My Retirement Blog

My Retirement Blog

  • Social Security: What Is My Full Retirement Age?

    The full retirement age for social security depends on when you were born and will determine when you can begin collecting social security. If you were born in 1937 or earlier, your full retirement age is 65. If you were born 1960 or later, your full retirement age is 67. The Social Security Administration has…

  • When Should You Start Taking Social Security Benefits?

    With Social Security, you can start taking benefits as early 62 if you’re willing to take a hit on your overall benefits. Depending on a number of factors, if you start taking Social Security payments at a reduced rate when you’re 62, your total benefit could be reduced by as much as 25%. To maximize…

  • Social Security Earnings Test

    If you earn a salary and want to collect benefits from social security, you have to pass the social security administration’s “earnings test.” While the earnings test looks like a penalty on those who collect a salary, it’s really not and I’ll explain why in a moment. First, to calculate your “penalty,” you have to…

  • Order of Retirement Withdrawals

    Consumerist had a great post last week about the order of retirement withdrawals, a post inspired by Vanguard’s recent Autumn 2007 report. The order they list is: Taxable accounts Tax-deferred accounts Tax-free accounts So, why taxable accounts first? Because you want your tax deferred and tax free accounts to be able to grow as long…

  • Cut Those Fund Expenses

    When it comes to investing, cutting expenses is just as good as, if not better than, increasing your rates of return. When you cut expenses, it’s a guaranteed 100% increase to your bottom line. The only way to potentially increase your rate of return is to increase your risk and even then the rate of…

  • How To Decide Between Roth IRA or Traditional IRA?

    The allure of tax-free appreciation of funds sure is tempting isn’t it? That’s what a Roth IRA brings to the table since you contribute post-tax dollars that can grow (or shrink) absolutely tax free. The allure of a tax deduction and “more” assets to appreciate sure is tempting isn’t it? That’s what a Traditional IRA…

  • Britney Spears Saves Nothing For Retirement…

    … and she earns approximately $737,000 each month. Before you flip out and say, “What!? She’s so irresponsible! How could you she not put some of that away?” you might be surprised to learn that she’s not alone. She’s twenty five and a recent study by Vanguard showed that two thirds of 25 year olds…

  • Earned Income and Roth IRA Contributions

    You can only contribute to a Roth IRA if you have earned income, so one wonders what counts as earned income? Does Social Security count? What about rental income? How about interest from bank accounts or capital gains from the sale of stock? Actually, none of those count as earned income. Earned income is, in…

  • Subscribe to My Retirement Blog

    Hello loyal readers of My Retirement Blog. If you’re reading this through an RSS reader, you can skip this post but everyone else should pay careful attention. RSS is called Really Simple Syndication and it can make your web surfing much more efficient if you give it a try. My Retirement Blog publishes an RSS…

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