Retirement

By Kelly K. James, Next Avenue When I was 30, I quit my job as a lawyer to become a freelance writer, following a dream I’d had since I was a kid. At the time, I had sold two articles to magazines (Cosmopolitan and Bride’s) and built a career out of those two clips. I

Are you living a comfortable retirement? Do the latest news reports cause you to worry about how ultra-high inflation affects your retirement? Should you proactively adopt strategies to tackle inflation right now? Or is it something you simply don’t have to concern yourself with? “The current inflationary environment poses unique challenges,” says Ted Wozniak, U.S.

Topline The stock market surged Tuesday, recouping losses from the previous session, as investors cheered another round of solid quarterly earnings results from corporate America despite inflationary pressures and fears of a recession. Key Facts The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 2.4%, over 700 points, while the S&P 500 gained 2.7% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq

A recently released study by J.P. Morgan Asset Management suggests that retirees will need over 90% of what they used to live on once they stop working. For years, the rule of thumb was that once we started going to the pickleball court instead of the office, we only needed to replace 75% to 80%

There’s no question inflation affects your retirement plans. With year-over-year prices rising more than 9%, you are quite correct in wondering what you can do about it. What can you do to protect your retirement from inflation? Financial professionals from across the country looked at the most asked questions. Their answers revealed three easy steps

The most common qualified retirement plan transaction is the rollover. Quite often when an employee leaves an employer, the employee rolls over the 401(k) or other retirement plan balance to an IRA. These rollovers could be costing many investors thousands of dollars, according to a new study from Pew Charitable Trusts. Many 401(k) and other

I had the wonderful opportunity to engage Catherine Collinson, CEO and President, nonprofit Transamerica Institute and Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies about the newly released 22nd Annual Retirement Survey – which after 22 years provides an amazing time series on American attitudes about retirement. Teresa Ghilarducci: Catherine, your 2022 survey focused on how the pandemic

What do you think is the biggest 401(k) retirement planning mistake? You might think it is picking the wrong investments, setting up the plan improperly, or contributing the wrong amount. The answer is simpler than the 401(k) mistakes I just listed. The biggest 401(k) mistake in 2022 is missing out on your 401(k)-employer match. This

Saving for retirement involves sacrificing something of value today in exchange for something of value in the future. Economists have long argued that this decision is biased in favor of current values because they are more certain than future values, and also closer at hand. The consequence is insufficient savings in the earlier stages of

Topline Shares of Netflix surged after the closing bell Tuesday despite the streaming giant’s disclosure in its second-quarter earnings report that it lost subscribers for a second quarter in a row, as the total was lower than investors had feared—with the company optimistic about adding back subscribers later in the year. Key Facts Netflix’s stock

As a nursing student decades ago, my first summer job was taking care of an older lady at her home. My employer was her daughter, who had taken her mom in to live with her. Due to a major stroke, the mom didn’t speak, except for a rare “yes” or “no”. My job as a

Did you know you can put additional after-tax money into your 401(k) or 403(b) above the normal $20,500 per year cap (or $27k if you’ll be age 50 or above this year)? The IRS limit for the total of all annual contributions is the lesser of $61k (or $67.5k if age 55 or older) or

One would have thought that after more than 750,000 Covid-19 related deaths among older adults in the US and more than 200,000 deaths among residents and staffs of long-term care facilities that Congress would act to improve the nation’s long-term care system. One would have been wrong. Except for including about $12 billion in federal

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that inflation was up 9.1% for the 12 months ending June 2022. The increase has drawn the concern of many, especially those living in retirement. The good news is that the headline number merely represents an average. That means your actual inflation rate may diverge from this average. It

The Social Security retirement trust fund will last one year longer than was estimated last year, according to the latest annual report from the Board of Trustees of Social Security. But the details of the report don’t inspire confidence in the estimate. During the first two years of the pandemic, it appeared that the Social

By Richard Eisenberg, Next Avenue In his classic tune “Roll Over Beethoven,” Chuck Berry famously belted: “Roll it over then move on up.” Well, if you’ve saved for years in a 401(k) plan, you’ll want to know how — or whether — to roll it over to move on up when you retire. My “Friends

By Chris Farrell, Next Avenue I was onstage recently at a theater in Minneapolis with the improvisational comedy team The Theater of Public Policy, or T2P2. Co-founders Tane Danger and Brandon Boat conceived the idea of bringing on stage someone to talk about a serious topic — the economy in my case — and take

By Lazetta Rainey Braxton, Next Avenue With the first half of the year behind us, now is a good time for a quick, mid-year financial check-in. Knowing that you have places to be and people to see this summer, let’s get right to assessing if you’re on course to realize your financial goals or need

Topline Stocks surged higher on Friday—recouping some of their losses from this week—as investors assessed the latest batch of corporate earnings from major banks and markets got a boost from stronger-than-expected retail sales. Key Facts Markets rebounded Friday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 2.2%, over 600 points, while the S&P 500 gained 1.9% and

By Darrold Glanville and Martha Glanville, Next Avenue Before we moved to rural North Branch (Minnesota) in 2006, Darrold owned a small biotech company and Martha was a special education teacher in Minneapolis. We have a passion for cooking, baking, and sharing meals with others; we particularly enjoy bread, pizza and pasta. As a retirement