When you work hard your entire life, you want a comfortable retirement to look forward to — and that means having enough money to pay your bills with enough left over for leisure and entertainment. But if you fall victim to these blunders, you could wind up in the opposite scenario — miserable and cash-strapped […]
Category: Personal Finance
How much you can expect to get from Social Security if you make $30,000 a year
Many workers are putting money toward retirement, whether they realize it or not. If you have a traditional job, you pay 6.2% of your salary in Social Security taxes. That number is then matched by your employer. And when you retire, you’ll be able to cash in and collect benefits based on all the years […]
3 Medicare Mistakes That Could Wreck Your Retirement
Medicare is a crucial part of retirement, yet 72% of Americans say they wish they better understood how the program works, according to a survey from Nationwide. Healthcare expenses can be significant in retirement, so not fully understanding Medicare could be a costly mistake. And these three mistakes in particular could throw off your entire […]
How to find your own personal retirement tax haven
One driving force behind your retirement relocation decision may be taxes. The wrong choice can eat up a whopping 40% of your cash flow, especially with property, income, excise, gasoline, fuel, sales and luxury taxes. Not to mention the estate tax and probate costs that form a merger between death and taxes. Don’t make the […]
Retirement: Managing unexpected expenses, an emergency fund
You might expect plenty of things in retirement – spending time with family and friends, traveling, focusing on your health wellness. But you’re also living in fear of unexpected expenses. In fact, roughly half of near-retirees and retirees say that’s the biggest fear they have/had about retirement, according to a recent survey published by Empower. […]
The most common credit card mistakes and how to avoid them
One of our primary goals here at TPG is to demystify the world of credit cards in order to help people travel the way they want without breaking the bank. That often requires overcoming a lifetime of misconceptions about how credit cards work and building good habits moving forward. No matter how easy we make […]
Maximizing credit cards during retirement
Being retired can offer you the time that you’ve always wanted to travel far more than you could when you were part of the workforce. You spent years (decades) saving up for retirement. After all that hard work, it’s time to enjoy yourself and think about retiring early. And as regular TPG readers know, credit cards […]
3 Reasons to Retire as Early as You Can
Many people put off retirement because they have to. They lack the money needed to stop working. If, however, you can honestly afford the retirement you want, then it might be worth retiring as young as you can. That can mean different things to different people. For example, you may do volunteer work, or enter […]
What ‘Love is Blind’ can teach us about personal finance
There is a lot to unpack after watching “Love Is Blind,” the unconventional reality dating show that rose to the top of Netflix’s most-watched list. “Love Is Blind” is a social experiment where single men and women forge romantic connections without ever seeing one another, with the ultimate goal of getting engaged. Each date takes […]
How Much Can You Count on Social Security in Retirement?
Social Security benefits are a major source of income for many retirees, but there are a few misconceptions about the program. Some soon-to-be retirees are worried that the program is going bankrupt and benefits will soon be a thing of the past, while other workers expect their monthly checks to cover all their expenses in […]
Your Guide to Start Saving for Retirement
Saving for retirement should be on everyone’s financial to-do list. Unfortunately, for many people, it’s hard to get started. It can be difficult to know what goals to set for yourself, and it may seem overwhelming to figure out how to invest your money in a way that balances risk and returns. While you may […]
Don’t just spring-clean your house: Tidy up your finances, too
As you shake off those winter doldrums, put away the snow boots and prepare to deep clean the house, you can add a new technique: spring cleaning your financial house. It’s so easy for us to put our financial lives on autopilot and fail to evaluate the ways we’re spending and the products we’re using. […]