Busyness 1

The Busyness of Life

What does retirement really, truly mean? What are your plans for after you retire? We’ve been thinking about this recently. Many would define it as “retreating from the ‘busyness’ of life.”  When do you plan on retiring? How old will you be? How long do you think you’ll spend in

Read More »

Retirement With $5 Million

There was a recent report from the Employee Benefit Research Institute on an analysis of retirement accounts using the 2018 Survey of Consumer Finances. According to the analysis, a $5 million retirement nest egg puts you in the top 0.1% of households. Then, the question becomes: what does $5 million

Read More »

Estate Planning

We all know that complex estates require sophisticated estate planning. If you have a large estate or own a business, only a qualified estate-planning attorney will have the knowledge and expertise to tailor to your specific needs.  Because we have been doing business with you, we may be able to

Read More »

Did You Hear? 

According to LIMRA, annuity sales are on the rise yet again this year, after also breaking records last year. Investors building their retirement strategy looking to mitigate some risk have chosen to lock-in annuities–How smart is this choice? Well, there’s definitely a reason they’ve been selling recently. Reach out to

Read More »

An Email Scam Going Around

We’ve previously discussed different types of scams you should be looking out for. This week, we wanted to bring yet another one to your attention. You might get an email claiming to be from someone with the Social Security Administration, a message along the lines of “Due to suspicious illegal

Read More »

When is the Right Time to Retire? 

When is the right time to retire? The answer to this, like every other decision you have to make in retirement, depends on your own personal needs and circumstances. The National Bureau of Economic Research found that “retirement improves both health and life satisfaction” but the age at which you

Read More »

Solid

We often look for ways to get a solid financial footing during the decade before retirement. For years, we save diligently and carefully follow a long-term strategy. But as retirement approaches, your priorities may shift. When retirement is on the horizon, pre-retirees may start to question the choices they have

Read More »

What Can Life Insurance Provide? 

According to a recent survey from Forbes (Which you can read about here) a relatively small number of Americans actually view life insurance for all that it can provide. Most have a limited view of what it can be used for, believing it’s only a means of protecting their families

Read More »

Our Future Selves

Remember to think about yourself in future terms. Many of us feel little connection to the person we’ll become years from now, and that can lead to shortsighted behavior that can actually hurt us in the long run. It’s certainly food for thought. Are you holding back on retirement savings

Read More »

What Does it Actually Mean?

We often hear that the market is “up” or “down” and think that we’ve either made money (or lost out on making money) or that we’ve lost money. But “up” and “down” don’t have much tangible meaning to us, personally. When a stock broker tells you us “You’re doing great,

Read More »

At Your Most Vulnerable

There has been an uptick in what regulators call “romance fraud.” This refers to a type of online deception where individuals create fake identities and develop fraudulent romantic or otherwise close relationships with unsuspecting people to exploit money out of them. Studies have been done to try to pinpoint when

Read More »
risk taker

Risk Taking 

“You can’t have your cake and eat it too.” Perhaps there’s more truth to this saying than we want to admit. This year has been tumultuous, with markets declining and interest rates increasing. Were we all soothsayers, we would be rich beyond our dreams. But we aren’t. And it’s disingenuous

Read More »

Did you forget and leave it behind?

We’ve spoken in the past about the benefits of saving money for retirement by having automatic transfers from your checking account into a savings account. But, what is often forgotten is that workplace retirement account when you leave one job and move on to another. If you leave a job,

Read More »

Recycling RMDs

One potential way to save money consistently is to arrange automatic transfers from your checking to your savings account on paydays. This idea can be also applied to RMDs as we get older. While we may be forced to take required minimum distributions out of qualified accounts, there are no

Read More »
emergency fund

Follow the Steps

Sometimes it’s best to start with the basic steps when planning for retirement. Are you contributing enough to your 401(k) to get your company’s full employee match? Have you paid off any high-interest-rate debt you may be carrying? Eliminating a monthly credit card or auto loan with a high-interest payment

Read More »

A Dangerous Decade 

The five years before you retire and the next five after retirement are among the most important and vulnerable for a retiree’s savings. The reasoning is that, as you approach retirement, there are far fewer years left to correct or recover from a mistake. The consequence of a misstep during

Read More »
factor in healthcare costs

Factor in Healthcare Costs 

In the past, we have noted that when planning your retirement finances you need to factor in healthcare costs. Not doing that may cause a depletion of your retirement savings that you did not anticipate. There has been some discussion about the Affordable Care Act and the indication that, for

Read More »
fair-meaning-equal

“Fair” Meaning “Equal”

We frequently receive inquiries regarding who the beneficiaries should be for the financial products we recommend. And, if the division among multiple beneficiaries should be equal. This brings up an interesting point.  When making this decision, people sometimes place descriptions on their offspring that relate to their current needs or

Read More »
gap

Do You Have a Gap?

There may be a gap between how much you spend and how much you think you spend. This gap should be factored in when trying to determine how much you’ll need in retirement: Probably more than you think. It’s natural to not want to think about this: It can be

Read More »
life insurance policies

How Are You Looking at It?

Typically, you put a lot of thought towards paying off loans for insurance, on, for example, your house and car. However, life insurance is just as important as other types, and should be thought of in the same way.  Life insurance is often ignored, because we look at it simply

Read More »
Expenses

Assumptions About Expenses

Have you ever reflected on the fact that frequently, the final years of your full-time career often coincide with your peak income? However, as your earnings increase, so can your expenses. And if you’re not saving at the same rate, it could be difficult to sustain your lifestyle in retirement. 

Read More »
Scroll to Top