Should I cash out my 401K? Try hiring a financial adviser, reducing your living expenses and refinancing your home. Q: I am a 49 year old who plans to retire from my current job by age 55. My 401(k) is now worth $1.1 million, which is up 20 percent since January. It is invested in several [...]
Of all the misguided concepts I embraced when I was younger, one of the most ridiculous involved retirement planning. “Why plan for retirement?” I thought. “I’ll be dead by then.” Luckily, as I got older I wised up and realized that I needed to start planning. But I’m sad to say there are still folks [...]
A target date fund is a type of mutual fund that many people add to their retirement savings accounts in order to diversify their investments—“target date” usually refers to the date on which the portfolio owner wishes to retire. Using this type of fund can lead to more conservative investing once the target date has [...]
Buying a house after retirement can be a good or bad idea. Deciding if it's better to rent or buy a house after retirement requires careful planning. Q: I am a 66-year old single female. I currently rent a home for $875 per month (low for this area because I have been in this location [...]
Retiring by the time you turn 40 might sound impossible, but it most definitely can be done. With some careful retirement planning and creative savings strategies, you can begin your retirement while you are still young and spunky. Getting started on your retirement savings as soon as possible is most important. The longer you have [...]
Life insurance is one of those topics about which I often hear questions. Many people don’t quite understand why they need to pay for a life insurance policy—or they are afraid that they might eventually need to use one. Most of us want to insure that our partner and/or children are taken care of financially [...]
Should you use retirement funds to buy a house? Borrowing from a 401(k) to buy a house can be a bad move. More in today's Real Estate Minute. If you have to borrow money from your 401(k) or other retirement accounts to fund your down payment - don’t do it - it’s just not worth [...]
As people grow closer to retirement, they often start to rethink their living situations. The perfect city to raise a family isn’t always the perfect place to retire. Before you settle down for your golden years, consider some of these factors to help you decide where you should live in retirement. How will the weather affect [...]
The first quarter of the year is often when employers share information about your retirement account contributions. However, it’s a good idea to keep track of your contributions throughout the year. If your employee compensation package guarantees matching funds, then you’ll want to keep an eye on the numbers to make sure mistakes don’t slip through [...]
In 2013, the payroll tax holiday that lowered workers’ taxes by 2 percent came to an end. This effectively raised each individual’s payroll tax from 4.2 percent to 6.2 percent. That might not sound like a lot, but employees have already found that the change takes a big chunk out of their paychecks. How much [...]
