My Comments: By the time they arrived on the scene, I felt there wasn’t enough time left for me to grow a meaningful amount in the few years I had left to work. So, I never opened a Roth IRA. I wish I had but it didn’t happen. I now have many clients with Roth …
Continue reading Reasons to Convert Traditional Retirement Accounts to a Roth IRA
My Comments: No, I am not trying to sell you a reverse mortgage, though I am licensed to do so. I am saying you should NOT dismiss them out of hand. Under the right circumstances, they are a valuable tool. As a disclaimer, you should know that I arranged one for myself in 2015. As …
Continue reading Could a Reverse Mortgage Save Your Retirement?
My Comments: Virtually every employed person in the US has some expectation of getting older and having to survive on resources accumulated over the years. A great many of them have money accumulating in retirement accounts that to some extent depend on continued advances in the stock and bond markets. It’s very easy to go …
Continue reading 8 Facts You Need to Know About Stock Market Corrections
One of the best analogies I’ve seen used to describe what follows here is that it’s sometimes called the “Swiss Army Knife of Retirement Planning”. This resonates with me as I’ve had a real Swiss Army Knife for dozens of years. It has multiple uses which is why it’s often in my pocket. What follows …
Continue reading Is This Financial Tool the Best Idea Since Sliced Bread?
My Comments: There are many forces at work in society that are compelling us to re-evaluate how we think about things that before now were "normal". One of them is the concept of "retirement". As a financial planner for most of my 45 years as a financial professional, it was assumed that at a certain …
Continue reading It’s Time to Change How We Talk about ‘Retirement,’ Starting with the Word Itself
My Comments: I can attest to the fact that as your life plays out, there is an increasing realization that your end is coming. At the same time, there is sometimes a serious reluctance to come to terms with, and do something about, the various details of life that will inevitably end. When I was …
Continue reading Why it’s important for every adult to have a will
My Comments: My time these days is spent promoting my book, The Dynamics of Retirement, and the complementary online course I created. I consider myself semi-retired. If you're interested, there's an image of the book just to the right on this page. People often fail to realize retirement turns out to be a 25-30 trek …
Continue reading Two-Thirds of Americans Are in for a Huge Financial Shock in Retirement
My Comments: Yeah, I know. Retirement is far down the road and it's conceptually difficult to imagine yourself ever getting there. But unless you die first, you will get there. And when you do, you're still looking at another 25+ years of life with bills to pay. How will you handle that if you're broke? …
Continue reading 21% of Americans Risk Financial Struggles in Retirement for This Reason
My Comments: These words are self-serving. If that bothers you, stop reading. I've spent much of the past 4 years writing a book and creating an online course to help people come to terms with the idea that once you retire, you're looking at another 25 plus years with an uncertain financial future. People have …
Continue reading “I blame myself”: Retirement remains out of reach for millions of Americans
This assumes you've been paying into the Social Security system for a while and will have a minimum of 40 credits in your name. Without 40 credits, you won't get any monthly retirement income. One credit per calendar quarter; 40 credits equals 10 years. If you're still reading this, and will have a minimum of …
Continue reading Deciding When to Claim Monthly Social Security Retirement Benefits
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