“How much do I need to retire?” This is one of the most frequently asked questions in the world of retirement finance. If you don’t have a lot of retirement planning experience it can also be a tough question to answer. This article will hopefully give you some sense of where you might want to be headed in terms of answering this question and also get you up to speed on the classic retirement savings advice. [...]
The following two types of retirement savings methods may sound similar, but there are a lot of important differences that might be useful for you to know if you’re looking to get a better understanding of what retirement might look like for you. Defined-Benefit Let’s start with a defined-benefit plan. These types of plans commonly come in the form of pension plans.[1] A pension plan guarantees a certain level of retirement benefit based on your salary [...]
How you handle taxes and when you are taxed are two of the most important factors when it comes to retirement planning. If you are putting together the puzzle pieces of your retirement plan and you are curious about some strategies related to taxes and retirement, here are some possible options: Consider a Roth IRA Roth IRAs allow you to contribute to a certain type of account that is not taxed upon withdrawal as long as [...]
It is possible for a person to end up in a situation where they have a lot of money in a home but don’t have a lot of money in the bank. If you have been paying off your mortgage for years, your equity in the home could amount to a lot of money. But that isn’t money you can use without making significant financial changes. And just because you have a high-value home, it doesn’t [...]
A recent study by Investopedia found that a common worry for folks these days is their ability to retire. The survey found that although many people feel like they understand their finances, they are still concerned about setting themselves up to transition into retirement.[1] These numbers are significant. They mean that even if you feel like you are doing what you can to save for retirement and maintain quality of life throughout retirement, you aren’t confident [...]
A target-date fund is an investing tool, often in the form of an ETF or mutual fund, that adjusts its investment strategy based on how much time there is until the target date. The investments are strategized for long-term growth when you are further away from the target date and strategized for wealth preservation the closer you get to it. Another name for these kinds of funds is age-based funds and life-cycle funds, and they are [...]
You may know plenty about the differences between traditional IRAs and Roth IRAs, as well as the risks to your IRAs in this market, but what happens to an IRA (or other retirement account) that still has money in it when its owner passes away? You may think that the beneficiary just gets all the money in the account, but unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Retirement account funds will be transferred to a beneficiary, but their [...]
If you are headed toward retirement soon, or you have just retired, you may find yourself wondering, "Is my nest egg enough?" It's a common question and one that causes a lot of people a lot of reasonable anxiety. Because retirement finances are much more about prediction than they are about facts and assurances, it can be hard to feel confident that you will have enough to carry you through your entire retirement. As you know, [...]
For high-net-worth individuals and families, retirement is a significant shift. A high-net-worth individual, also known as an HNWI, is typically someone with at least $1 million in cash or assets that can be easily converted into cash, including stocks, bonds, mutual fund shares, and other investments.[1] As an HNWI, you may not be too worried about depleting your funds in retirement, but there are many complexities that come into play that can eat away at your [...]
Our current economic situation is complex and, in some ways, unprecedented. Because of the pandemic, we have seen massive changes in how the market behaves, and we are having to readjust how we approach retirement planning. Government Payouts One of the major changes that we saw during the pandemic was the government directly stepping in to help with the economic downturn. The issue with this is that federal payouts can increase inflation, and when that is [...]