Category: Financial Landing 2015

6/10/2015 - The Price Women Pay for Not Being Financially Confident (The Wall Street Journal)

Women lack confidence in their financial acumen. A study by Merrill Lynch found that 55% of women surveyed believe that they “know less than the average investor about financial markets and investing in general”, as compared to only 27% of men who feel this way. This is especially astonishing given that women overwhelmingly tend to manage the… Read more 6/10/2015 - The Price Women Pay for Not Being Financially Confident (The Wall Street Journal)

6/10/2015 - Reverse Mortgage Ads May Sidestep Potential Pitfalls (The New York Times)

A reverse mortgage is a loan that lets older people tap the equity they have built up in their homes. No principal or interest payments are due until the borrower dies, or moves out of the house. To qualify, a borrower must be at least 62 and have significant home equity. The loans may make… Read more 6/10/2015 - Reverse Mortgage Ads May Sidestep Potential Pitfalls (The New York Times)

6/8/2015 - How to Boost Your Retirement Confidence (U.S. News & Report)

People are feeling better about retirement than they were just a few years ago – although they’re still not as confident as they were back in the halcyon days of the 1990s, according to a recent survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute. Today, almost 60 percent of American workers are confident that their preparations for retirement… Read more 6/8/2015 - How to Boost Your Retirement Confidence (U.S. News & Report)

6/7/2015 - New study reminds us that Americans are woefully unprepared for retirement (The Guardian)

Are we all in denial or is it simply impossible to save enough for retirement? Is it some kind of toxic combination of the two? Whatever the reason, yet another study – this one from no less an authority than the non-partisan US government accountability office (GAO) – is here to remind us that we’re… Read more 6/7/2015 - New study reminds us that Americans are woefully unprepared for retirement (The Guardian)

6/6/2015 - Want a healthy, rich retirement? Keep working (U.S. News & Report)

Easing into retirement is important not just for marital health, but for mental and physical health as well, says Laura Scharr-Bykowsky, a financial planner in Columbia, South Carolina, who has seen this play out with her clients. “When people just cold-turkey retire,” Scharr-Bykowsky says, “they often have anincrease in depression or problems with their spouse, or they… Read more 6/6/2015 - Want a healthy, rich retirement? Keep working (U.S. News & Report)

6/5/2015 - More evidence of America's shortfall in retirement savings (CBS MoneyWatch)

“Most households approaching retirement have low savings.” That’s the no-nonsense title of a recent report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) on retirement security. Here are a few of its sobering results: About half of all households age 55 and over have no retirement savings. Many older households don’t have other financial resources to tap during… Read more 6/5/2015 - More evidence of America's shortfall in retirement savings (CBS MoneyWatch)

6/4/2015 - How Good Is Your 401(k) Plan? (Morningstar)

As Morningstar’s Scott Cooley discussed in this article, the introduction of “nudge” features like automatic enrollment and auto-escalation (participants put more into their 401(k)s when they get raises) and the uptake of professional management mean that many 401(k) investors are able to save more and invest better than they would have even a decade ago. I’m… Read more 6/4/2015 - How Good Is Your 401(k) Plan? (Morningstar)

6/3/2015 - New retirement age is not 65, not 80, not 95: It's higher (CNBC)

One hundred years ago, the average lifespan was about 42. That’s now doubled. People are living longer and trying to stretch their income to make ends meet and stay ahead of inflation, but that’s not the inflection point financial advisors are really concerned about—that’s just the everyday blocking and tackling on behalf of client portfolios.… Read more 6/3/2015 - New retirement age is not 65, not 80, not 95: It's higher (CNBC)

6/3/2015 - SEC Warns of Advisors Duping Investors With Fake Credentials (Think Advisor)

The Securities and Exchange Commission warned investors Wednesday to perform a thorough background check on potential advisors’ credentials as it brought two enforcement actions against advisors for falsifying and exaggerating theirs.The SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy issued an Investor Alert Wednesday warning investors not to “trust someone with your investment money just because he or… Read more 6/3/2015 - SEC Warns of Advisors Duping Investors With Fake Credentials (Think Advisor)

6/2/2015 - Many Americans Clueless on How to Spend Retirement Savings (Think Advisor)

Despite two decades of advice from the retirement industry about how to accumulate a magic number in retirement savings, many working Americans will never reach that goal, according to Pentegra Retirement Services. This means the industry must shift focus to educating workers about how to maximize what they will manage to save. A new poll… Read more 6/2/2015 - Many Americans Clueless on How to Spend Retirement Savings (Think Advisor)