Barack Obama’s hair turned a little gray during his 20-month quest for the presidency but he’s hardly the only one showing some age. President-elect Obama will lead a country that is aging rapidly as the huge baby boomer generation heads toward retirement. By the year 2030, there will be 72 million Americans over age 65–about [...] [...more]
I believe firmly that retirement savers need to hang on tight through the stomach-churning roller coaster of a stock market we’re all riding. Unless you think we’re witnessing the end of the free enterprise system as we know it–and I don’t–selling in a panic is the worst mistake you can make in this bear [...] [...more]
A coalition of groups including AARP, Elderhostel, and the Vital Aging Network sponsored the First Positive Aging Conference in December 2007. I attended the event, and it was an extraordinary gathering of more than 400 people who came together to learn, talk and network about purpose, meaning and vitality in the second half of life. [...] [...more]
“Should I stay or should I go?” I’m fairly sure The Clash wasn’t thinking about 401k accounts when they wrote that English punk rock classic. But it’s a good song to sing whenever you leave a job and need to decide where to park your fund balance. Many people naturally lean toward taking their 401(k) money with [...] [...more]
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 [...] [...more]
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 [...] [...more]
The respected Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) released new research this week that attempts to quantify how much more the average worker will gain through automation of 401(k) retirement savings plans at work. I wrote recently about the surging use of automated retirement portfolio management; the new EBRI study claims to be the first of [...] [...more]
Think you know what you’re doing when it comes to planning your retirement income? Odds are, you don’t, if the Metlife Retirement Income IQ Test is any indication. The company’s annual study of pre-retirees reinforces just how little most of us know about retirement planning. Metlife asked pre-retirees to take a simple 15-question quiz. The [...] [...more]
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. [...] [...more]
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 [...] [...more]
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.
