethink their retirement savings strategy, according to a recent survey by Allianz Life. These statistics show real concern among Americans about protecting their nest eggs in this period of market […]
The money you get from Social Security won’t be enough to cover your retirement expenses entirely. Those benefits will only replace about 40% of your pre-retirement income if you earn an average wage, and most seniors need about twice that amount to cover their expenses without feeling squeezed financially. That’s why saving for your senior […]
THIS YEAR STARTED ON A positive note for most investors; 2019 provided stellar returns for almost all asset classes and at the start of the year, it appeared those gains would continue. But we all know what happened next. An extremely fast and deep bear market, widespread business closures and record unemployment damaged the economy. Yet in […]
EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE, it happens – you wind up with a small windfall of cash in your bank account that isn’t immediately earmarked for bills. For many people, that happened this year. As you know, a stimulus check – most of them being around $1,200, with possibly more if you have children – was sent from […]
Establishing a financial foothold has been anything but easy for millennials. Born between 1981 and 1996, the bulk of this age cohort was set to launch into adulthood right when the Great Recession hit 13 years ago, essentially pushing them back about 10 yards from the starting line. While the current financial fallout from the […]
If you’re a glass half full person, here’s some good news: About half of retirees are able to maintain their spending levels—in other words, their lifestyles—during their first five years of retirement. On the other hand, half aren’t. That’s according to a study by the federal government’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which looked at […]
Most of the top government officials you see on nightly TV — whether elected, appointed or regular civil servants — belong to the government’s in-house 401k plan. They may not be financial gurus, but they are trying to guide the nation through the current pandemic, keeping an eye on China and India’s face-off, monitoring the […]
