Category: Retirement

  • A Realistic Retirement Number

    There’s been a lot of talk about finding one’s “retirement number,” how much you need to save before you can reasonable retire and still maintain a close standard of living. People throw out rules of thumb like the 4% withdrawal rule and the like but is that really the answer? Walter Updegrave recommends working backwards…

  • Get A Raise? Increase Your Retirement Contribution!

    Did you get a raise this year? If so, congratulations on your hard work. Now I have a suggestion for that money that you probably didn’t think of when you received the check. I recommend that you increase your retirement contributions, whether it’s a 401(k), a 403(b), or something else; by a half percent or…

  • Taxable Brokerage Accounts for Retirement

    There are a lot of retirement options out there, so many that your head probably spins whenever someone talks about 401(k)’s, 403(b)’s, Roth IRAs, or Traditional IRAs… the list goes on. One topic that most people don’t talk about is saving part of your nest egg in a regular taxable brokerage or mutual fund account.…

  • Seven Recession Proof Retirement Cities

    Smart Money did the smart money move of linking retirement and fear of a recession and picked out seven cities that they deemed were recession proof. The first two cities were buoyed by a large university presence but the remainder were solid for non-recession reasons as well. For example, Pittsburgh was cited as number four…

  • Introducing Retirement Plan Redundancy

    Retirement planning is hard enough, trying to understand someone else’s retirement plan is even harder. Now try understanding someone else’s retirement plan for you. You would think that more people would not trust their retirement in the hands of anyone else, even if they loved them, but plenty of people do whenever they don’t become…

  • Special Credit Card Offers for Seniors

    Smart Money, after reviewing special bank offers for seniors, took a crack at special credit card offers for seniors but the results were disappointing. With bank offers, you can tailor services to meet the needs of seniors. Lower or eliminate the fees in return for a direct deposit, such as from a 401k disbursement or…

  • Important Retirement Ages

    Here is a listing of important ages and what they mean with respect to retirement: 59 ½: When you turn 59 ½, you can begin taking disbursements from your retirement plans (401k’s, 403b’s, etc) and from your IRAs (traditional, Roth). 60: If you are a widow or widower, you can begin collecting Social Security; though…

  • 2008 Tax Rebate Stimulus Package for Seniors

    With all the talk recently about 2008 the tax rebate stimulus package, I thought it was worth writing a separate article directly towards seniors to answer the question of seniors. Seniors were excluded from the original stimulus package (excluded unless you were a senior who earned more than $3,000 and paid taxes, social security didn’t…

  • 9 Retirement Killers? Try Only Three!

    The equation for the preparation for retirement has never changed: save early, save often, and be smart with your investments. The equation for retirement itself has never changed: be smart with your money, enjoy life, but do nothing in excess. So, why do we constantly see articles like this one about 9 Retirement Killers as…