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From The Experts
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- Rodney Brooks
Retirement approaching and you haven’t saved enough? Your options are limited
Americans’ habit of spending and not saving is about to catch up with them. We’re still operating as if we were our parents, who worked their entire lives for a company who then provided them with a pension for life, as well as health insurance and other retiree benefits. Those days are long gone. Very…
That Talk You Need to Have With Your Children Before You Retire
Finally, It’s that time. You’re ready to clock out of that old 9-to-5 after all those years. You’re one of the lucky ones, old enough to have both a pension and 401(k). The kids have all graduated college and are out of the house. You still have a car note, but you and your…
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- Retirement Advice Articles
- Retirement Advice Basics
- Retirement Risk Articles
- Rodney Brooks
- Taxes and Fees
Is it Smart to Borrow From Your 401(k)
According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, in 2015, 20 percent of Americans have an outstanding loan balance on their 401(k) and 37 percent have had loans in the past five years. Ten percent of those borrowers defaulted and a whopping 86 percent of borrowers left their company with an outstanding balance, according to…
Emergency Budget
There are many Americans who are not saving and, for these people, even a small unexpected expense will likely cause a financial setback. A survey of 1,000 Americans by Bankrate said nearly 60 percent of Americans would not be able to pay an unexpected emergency expense from their savings. Forty-five percent of those surveyed said…
Planning for Health Care expenses in Retirement
What’s the best way to wreck your retirement budget? How about unexpected medical expenses? Ask any financial planner and, he or she will likely say that most couples are not prepared for the financial disruption that could come with an expected or catastrophic illness. Twenty-eight percent of Americans said their greatest fear in retirement is…
Try to Avoid These Retirement Mistakes
There’s a reason I advise readers to talk to a financial professional well before they retire. There is so much more to retirement than saving money, and many Americans can’t even do that. There are a lot of things to consider, foremost among them how long that nest egg will last so you don’t want…
Do a little research before you buy that retirement home
It’s a dream that many of us have. The kids have graduated from college and settled into their new homes and new jobs. Retirement is around the corner. Now that you are empty nesters, that big house in the suburbs no longer works for you and your spouse. So, finally, it’s your chance to get…
There’s more to retirement than saving your money
It’s complicated, this retirement thing. It sneaks up on you, and many of us aren’t quite ready. We haven’t saved enough, didn’t plan enough or we just haven’t figured out what we will do with all that time suddenly thrust upon us. Saving for retirement is difficult enough. Many surveys show that Americans have saved…
Downsizing Your Budget in Retirement
Many people nearing retirement already know they may need to downsize from those big family homes. Why pay for all the maintenance and upkeep when the kids are gone? But they need to also think about downsizing their finances. Reducing that pre-retirement budget can be critical to a successful retirement. Some people start reducing their…
Update your retirement plan regularly — or it could become useless
Remember the days before GPS when we had to follow a road map? (They were free and you could pick them up in any gas station back then). So, what if you were following that map and the highway just ended in the last place you visited — with no signs to tell you how…