My Retirement Blog
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Unleash Your Retirement Asset Avalanche!
Okay, that was a bit of a sensational title but there’s a reason for that. Deep inside each and every one of us, you and you included, is the financial wherewithal to build a retirement asset base that would likely exceed your expectations. Often times, right before we take a path, we look at the…
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Tax Inefficient Mutual Funds are Good in IRAs
Some mutual funds are very tax efficient. They realize very little in the way of realized capital gains, they pay out very little in dividends, and they have protocols in place to reduce how much buying and selling occurs so those events don’t happen. Some mutual funds, on the other hand, are not very tax…
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What To Do If Your 401K Options Are Bad
One of the things you often don’t review whenever you’re looking at a job offer is whether there are attractive investment options within the 401(k) plan, usually discussion of the plan stops at how much the employer is willing to match in contributions and how long it will take to vest. Sometimes you’ll enter a…
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You Own Too Much Company Stock
Okay, perhaps not you personally but in a recent study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and the Investment Company Institute (ICI) it was shown that the average employee has approximately 11% of their portfolio in the stock of their employer. This is a fall from 19% back in 1996 but it’s still waaaaay…
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Switch 403b Providers Without Penalty (until Sept 24th)
403(b) plan sponsors, unlike 401k sponsors, don’t actually manage the investment plans made available in the 403(b). In fact, 401k providers have “fiduciary responsibility,” meaning they must act in the best interests of their employees or suffer legal consequences. So, for many 403(b) plan members, a recent change in the IRS code, which kicks in…
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Pensions: Take Lump Sum or Annuity?
When you retire and are eligible to withdraw from your company’s pension, you’re often two options. The first is keep the pension as an annuity and receive payments each month that you and, if you have a spouse, your spouse will receive for as long as you both are alive, it’s called a joint-and-survivor annuity.…
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Ben Stein Advocates Variable Annuities
In his latest “How Not To Ruin Your Life” article, Ben Stein warns that eventually there will be a market correction that is based on fundamentals and not on emotion, like the latest little market dip, and that those close to retirement should consider variable annuities as a hedge against this. The younger and middle…
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Lower Fees With Larger Balances
As your retirement assets grow, you’ll start getting better treatment from the brokerage houses in the form of reduced fees and it’s something you should take advantage of. The reason for this is because they 1) want to keep your business; 2) the amount of work they do, which they charge in their fees, won’t…
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Forbes.com’s Picks Some Hot European Retirement Locations
When I saw this article on the Yahoo Finance homepage, the first thing that popped into my mind is “why would anyone move to Europe, the dollar is totally in the crapper.” It only recently moved from record lows against the Euro and our trade deficit isn’t making future prospects look particularly bright. Well, Forbes…
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