My Retirement Blog

My Retirement Blog

  • Review Your 401(k) Fund Fees

    This week, I analyzed my wife’s old 401(k) and learned that she had around $7,000 spread across nine funds at T. Rowe Price. Fortunately for her, and most other 401(k) participants, she’s not charged for having so many funds; it’s just a bit of a mess whenever you open up her statements because you have…

  • Tipd 2.0 Launches

    Tipd 2.0 launched today with some fanfare, announcing over 6600+ total users, 12,000 news submissions, and over 70,000 Tipd votes. It’s growing by 60 new users a day with more than a hundred new stories being submitted every single day. The site has grown by leaps and bounds and it’s clear that this is a…

  • 401(k) Employer Match Cancellation

    If you work at a company that has stopped 401(k) contribution matching by your employer, you should be happy, rather than upset. I’ve been talking to a few people, over email, about how they should respond to their company canceling their 401(k) match. Some are upset that their companies did this (one of them had…

  • Earning $20,000 Equals Half Million Dollar Nest Egg

    With the recent stock market fall, a lot of near-retirees are seeing their nest eggs fall below their “Number,” the amount they need to retire comfortably. This has, rightfully so, a lot of near-retirees worried. What should a near-retiree do? Draw on Social Security early so that the retirement assets can recover? Pull out of…

  • How To Buy Annuities

    Annuities aren’t all bad. They get a bad reputation because some of them charge high fees and are bad investments, but the idea behind an annuity isn’t bad at all. For many, it’s a way to turn retirement savings into a constant and reliable stream of monthly income similar to a pension, so that you…

  • Annuities Not FDIC Insured

    Your annuities are not FDIC insured. If the insurance company goes bankrupt, you would likely lose a large portion of your investment if your state doesn’t have laws protecting you. Annuities are investments and while their rate of return is guaranteed contractually, the fact is your annuity’s health is tied to the health of the…

  • Being Fired Doesn’t Affect Retirement Vesting

    If you are fired, it doesn’t affect the vesting status of your retirement assets. Any funds that hadn’t vested, will expire. Any funds that had vested, are yours to keep forever. Any contributions you made are always yours, regardless of how long you’ve been there or how the vesting schedule works. Your money is always…

  • How the Stimulus Package Affects Retirement

    If you’re retired or getting close to retirement, the stimulus package recently signed into law has a few perks in it that could benefit you a little bit. While much of the focus and discussion was on the infrastructure spending, there’s quite a few provisions in there for folks in or nearing retirement. It’s not…

  • You Can’t Borrow From An IRA

    The question of whether or not you should rollover an IRA comes up a lot and my general rule of thumb has been that rolling over a 401(k) to an IRA is usually a good thing. There are exceptions to the rule but in general it’s always better to go with a low cost mutual…

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