When do you claim your Social Security when you want to retire (stop working) at age 60? Or 58? Or some other age before 70? 62 is the earliest you can claim your benefit (reduced), and age 70 is the latest you should claim because that’s the age the benefit is maximized. Your stop working age […]
You can get a sense of what “percenter” you are through a handy site that summarizes income or wealth (and other stuff too) called Shnugi. The numbers are based off of the results of the Survey of Consumer Finances by the Federal Reserve. There are two measures that people often confuse being similar. Income and […]
Fundamentally Wade’s work, in his newest book, is a great summary of a lot of research so far in this nascent field of withdrawing from assets to supplement retirement income. “How Much Can I Spend in Retirement?: A Guide to Investment-Based Retirement Income Strategies (The Retirement Researcher’s Guide Series)” by Wade D Pfau, available at […]
How many times can you use a source of money in your retirement plan? Turns out, just once, unless you know ahead of time WHEN something is going to happen, or if something was NOT going to happen. Since we don’t know either, we need to plan on what resources may solve which issues we […]
It’s a horrible thought. You finally get to the time in life when you can reap the benefits of a lifetime of work, you file for your Social Security benefits, and discover that some of your benefits will be garnished to pay off old debts. This reality hit home recently with a report, Snapshot of […]
How well can we function at work as we grow older? Or continue to manage our money? Research that has looked at cross-sections as well as longitudinal groups of people have provided great insights to these questions. Center for Retirement Research at Boston College has issued three briefs on the topic of Cognitive Aging. The first […]
What are the Phases of Retirement? I functionally label retirement into 3 Phases for couples: Phase I: Both of you are here. Phase II: One of you are here. Phase III: Neither of you are here. Each phase requires a bit of thought and planning. Most people focus on just Phase I (they’re both here): […]
Some plans offer “after-tax” 401k contributions. Aren’t these the same as a Roth 401k? Nope! There are three (3) different types of 401k contributions – IF your plan offers them … and each one has its’ own tax treatment: The 401k most people are familiar with. These are subject to the contribution limits each year. The […]
The terms risk and security are heard a lot when discussing money. Most people think of risk as the value of money going up or down, and usually down coming to mind when associated with risk. Security may be thought of as the ability to spend on things important to you, what those important things […]
What is the most sensitive factor in the computation of retirement income? Time! It is the one input that is largely ignored. Time … or better said, aging … has succumbed through the common use of a fixed age such as 95 or 100. You may click on the graph to enlarge it (hold shift key […]
