Tag Archives: Retirement

10 Rules for Financial Success – Barron’s

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“Wealth isn’t about how much money you make – wealth is about how much money you save and invest.”

The true measure of financial success isn’t how much money you make—it’s how much you keep. That’s a function of how well you’re able to save money, protect it, and invest it over the long term.

Sadly, most Americans are lousy at this.

Even after a decade of steady economic expansion and record-breaking stock markets, almost two-thirds of earners would be hard-pressed to cover an unexpected $1,000 expense—a medical bill, car repair, or busted furnace—and more than 75% don’t save enough or invest skillfully enough to meet modest long-term retirement goals, according to Bankrate.com.

Even wealthy families aren’t getting it right: 70% lose wealth by their second generation, and 90% by their third. “Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations,” as a saying often attributed to Andrew Carnegie goes.

What’s at the root of these bleak data? Stagnant salaries amid rising costs of health care, education, housing, and other big-ticket necessities have put a major strain on folks of all ages. But advisors point to a deeper issue: an almost universal lack of financial literacy.

“This is a much bigger problem than most people are aware of,” says Spuds Powell, managing director at Kayne Anderson Rudnick Wealth Management in Los Angeles. “I’m constantly amazed at how common it is for clients, even sophisticated ones, to be lacking in financial literacy.”

The ten rules for financial success are:

  1. Set goals
  2. Know what you’ve got and know what you need
  3. Save systematically
  4. Invest in your retirement plan
  5. Invest for growth
  6. Avoid bad debt
  7. Don’t overpay for anything
  8. Protect yourself
  9. Keep it simple
  10. Seek unbiased advice

— Read on www.barrons.com/articles/10-rules-for-financial-success-51558742435

9 Nuggets Of Rock-Solid Advice For Retirement-Age Clients | Seeking Alpha

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Summary

Investing in retirement is not a static activity.

It requires keeping up with and adapting to changes as we help our clients navigate the shifting investing landscape in the years ahead.

There will surely be plenty of surprises. Why not help our clients proactively prepare for them?

“If we collect a rock a year, by the time I’m ready to retire, we’ll have a lot of rocks.” – Michael Maslin, The New Yorker

Collecting rocks is not a great retirement strategy. But planning years ahead of time is. We are fortunate to work with clients who have had the foresight and discipline to save early and accumulate sufficiently large nest eggs for retirement.

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5 Retirement Rules to Live By

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Many people look forward to retirement because it represents freedom. You don’t have to get up and go to work every day or do what a boss tells you.

But just because your time is your own after you leave work doesn’t mean you have no rules to live by in your later years. In fact, it may be even more important to adhere to some guidelines to make sure you don’t run out of money when you’re living on a fixed income as a retiree. 

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Retirees: Don’t Make Mistakes Before a Correction | Kiplinger

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Take some lessons from the mistakes many retirees made during the downturn that socked stocks in 2008. By adjusting accordingly, you don’t have to fear outliving your retirement portfolio, even if you’re about to retire.

How can someone who’s approaching retirement, or is already retired, better handle the next financial crisis?

Although many might say the economy is going through a healthy pullback, there is no doubt that another financial crisis will come at some point. Be sure to avoid making the same mistakes so many retirees did in 2008.

— Read on www.kiplinger.com/article/investing/T047-C032-S014-retirees-don-t-make-mistakes-before-a-correction.html

Think Income Inequality Is Bad? Retirement Inequality May Be Worse

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The Urban Institute’s Signe-Mary McKernan says that savings and wealth discrepancies are more critical than often-cited income inequality. By one measure, she found racial wealth inequality, or assets minus debts, to be three times worse than income inequality. Disadvantaged groups are less likely to own homes. Many aren’t offered retirement plans through employers, or they participate less frequently.

Inadequate retirement savings carry serious long-term implications for governments as well as citizens. They create an expanding cohort of residents who have to rely on government services or who might, for instance, miss property tax payments because they can’t pay other bills. “It matters not only for families and individuals, but for their cities and communities,” McKernan says.
— Read on www.governing.com/topics/mgmt/gov-retirement-inequality-savings-gap.html

8 Ways to Help Close a Retirement Income Gap | Wells Fargo

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Have you discovered a gap between the income you’d like to have in retirement and the income you think you’ll get based on your investments and current savings rate? It happens to lots of people.

“They have a number in mind about how much they need to save before they can retire,” says Will Larson, Retirement Planning Strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors. “Sometimes they can get there and sometimes they can’t.”

As concerning as it might be to discover a retirement income gap, knowing it’s there is the first step in closing it — usually by increasing your income and assets, reducing retirement spending, or both.

— Read on communications.wellsfargoadvisors.com/lifescapes/8-ways-close-retirement-income-gap/

7 reasons to consider this little-known retirement saving strategy – MarketWatch

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Despite enjoying the longest-running bull market in history, most preretirees have a substantial retirement savings shortfall.

The average 65-year-old in the U.S. will outlive their savings by almost a decade, according to a new report by the World Economic Forum. And the typical household nearing retirement has only saved enough in their combined 401(k)s and IRAs to provide them at most $600 a month, according to the most recent Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances.
— Read on www.marketwatch.com/story/7-reasons-to-consider-this-little-known-retirement-saving-strategy-2020-01-09

Lifestyle changes to make if you want to get rich in 2020

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If you want to build more wealth in 2020, start with these five lifestyle changes endorsed by self-made millionaires.

If your’re looking to build more wealth in 2020, money won’t simply appear — you’re probably going to have to make some changes to reach your goals.

Here are five lifestyle changes that have helped self-made millionaires get to where they are today. If they worked for them, they could also work for you.
— Read on www.cnbc.com/2020/01/03/lifestyle-changes-to-make-if-you-want-to-get-rich-in-2020.html

7 Rules for Wealth: #4 Retirement Cost-Cutting

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Are you paying 1% for portfolio management? Why?

You want to be invested in a collection of index funds with an average expense ratio no worse than 0.1%. That’s easy to do. Fidelity has index mutual funds with 0% fees. Or you could easily put together a small, well-balanced assortment of exchange-traded funds costing 0.03% to 0.06%. (Check out the Forbes Best ETFs for Investors ranking.)

Or you could put all your money in the Vanguard Balanced Index Fund at 0.07%.
— Read on www.forbes.com/sites/baldwin/2020/01/04/7-rules-for-wealth-4-retirement-cost-cutting/

Deciding to retire or not | 3 preretirement phases | Fidelity

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Key takeaways

  • While financial and work-related factors are the primary reasons people continue to work, nonfinancial factors like family, health, and lifestyle ultimately cause people to pull the trigger to retire.
  • Wellbeing in retirement is not just about money, or even intellectual stimulation. It’s largely about the freedom to do what you want, when you want.
  • As you enter a stage of preretirement, consider working with an advisor to help shape strategies for Social Security, health care, and cash flow in retirement.

When will you be ready to retire? Particularly if retirement is still far away, you’re probably thinking in terms of dollars—how many you will have and how long they will last. But new research finds that for many people, the decision to retire is not just about money. It’s about life, and the freedom to enjoy it.

That’s the conclusion of an extensive survey of over 10,000 pre-retirees and recent retirees. The online survey was conducted by Fidelity Investments in collaboration with the Stanford Center on Longevity and Greenwald & Associates1 and only included respondents who believed they had some control over if and when they would stop working full-time.

While financial and work-related factors are the primary reasons people continue to work, with eligibility for Medicare and Social Security as key factors, the survey also finds that it’s often nonfinancial factors like family, health, and lifestyle that ultimately cause people to pull the trigger to retire. Among retirees, 72% chose leisure as a very or somewhat strong reason to retire, 64% pointed to stress at work, and 62% cited a desire to spend more time with grandchildren.

“We’ve seen a shift in values as people near retirement,” says Eliza Badeau, Director of Thought Leadership at Fidelity. “Many people seem to desire freedom over money. It’s less about the money and more about spending time where it matters most to them,” she adds. “Most people say they look forward to the freedom that retirement brings such as spending time with their family or doing hobbies they enjoy—ultimately trading in that job stress for leisurely interests.”

Research finds that for many people, the decision to retire is not just about money. Discover 3 preretirement phases that are influencing peoples decision to retire here.

— Read on www.fidelity.com/viewpoints/retirement/time-to-retire