How to Determine if You are Financially Prepared to Retire

Have you ever wondered how a person can determine in they are financially prepared to retire? Is there a standardized retirement readiness test you can take? Is there a retirement money report card that you receive? How about a checklist of retirement readiness factors? Read more

Common Mistakes in Using Retirement Planning Tools

Online retirement planning tools are all over the Internet. Many baby boomers use these  tools to help them get back on track or to assess where they are in being prepared for retirement. I have discussed a number of those online tools here at Go To Retirement. Some are free and some are fee-based. Read more

Retirement Rx – A Plan for Living the Rest of Your Life

This is my review of Retirement Rx, a book that presents a “prescription” or plan for living a happy and fulfilling “rest of your life.”

This book is not about financial planning, although that is part of the “prescription.”  Instead, it is more about implementing or fine tuning personal and life-living characteristics that are key to whether you have a positive retirement experience. Read more

Help for Predicting Your Financial Future

This may be a record year for baby boomers trying to determine if their current financial plan will provide the financial future they expect.  There has been so much damage to our retirement nest eggs that we are thrown off balance when we think about it.

In response, lots of us are re-balancing our investments, cutting expenses, increasing our savings, and maybe lowering our expectations.  However, we are still not sure all of these efforts will be enough.
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Update Beneficiary Designations in Retirement Plan Documents

Many members of the baby boomer generation are experiencing significant and perhaps abrupt transitions in their family status.  Their children have left home to lead independent lives.  Spouses have retired or perhaps even moved on to become ex-spouses.  Changes in boomer families can create a need for changes in your retirement plan documents.  
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Taxes and Your Retirement Planning Agenda

Most pre-retirees assume that their tax burdens will decrease in retirement.  Baby boomers no doubt have the same concept.  Not so fast.

First, a review of where federal income taxes are coming from, pre-Obama.  This interesting data is from a 2008 staff report from the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation: Read more

Working after Receiving Social Security at Age 62

There are sound financial reasons for waiting to your full retirement age to claim Social Security retirement benefits.  Delaying Social Security until age 70 can enhance those benefits even more.  Nevertheless, many baby boomers will determine that they must or should begin receiving benefits at age 62. Unfortunately, many retirees also decide to stop working as soon as they begin receiving Social Security. This decision is often based on an incorrect understanding of how other income will affect your Social Security benefits overall. Read more

Budget Deficits Leading to Public Pension Reforms

In an attempt to remedy an extreme budget deficit, New York state announced significant changes to its public pension system.  New York state is somewhat unique in that pension benefits for state and local public employees are primarily determined by state law rather than through negotiations with public employee unions.  However, the state constitution prevents state government from imposing changes retroactively on employees who are already in the pension system. Read more

Why I Like I-Bonds in My Retirement Portfolio

I am a strong believer in the role that I Savings Bonds (I-Bonds for short) can play in the portfolio of the average retirement investor.

I-Bonds can actually help in two important ways.  First, they provide a measure of inflation protection.  Second, they can form all or part of what I call the “ride out the market storm” fund that all retirees should have.  This stable value fund should provide rock solid stability during turbulent or negative market conditions so that a retiree does not have to sell equities or stock mutual funds during a down market.
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Life Expectancy and Retirement Planning

Baby boomers seem to become more reflective and aware of age, aging and the concept of  ”how much longer do I have.”   We’ve done a lot but we want to do a lot more.  We’re just worried about how much time we will have to get it all done.
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