If you’re worried about achieving financial security in retirement, there’s a simple solution: Work a little longer. Most people say they don’t plan to retire until they turn 65. But that’s not what we’re actually doing. More than half of Americans actually retire at age 62–even though it’s not usually the best decision. Working even just [...] [read full article…]
Think you’ve got a pretty good handle on planning for retirement? I doubt it. The MetLife Mature Market Institute recently published results of its Retirement Income IQ Test, and the results were just awful. Metlife—the insurance company’s research and education arm—surveyed more than 1,200 people who are five years away from retirement age on 15 multiple [...] [read full article…]
When Sharon White was growing up, her career goal was clear: “I wanted to find a way to make money,” she recalls. An African-American woman who grew up in Compton, California in the 1950s, White pursued a career in business, acquiring degrees in accounting, business administration and finance along the way. Last month she retired at [...] [read full article…]
Q: I have a substantial IRA that I’m leaving to my younger brother as beneficiary in the event of my death. I’m hoping that it can be a rollover IRA for him so he could stretch out liquidation and taxation over his lifetime. My husband is deceased, I have no children, and my other brother [...] [read full article…]
I often hear from readers who’ve lost their jobs in their 50s or early 60s to layoffs or involuntary “early retirement.” It’s a very stressful time all around, but finding health insurance is one of the biggest challenges. Coverage from former employers is on a countdown to expiration or already is gone. Medicare benefits are years [...] [read full article…]
When it comes to your retirement portfolio, you’re in the driver’s seat. At the risk of sounding like a back-seat driver, here’s a thought: Maybe you should put it your plan on cruise control. A majority of employers are adding what amounts to automatic portfolio management to the options you can choose in your workplace plan. [...] [read full article…]
So you’re getting ready to retire, but think you’ll want to keep working in some fashion after you leave. Maybe you’ll downshift to a part time position with your former employer, or do some consulting. Congratulations on making such a smart move. Continuing to work means more income to supplement your retirement lifestyle, and it bolsters [...] [read full article…]
Q: I have eight more years to work until my retirement age (66). I plan on working as long as possible. What I want to know is, will I be able to still work full-time while collecting Social Security, or will I only be able to work so many hours? Although I still have a [...] [read full article…]
Ask someone over 50 what they want to do after retirement, and you may well get this answer: “Keep working!” Surveys suggest that more than 75 percent of the baby boom generation plans to keep working past traditional retirement age. But it’s not likely that many will keep laboring away in Corporate America. Most boomers who [...] [read full article…]
The financial planning profession is growing explosively as millions of aging baby boomers confront the challenges of planning for retirement security. Readers of this column have been writing to ask if they need a planner-and how to go about hiring one. Retirement planning poses complex challenges-and investing wisely is just one part of the picture; you [...] [read full article…]
RetirementRevised.com is the companion website of Retire Smart, a column written by Mark Miller that appears in more than 30 newspapers each week. For millions of Baby Boomers, retirement is an opportunity for reinvention, rather than taking it easy. Mark is helping write the playbook for the new career and personal pursuits of a generation.
