My Retirement Blog
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What Is A Reverse Mortgage?
A reverse mortgage is exactly what it sounds like, it’s a lot like a regular mortgage except the bank pays you. Okay, it’s a little more complicated than that, but that’s the jist. What actually happens it the bank gives you a loan and you don’t have to repay the bank until you die, sell…
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Avoid IRA Annuities
When you retire, should you roll over your 401k into an IRA? Yes. Should you roll over your 401k into an IRA Annuity? Ummmm probably not, says Walter Updegrave. An IRA Annuity is basically an annuity held inside an IRA and it’s probably going to be too expensive for what you’re getting out of it.…
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10 Retirement Pitfalls: Investing Too Aggressively
The other side of #9 Investing Too Conservatively is this last pitfall, being too aggressive with your portfolio. 100% in foreign small cap stocks is probably too high for anyone, while you do have the potential for high returns, you also have the potential for high losses. While it is advocated that younger investors take…
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10 Retirement Pitfalls: Investing Too Conservatively
The general rule is that you should be aggressive when you’re younger and conservative when you’re older. Being too conservative when you’re young doesn’t take advantage of the one asset you are slowly losing, time; by being aggressive, you try to get the high returns while risking some losses. If you are young and your…
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10 Retirement Pitfalls: Not Using IRAs
I would’ve listed this particular pitfall higher up on the list, probably behind Not Getting 401K Match, since it’s similar to that pitfall; but this one involves not taking advantage of the various IRAs that may be available to you. Roth IRAs allow you to do some tax-free investing and other IRAs allow you do…
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10 Retirement Pitfalls: Not Having Insurance
Accidents happen and usually they’re expensive. When you’re lucky enough to have an accident that isn’t expensive, hopefully you have an emergency fund to help you through it; when you’re unlucky and have an accident that is expensive, hopefully you have some sort of insurance that can cover it. If you don’t have insurance to…
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10 Retirement Pitfalls: Buying Too Much House
This is similar to the “Avoid Credit Card Debt” pitfall, don’t buy too much house. Whereas credit card debt is bad because interest is high, an expensive mortgage is bad because it’s usually going to be around for a long long time (which I suppose is much like credit card debt if you can’t pay…
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10 Retirement Pitfalls: Depending On Windfalls
Anytime you depend on someone else, you run the risk of that person not coming in for you; when it comes to retirement, you do not want to depend on anything except for your own work. You don’t want to depend on inheritances, you don’t want to depend on Social Security, and you don’t want…
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10 Retirement Pitfalls: Avoid Credit Card Debt
I like to think of retirement saving as building a house and its crucial for one to have a solid foundation onto which to build this house, having credit card debt is the antithesis of having a solid foundation. When you’re talking about retirement, it’s about growing your nest egg… which is extremely difficult if…
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