Saving for retirement is an important financial task. And while there are plenty of options available, many Americans are still confused about how best to prepare for retirement. In fact, only 34% of Americans said they were knowledgeable about independent retirement accounts, according to a recent study by the LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute. And only …
For years, you dreamed of traveling after you retired. Now the time is near and you’re ready to pack your bags, but you wonder how much it will cost and how you’ll budget for the trips you’re planning. To help us answer that question, we contacted Donna L. Hull. Since 2008, she’s traveled and blogged …
Jan and Tim need help deciding what to do with a lump sum of money. Call it something of a delayed inheritance. When they sold an inherited property, the couple extended a mortgage to the homebuyers. That worked nicely for years, but when the new homeowner eventually decided to get a new bank loan. That …
We’ve all heard the phrase, “Money is the root of all evil.” After 22 years of counseling hundreds of investors and savers, I’m pretty sure it’s procrastination. Procrastination can kill you when it comes to saving. Putting off saving, investing or planning for the future can be detrimental to your financial health. You’ve also seen …
A new report confirms what we all fear to be true: Americans, no matter their age, are generally terrible at managing their money. In short, we all need to save more. A lot more. This insight comes from Financial Finesse, a think tank geared toward helping people reach financial independence and security, in its 2015 generational …
If a senior relative faces a sudden, debilitating illness or starts losing control of everyday finances, would you know where his or her retirement, estate and long-term care issues stand? If the answer is no, you’re not alone. In many families, it takes a crisis — a prolonged hospital stay or problems at home with …
We would all like to have enough money to do the important things: live life, retire comfortably, educate our children, and so on. More importantly, how do you make sure that you have enough to reach these various goals? Careful planning is essential, but you need to start from the bottom and work your way …
Bill and Eleanor Seavey started their marriage 17 years ago with a prenup. Neither can remember exactly when the agreement sunsetted, but clearly it has. They run a bed and breakfast together in Cambria, Calif., and it doesn’t make sense to them to have an account a spouse can’t access. “She has access to my money, and …
As a college student studying finance, I would often hear of references to the baby boomer generation. It would typically be described as a very large mouse traveling through a skinny snake. Meaning there was this extremely large mass off people traveling through various stages of life. Now the tip of that metaphorical mouse has …
To make it through tough times more Americans have borrowed, stolen or raided their small retirement funds to make ends meet. Loans from retirement funds jumped 20 percent last year. This really can’t be a big surprise to many. Faced with difficult financial decisions people will tend to gravitate towards the oath that seems easiest …