Saving for retirement when you’re in your 50s
Your 50s is the time to think seriously about retirement planning. You’ve reached (or are close to reaching) your peak earning potential, hopefully you’ve found a satisfying and enjoyable career, and you have saved some money towards your post-employment life goals. Because you are closer to retirement, it is likely that you have a better vision of your retirement lifestyle. Although your exit from the workforce is still several years away, there are some important steps you can take while in your 50s to ensure your retirement plans allow you to have a comfortable retirement. Take inventory Now that you’re...
Saving for College vs. Saving for Retirement – What’s right for me?
Balancing saving for college with retirement savings is often a big concern for parents. According to a T.Rowe Price survey, 62% of parents are very/extremely concerned about saving for retirement and 58% have the same level of concern about saving for college. As with any other investment, planning ahead and understanding your options is the best way to achieve the desired outcome for both your retirement and your children’s education. While there is no one perfect solution for everyone, considering the following questions can help you balance saving for college with saving for retirement. How much assistance do you want...
First You Get Bored, Then You Become… Boring?
The idea of not working is hard to think about. Since the age of five, or even earlier, we have been going to school, and as soon as we are out of school we are looking for work and working. Whether you work in an office, outdoors, or as a stay-at-home parent, you are always working. So, what do you do when you leave work and the kids are grown? Imagine you are 30 years old. You are at a new job and working frantically to work your way up the ladder. You stay in the office from dawn to...
Is your financial advisor a fiduciary?
What is the fiduciary standard? Fiduciaries are regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or a state’s securities regulators. No matter which governing body is overseeing the fiduciary, the goal is the same – to ensure the advisor places the interests of the client above his or her own interests. Fiduciaries have a duty of “loyalty and care,” which means that the advisor cannot buy securities for his or her own account prior to buying them for a client, and the advisor is prohibited from making trades that might result in higher commissions for the advisor or the advisor’s...
The Money Saving Challenge: 10 Ways to Get by on Less
In general, people spend considerably more than necessary. We spend money without even realizing how much we are spending. We leave the water running and our water bill goes up, or we buy an extra cup of coffee, or whatever little thing it may be. Overall, we spend money in unnecessary ways without realizing it. An easy way to save some money is to avoid this unnecessary spending. That is easier said than done. So many times, we spend the extra dollar without giving it a second thought. In order to spend money only where it is needed, it is...
Fee-Only Planning is the Best Plan
From the time we are five we start working. Whether it’s learning the alphabet, studying for a final, making minimum wage, or having a successful career, we are working. Maybe we can relax on the weekends or take a day off, but overall we spend most days of our life doing some type of work. Retirement is the time in our lives where we can return to a life that is not based primarily on work. We work our whole lives to get to this point. In retirement, we can relax and spend time doing what we love; we can...
Sleep Well
Sometimes it is hard to watch what is going on in the market. This is one of those times. It has been a tough week and a tough couple of months. At this writing, the S&P 500 is down about 3-4% for the year. Some of you may be surprised that it isn’t an even greater drop. The news media may have us believing that the sky is falling. We must always remember that news is big business and bad news sells. The concern is: What if the market is on the way down? What if the economy is headed...
Celebrate your Hard Work
Since the late 19th century, the US has been celebrating Labor Day on the first Monday of September. It is a day to celebrate our own hard work, along with the work of the people around us and take that well deserved break. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average full-time working American works 8-9 hours a day on weekdays and another 5-6 hours a day on weekends. Business insider tells us that the average American works 90,000 hours in his/her life. That’s a lot of work. Today we take the day off to celebrate our hard work....
Equifax Security Breach – How to Stay Protected
As you are likely aware, Equifax had a security breach that was discovered July 29, 2017. Equifax is a credit bureau that collects information from over 800 million individuals and almost 90 million businesses worldwide. Since the breach was discovered, Equifax has been working with a cybersecurity firm to find out the depth of the intrusion and the specific data that was compromised. Information accessed includes names, Social Security numbers, birthdates, addresses, and in some cases, driver’s license numbers. Approximately 209,000 credit card numbers were accessed. Although Equifax says they will send direct notices to customers whose credit card...
5 Ways to Protect Against Email Scams
As technology advances the internet becomes a more dangerous place. Despite our efforts and security to protect us from it, our email was hacked Wednesday 7/19/2017. Hundreds of emails were sent out to my contacts and associates. The email came from my email address, jim@retirementandwealth.com, but was not from me. It contained a Docu-sign attachment that asked the receivers for personal information including their email and password. Some people who received the email responded to ask “me” if it was legitimate and the hacker responded verifying that he was me. Although the emails came from my email address we...