Dealing with a “surprise” retirement. For years, you have imagined the way your “second act” will unfold: when it will start, what you will do, and where you will be. Then life hands you a wild card. You are forced to retire years earlier than you planned and with little notice. How do you adjust? […]
Tag: retirement
Is America Prepared to Retire?
A look at some ways to get ready. Are Americans saving enough? Only 19% of U.S. adults describe themselves as “very confident” when asked about their savings. Worry spots include retiring without enough money saved (16%) and anxiety about having a “rainy day” emergency fund (14%). These findings come from the 2018 Consumer Financial Literacy […]
Social Security by the Numbers
Facts about the federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program. Social Security has been a pillar of retirement life for several decades, but how much do you really know about it? Here are some facts that might surprise you: The Social Security trust fund exceeds the gross domestic product of every major economy in […]
Retirement Newsletter – February 2019
How can a woman try to prevent outliving her money? Certain financial decisions may help a woman grow and sustain her retirement assets across the decades to make up for time out of the workforce and the prevalent earnings gender gap. Obviously, one fundamental move would be to start saving and investing for retirement as […]
Retirement Newsletter – December 2018
Can you psych yourself up to save more? You have probably spent decades saving for retirement, and you might have a decade or more of saving to go before you actually retire. At times, your resolve may be tested. The stock market may falter; household money pressures may mount; new near-term priorities may arise. What […]
Retirement Newsletter – November 2018
Retirement planning continues after you retire. It can be easy think of retirement planning as a means to an end: a series of purposeful meetings leading up to a life transition. This transition is not the end of retirement planning. Think of this transition (and the steps preceding it) as the first phase. The second […]
Retirement Newsletter – October 2018
If retirement feels less like a possibility and more like an oncoming certainty, then it is time to respond. This is the time to firmly decide whether you want to “age in place” in your current home or relocate. This is when you work on sustaining the friendships you have made in your career, while […]
When Is Social Security Income Taxable?
To find out, look closely at two factors. Your Social Security income could be taxed. That may seem unfair or unfathomable. Regardless of how you feel about it, it is a possibility. Seniors have had to contend with this possibility since 1984. Social Security benefits became taxable above a certain yearly income level in that […]
Debunking a Few Popular Retirement Myths
It seems high time to dispel some of these misconceptions. Generalizations about money and retirement linger. Some have been around for decades, and some new clichés have recently joined their ranks. Let’s examine a few. “When I’m retired, I won’t really have to invest anymore.” Society still sees retirement as an end instead of a […]
Retirees, Check Your Withholding
It may need to be adjusted due to the 2017 federal tax reforms. The Internal Revenue Service has a message for you. You may need to adjust the amount withheld from your paycheck or the size of your estimated tax payments because the agency is using new withholding tables this year. Should you underpay your […]