Many people dream of retiring early, or at least on time. But if you kick off that milestone unprepared, you’ll regret pulling the trigger. And while delaying retirement may not be something you want to do, it’s something you’ll have to do if these three scenarios apply to you. 1. You’re short on savings You need independent […]
Here’s a quick calculation that can show you whether your finances are ready for you to retire: Take your last 12 months of spending and multiply it by 25. If your investment portfolio exceeds the product, you’ve crossed the threshold of financial freedom. If not, keep socking away until you get there. This quick math […]
In this campaign season, fixing Social Security is once again emerging as a major topic. As figure 1 shows below, the cost of the program as a percentage of payrolls is higher than revenues. In the short term, the gap can be filled by drawing down the trust fund that was built up after the […]
OBSERVATIONS FROM THE FINTECH SNARK TANK Thank you for pulling yourself away from your Facebook feed, your Twitter feed, your LinkedIn feed, your Instagram feed, your Snapchat feed, and your [what-else-am-I-missing?] feed in order to spend the three minutes it will take to read this. But I’ve got great news for you. You’ve got a […]
Retiring rich is a dream many people share, but few are able to achieve. Close to half of baby boomers (45%) have no savings at all, according to a report from the Insured Retirement Institute, and of those who do, more than one-quarter have less than $100,000 squirreled away. But if you’ve been working hard […]
If your retirement money is spread across different types of accounts, you might want to see if your investments are making the most of that. Because taxation varies among retirement accounts, the investments you hold in each of them should ideally capitalize on those differences, experts say. In other words, you should consider “asset location.” […]
Nearly four in five Americans age 40 to 79 have less than $500,000 saved for retirement, according to a recent TD Ameritrade survey, and roughly one in three in that age group has less than $50,000 saved. I probably don’t need to tell you that’s a huge problem. The average household headed by someone 65 […]
Even in retirement, you likely won’t be able to escape Uncle Sam taking a chunk of your earnings. If you’re not preparing for taxes in retirement, your savings likely won’t go as far as you think they will. You may owe thousands of dollars in taxes each year, depending on what your retirement income looks […]
Seniors who want to start collecting Social Security have an eight-year window to sign up. That window begins at age 62 and runs all the way until age 70. In fact, technically, you can sign up after age 70, though there’s no financial incentive to wait beyond that point. Now you’ll often hear arguments in favor of […]
If you saw this headline and said to yourself, “I think I’ve already read about that secretary,” think again. There are actually plenty of secretaries who have become millionaires by retirement. I recently wrote about one, Sylvia Bloom, late last year. (I’ve reported on a millionaire retired janitor, as well.) Here’s another secretary, though, who’s […]
There’s a new solution for millennials struggling with rising rents, but it has a familiar feel. Communal living, or co-living, brings together a group of people, likely strangers, in a shared space. Often, there are private sleeping quarters but the kitchens and work areas are communal spaces. It’s not unlike a college dorm. Although considerably […]
Working folks would do just about anything to avoid paying taxes, and seniors, too, are eager to ease that burden. In fact, in some ways, it’s even more important to be tax-savvy when you’re older because at that stage of life, you may be limited to a fixed income that gives you less financial flexibility. […]
