How to Maximize Social Security Benefits

Here are some tips for maximizing Social Security retirement benefits. Most of these strategies will be applicable to baby boomers contemplating and planning for a sustainable retirement income. Read more

Retirement Income Planning and Your Financial Advisor

Many baby boomers plan for retirement by consulting a financial planner or advisor. A key topic in consultations with an advisor is whether your retirement income will last for as long as you need it to. The answer to this question requires a careful analysis of your assets so as to predict with some degree of accuracy if you will outlive your money. This must involve more than a back of the envelope calculation. Unfortunately, some financial advisors oversimplify their analysis of your retirement income. This produces an unrealistic outcome. Read more

Should You Have a Mortgage in Retirement?

It used to be uncommon to retire with debt. Even less common was retiring with a mortgage. Not any more.

According a new report from the Center for Retirement Research, in 2007 41% of households aged 60-69 had a mortgage. Remarkably, half of those mortgage debtors had sufficient assets to pay off their mortgage. Read more

Baby Boomer Downsizing – Tell Your Story

If you are a baby boomer and haven’t thought about downsizing your life, you are likely in the minority. Unless you are abundantly wealthy or are already living the simpler lifestyle of an empty nester, downsizing should be on your retirement planning agenda. It’s certainly on ours.  Read more

Free Small Business Management Courses

Many baby boomers are trying to rework or restart their careers by starting their own small business. Many don’t have the training or experience necessary to be successful as a small business owner. Now there are ways to fix that: small business management courses offered online – for free. Read more

Retirement Income from an Inflation Indexed Annuity

Inflation is the great killer of long-term retirement dreams. Inflation is also a great unknown. When it will hit, how hard, and for how long is difficult to predict. This can add significant complexity to retirement planning. Many of us want to simplify, not add complexity and cost. Read more

The Search for Baby Boomer Nostalgia

This weekend I am attending my 4oth high school class reunion. A reunion experience is one of the ultimate baby boomer celebrations of nostalgia. The combination of people (classmates), place (a town with one high school), and music (from the 60′s) can draw you into the wayback machine in a hurry. Read more

Free Money Management Tools from Google

When it comes to managing our money and investments, creating financial plans, or analyzing our retirement portfolio, I’m all about the free stuff. There are lots of online money management tools around. Google has them as well. I like them because they are easy to use and can be found all in one place. There are two distinct sets of free money management tools available from Google. One set is found in the new and improved Google Finance. The other set is found in Google Docs templates. Read more

Annuity Laddering

You’ve probably thought about CD ladders and Treasury ladders. But have you considered a ladder of annuities as a retirement income strategy? If you are baby boomer, maybe you should. Read more

Annuity Income Taxation

As more baby boomers consider fixed annuities to protect retirement income, the issue of taxation of annuity income becomes an important factor. Because immediate annuity strategies are something we will be studying for our retirement, I thought now would be a good time to look at the tax issues. Read more

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