The fastest-growing demographic in the developed world is people over the age of 100 – a positive development for those desiring a long life but a challenging one when it comes to funding a retirement that could last 20 to 30 years or longer. With the average 65 year old American estimated to only have enough savings to fund about…
If you’re one of the fortunate Americans with a pension, you are faced with a critical question: are you better off receiving it as a lump sum payment or as an annuity? In attempting to answer this question, the author of today’s article runs some numbers to illustrate the costs and benefits of each payout method at different points of…
Nearly 40% of U.S. consumers (and nearly 60% of millennials) see winning the lottery as a reasonable way to fund retirement, leading the author of today’s article to scoff that “You might as well bet on the tooth fairy paying off your credit card balance every month.” However, he also outlines how Americans’ lotto habit can actually help fund their…
“Sell in May and go away”. “The January effect”. The “Santa Claus rally”. “Financial hurricane season”. When it comes to whether these seasonal investing adages work, the author of today’s article argues that they work “just often enough to sustain their myths” – and just often enough to negatively impact your retirement savings if you make investment decisions based on…
“Never overlook the pernicious and toxic impact of inflation over periods as long as retirement,” warns the author of today’s article. He outlines why inflation over the next several decades could actually be significantly higher than currently assumed – and how, if that proves to be the case, it would make inflation-indexed annuities (or real annuities), generally considered very expensive,…
If you’re one of the (too) many Americans that have too little – or nothing at all – in the way of retirement savings, a simple strategy that could boost your savings by $800,000 (and possibly even more) sounds like something worth having a look at – and that’s exactly what the author of today’s article outlines. And while getting…
Robots and a smart fridge keeping you from having to go into a nursing home. Some new (and simple) math for retirement saving. New alternatives to purchasing long-term care insurance. The retirement community of the future. There are among what may be the best new ideas in retirement as, thanks to increasing longevity and the changing nature of work, traditional…
A critical part of retirement planning is figuring out how much you will need to have accumulated to fund your golden years – and one common approach to calculating this figure is to use a multiple of your ending salary. Fidelity, for example, recommends retirement savers have 10 times their ending salary saved by age 67. And while different entities…
Stress tests aren’t just for banks – they’re useful for retirement plans too! And a comprehensive stress test of your retirement plan involves more than just stress testing your portfolio: the author of today’s article advises that “you should stress test your venue, your retirement and income portfolios, and anticipated leisure pursuits.” For more on carrying out a comprehensive stress…
“The bottom line is that generating secure income to meet our retirement goals for an uncertain period of time is extremely challenging,” acknowledges the author of today’s article, who likens this task to “trying to hit a moving target in the wind.” He proceeds to outline one approach to doing so – the so-called flooring approach. How does the flooring…