Are Your Beneficiary Designations Up to Date? Who should inherit your IRA or 401(k)? See that they do Here’s a simple financial question: who is the beneficiary of your IRA? How about your 401(k) or annuity? You may be saying, “I’m not sure.” It is smart to periodically review your beneficiary designations. Your choices may need to change with the times. When did you open your first IRA? When did you buy your life insurance policy? Was it back [...]
Financial Fraudsters Preying on Boomers & Elders If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. If you are in or near retirement, it is a safe bet that you would like more yield from your investments rather than less. That truth sometimes leads liars, scammers, and fraudsters to pitch any number of too-good-to-be-true “investment opportunities” to retirees. Given all that and the classic money scams perpetrated on elders, you have good reason to be financially skeptical as [...]
Good Reasons to Retire Later Working longer might work out well for you. Are you in your fifties and unsure if you have enough retirement savings? Then you have two basic financial choices. You could start saving and investing more of your pay than you currently do, or you could work longer so you have fewer years of retirement to fund. That second choice might be more manageable, and it may also work out better financially. Research suggests that working [...]
Retirement Questions That Have Nothing to Do With Money Think about these matters before you leave work for the last time. Retirement planning is not entirely financial. Your degree of happiness in your “second act” may depend on some factors you cannot quantify. Here are a few of those factors as well as the questions they may end up provoking in your mind. Where will you live? This is a major factor in retirement happiness. If you can surround yourself [...]
The Snowball Effect Save and invest, year after year, to put the full power of compounding on your side. Have you been saving for retirement for a decade or more? In the foreseeable future, something terrific is likely to happen with your IRA or your workplace retirement plan account. At some point, its yearly earnings should begin to exceed your yearly contributions. Just when could this happen? The timing depends on several factors, and the biggest factor may simply [...]
