What to Ignore and Watch for in the New Credit Card Rules

If you are a baby boomer who is serious about being financially prepared for retirement, there are (in my humble opinion) some very good reasons why you can ignore the new credit card regulatory rules that went into effect on February 22. There are also some important changes to watch for. Read more

Should You Rent or Buy a Home in Retirement?

Rent or buy? This is a question that is taking on more significance for those of us preparing to retire. Owning your own home in retirement used to be an assumed goal. That was when having paid off your mortgage was also assumed. No more. Many boomers are still lurching their way toward retirement dragging an anchor: a big mortgage. Does that make sense? Probably not. 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.
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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

Time to Pay Off Credit Card Debt

Just in case the economic events of 2008-2009 haven’t frightened and motivated baby boomers into aggressively attacking their remaining credit card debt, there’s more. Read more

Find Help for College Student Loans

If you are a baby boomer with kids in high school or college, student loans may be in your family’s future. You don’t want college costs to interfere with your retirement saving. There are some programs that will help your kids get rid of those student loans without sacrificing their financial futures. Read more

Shielding Retirement Assets from Creditors

Our retirement assets are down but should not be forgotten. Depleted or not, there are plenty of folks out there who would like to have them. That includes creditors. So what kind of protection is available for retirement accounts from the claims of creditors? Read more

Paying the Debts of Family Members

“Am I obligated to pay the debts of my spouse, child or other family member?”  I see or hear someone ask this question often.   Baby boomers confront this more and more with elderly parents who may die owing medical bills or money on credit cards or car loans.  Parents may wonder if a child’s debt can become their own.  I have investigated and have some thoughts on these issues.  In many cases, the answer to the question depends on the nature of the obligation or debt. Read more

How to Pay-Off a Mortgage

This is a chronological summary of the practical steps we recently followed to pay-off the mortgage on our vacation home.  Hopefully you will have the opportunuty to reach this milestone in your financial plan.  If so, perhaps what we did will help you through the process when the time comes.
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Aging in Place vs. Your Mortgage

Mrs. GoTo and I recently paid off the mortgage on our vacation home.  (If you are interested I described the practical steps we followed to complete the mortgage payoff.)  

In this post I want to mention something else about other baby boomer trends that are related.
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