CBS MoneyWatch.com contributor Charlie Farrell offers up a simple ratio for gauging whether you’re saving enough for retirement: a capital-to-income ratio. At a 2-to-1 ratio, he argues, the power of compound interest can take you to a reasonable goal for a secure retirement. The formula comes from Farrell’s book, Your Money Ratios: 8 Simple Tools [...] [...more]
A new study reveals a substantial jump in the percentage of Americans who won’t be able to maintain their standard of living in retirement in the wake of the economic crash. The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College (CRR) says 51 percent of Americans are at risk of lower living standards in retirement, up [...] [...more]
When it comes to retirement plans, people say one thing but doing another. The Employee Benefits Research Institute (EBRI) compared the dates when workers said they planned to retire with the actual dates they left their jobs. EBRI found a a sizable gap between worker expectations on retirement dates compared with actual experience. EBRI’s research [...] [...more]
Here’s some bad news for men: We don’t live as long as women. But there’s bad news for women, too: you might live too long–financially speaking. Women face a greater longevity risk–the danger of outliving their assets and experiencing poverty in old age. The average life expectancy for a 65-year-old American woman is 20 years, [...] [...more]
Three months after President Obama’s inauguration, one phrase from his speech on the steps of the Capitol comes back to me often: “The time has come to set aside childish things.” That line, which quotes loosely from 1 Corinthians:13 in the New Testament, refers to our collective need to wake up to the realities and [...] [...more]
