Retirement Planning

There is seldom a dull moment on Wall Street. Stocks may rise or fall dramatically over the course of a year or a decade. Sometimes, breaking news may tempt you to pull money out of your 401(k) or greatly reduce your contributions. If you’re considering such a move, think twice. Don’t stop saving for retirement.…

Medicare Open Enrollment has arrived. The open enrollment period for 2014 runs from October 15-December 7, 2013. This is not only a period where you may enroll for the program, but also switch providers for your comprehensive health and drug coverage. Some key dates to remember. This fall and winter, there are three periods in…

Just what is an RMD? After you turn 70½, the IRS requires you to withdraw some of the money in most retirement savings accounts each year. These withdrawals are officially called Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs). You must take an RMD from a traditional IRAs after you turn 70½, even if you are still working. If…

The case for working past 65. Increasingly, when baby boomers are looking at retirement planning, they are urged to work until full retirement age or beyond. (Social Security defines “full” retirement age as 66 for those born from 1943-1954; it incrementally rises to 67 for those born in 1960 or later). If your health and…

If you are leaving your employer, everyone knows that you have the option of doing a 401k rollover into an IRA. But did you know you actually have three 401(k) rollover options? 3 Smart 401k Rollover Options: 401k rollover to an IRA. This is the most common and well known, thanks in part to Fidelity’s…

Financial planning for retirement is a popular topic, but if you fail to address these two misconceptions, then it can backfire. We’ve all heard about the “new retirement”, the mix of work and play that many of us assume we will have in our lives one day. We do not expect “retirement” to be all…

On July 18, Detroit became the largest American city to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy. What will happen to the pensions of its 20,000+ retired public employees? There is a possibility they could be reduced – perhaps greatly. In the wake of Detroit’s fiscal problems, current and future pension recipients across the country are wondering…

How do you know if your retirement is living up to its potential? There isn’t a standard definition of a successful retirement. (Maybe there should be, but there isn’t.) It is interesting to see how different people define it. Maybe income is the yardstick. Make that income replacement. A recent article in Financial Advisor Magazine put…

You save for retirement with the expectation that at some point, you will have enough savings to walk confidently away from the office and into the next phase of life. So how do you know if you have reached that point? Retirement calculators are useful – but only to a point. The dilemma is that…

There is no “typical” retirement. Many baby boomers want one and believe that they will have one, and their futures may indeed unfold as planned. For others, the story will be different. Just as there is no routine retirement, there are no rote financial moves that should be made before or during this phase of…