When Social Security’s trustees issued their annual report on the program earlier this year, it forecast that costs will exceed income next year for the first time since 1982 and that, if no action is taken, the program will run out of money by 2035. Given this, is it time to rethink the common financial wisdom that says it’s best…
How do people who save 20% or more of their incomes for retirement – so-called retirement “super savers” – manage to do it? New research provides a big part of the answer, identifying “the single biggest difference between what super savers spent less on, as compared to the rest of us” – something super savers spend just 14% of their…
Individuals tend to retire when the market (and their portfolio balances) are up. However, as today’s article observes, “even though people often retire after periods of strong market returns, that, somewhat counterintuitively, tends to reduce their portfolios’ sustainability rather than enhance it.” This is one of the five retirement-planning blind spots that can catch retirees off-guard that the author details.…
If you want to increase your chances of a financially secure retirement, new research indicates that one way to do so is to be dynamic…with your spending strategy. The study “measured the success rates of various strategies that adjusted withdrawal rates depending on whether your portfolio in any given year is ahead or behind of what your retirement financial plan…
While he acknowledges that they are “kind of boring”, when it comes to this retirement investment, the author of today’s article argues that “boring is brilliant.” The investment in question? Target-date funds. He proceeds to outline a number of reasons why investors should embrace these “boring” investment vehicles – and a simple strategy to overcome one of their few shortcomings…
A market downturn can mean very different things for those still early in their investment careers, those approaching retirement, and those in retirement. Those in the first group may be able to shrug off a downturn as there’s still lots of time for their portfolios to recover. In regards to the latter two groups, the author of today’s article notes…
“For the investor, taxes represent a real threat to wealth and a cost that must absolutely be controlled,” asserts the author of today’s article, who points out that a critical assumption underlying most tax minimization efforts – that most people will be in a lower tax bracket during retirement – may be a false assumption given today’s historically low income…
If you’re looking to retire abroad, you likely want some place with a suitable climate and a low cost of living – including low health care costs. But another important consideration is health care efficiency. As such, in seeking to identify the best places for Americans to retire abroad, the author of today’s article factored in how contender countries rank…
Three things happened around the time that the last two bear markets began: the 2-to-10-year part of the yield curve inverted briefly, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates for the first time in years, and the S&P 500 peaked in value, before plummeting from that peak. Sound familiar? However, while recession worries are mounting, the author of today’s article argues…
Among the three stocks highlighted in today’s article as being strong candidates for a spot in your retirement portfolio is a stock that seems to possess everything a retiree could possibly want in a stock: a generous dividend, stability, a discounted share price and a respectable rate of earnings growth. For the stock in question – and the two other…