Retirement Plan Hardship Withdrawals

One of the worst financial decisions a baby boomer can make is to raid a tax-deferred retirement account such as an IRA or 401(k) to pay for non-retirement expenses. I like to call these early withdrawals “retirement plan leaks” although sometimes they are more like floods! Read more

Lake House Design Considerations

Buying or building a lake house for full or part-time living presents unique home design considerations.  Sometimes you do not realize what those design differences are until after the fact. My wife and I are at our lake house this weekend. As we spend more time here by ourselves, we contemplate the years ahead as we age. Our hope and plan is that this lake house will be a part-time home in retirement. We also want our family members to be able to enjoy using it as a vacation home. Thus, we have been thinking about its present design and how we might improve it for the long term. These are some of the design considerations that we have discussed. Read more

Have Baby Boomers Permanently Changed their Spending and Saving Habits?

I received a press release today about a national survey of U.S. adults of all ages and socioeconomic backgrounds. The survey focused on how spending and saving habits have been changed by our economic turmoil and whether those changes are expected to be permanent or temporary. The results were interesting and hopeful.
Read more

FAILSAFE RETIREMENT™ System Winners

Tonight I used random.org to generate six numbers at random to determine the six commenters who would win a free copy of the FAILSAFE RETIREMENT™ System.

Here is a screen shot of the numbers that were generated: Read more

Avoiding Forced Unretirement

This is a short post on the sad problem of baby boomers who retire but are being forced by financial problems to return to the workforce. Read more

Creating a Plan for Guaranteed Retirement Income

Regular readers of this blog may recall that I have been studying the work of Zvi Bodie, a professor of finance at Boston University. (I mentioned Prof. Bodie in my post on Retirement Income and the Myth of Equity Risk.) After much consideration, I’ve decided to adopt Prof. Bodie’s concepts into our retirement income plan. More particularly, I have created a plan to provide guaranteed retirement income. I will explain.

Read more

Boomer and Retirement Weekly Reader – Renewed Optimism Edition

This has been a week for renewed optimism in the possibility of a reasonable retirement. The markets have improved while interest rates remain low. I’m not suggesting a strong increase in equity allocation in your retirement portfolio. (More about that in a little announcement I have next week.) But if your retirement income needs are already secured, the stock market is presenting interesting opportunities for money you can afford to lose. Read more

Test Your Basic Social Security Knowledge

Baby boomers  are anxious and confused about how Social Security will best fit into their retirement income plans. Millions of words about Social Security have been published online and in print in recent years, all intended to educate us. Yet a knowledge gap remains. Read more

Alternative Retirement Income from Personal Creativity

I am a proponent of alternative income streams. Baby boomers are confronting a multitude of financial risks that may delay or ruin a planned retirement. These include job loss and simply not having enough money to retire. Developing a secondary income source can help. Read more

More Inflation Fighting Weapons

All long term investors need core holdings that will protect against the damaging effects of inflation. Traditionally we have been told that equities in general are the answer to the inflation problem. Now we are not so sure. Based on this doubt, mutual fund companies continue to introduce new products specifically intended to provide inflation-protected growth. Read more

Next Page »