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; […]
There are plenty of reasons to save money as a teenager. Whether you’re looking to save for your first car, college, or a gap-year trip around the world, the most important part of saving as a teen is getting started. Saving for life goals and big purchases is a great way to start to understand […]
Millennials, such as myself, seem to be known the world over for our poor choices, efforts to alter certain cultural norms, or collusion to shutter industries single-handedly. Another bad reputation we receive involves our seemingly perpetual problems for establishing good financial habits. I’ll be the first to admit $5 lattes and avocado toast did a […]
As you’re planning for retirement, you may think you have plenty of time to figure everything out. Especially if you still have decades before you can even consider retiring, it’s easy to push saving to another day down the road. However, successfully preparing for retirement requires a lifetime of hard work. You’ll likely need to […]
Early retirement may sound like a dream. However, if today’s retirees are any indication, you may want to rethink how you plan financially. A new survey from NerdWallet finds that today’s retirees stopped working at 59, on average. That is much lower than the traditional retirement age, which many still consider to be 65. Because […]
