It’s essential to save money for retirement and a 401(k) is a great tool to achieve your retirement saving goals. But your situation may change if you experience financial hardship before you’re ready to retire. Or maybe you are retired but you want to get the most bang for your retirement buck. You might consider [...]
A lot of nasty financial warnings went out during the Great Recession, including one that baby boomers wished they didn’t have to hear: Your credit score still matters. Boomers are plowing through the retirement gates at the rate of 10,000 a day, but the gate opened at about the same time that the bottom fell [...]
For many people, adopting the “senior citizen” label is tough. But if you love saving money, you’ll find that it’s great to be in your 50s and 60s (and beyond!). In fact, there are so many discounts available to Americans as they enter their mid-50s and 60s that entire websites are dedicated to helping sift [...]
If you spent the holidays having fun and decided to put off any financial decisions until after the first of the year, don’t feel bad—so did everybody else. But with 2014 bringing so much excitement and so many possibilities, now is a great time to evaluate your retirement plan to make sure you are still [...]
Planning for the worst while hoping for the best is essential for successful retirement planning. In addition to your retirement savings, it’s important to create an emergency fund that you can tap if you face a financial emergency now or in retirement. Retirement tips: How to build an emergency fund Nobody plans on a financial [...]
How and when to collect Social Security is likely to be a big factor in your retirement planning. During retirement, you may look forward to cashing in on your years of paying into Social Security by collecting a check each month. But if you have a substantial nest egg and don’t need the money, how [...]
A couple of years ago, I was invited to a presentation put on by an aggressive financial planner about all the reasons I and other tax professionals should try to convince our clients to begin investing in Roth IRAs instead of traditional IRAs and 401(k) plans. What did I learn? That if those of us [...]
As millions of baby boomers approach retirement, many are facing some harsh financial realities after the economic roller coaster of the previous several years. Many soon-to-be retirees have had to put their retirement planning efforts into overdrive in order to recover from recent economic turmoil and account for higher healthcare and living costs. The National [...]
November is Military Family Appreciation Month , and Veterans Day is Monday, November 11. Servicemen and women face many unique financial challenges, and planning for retirement is one of them. No matter if this is your first enlistment or your last, the fact of the matter is that anyone who serves in the military will [...]
