Category: Financial Landing 2015

6/1/2015 - Here’s the Unsettling Truth About the Retirement Crisis (Time)

It’s much harder to save for retirement when you have a low-wage job with no employer-sponsored savings plan, such as a 401(k). Retirement account ownership is heavily concentrated among higher-income households. That’s the key reason Obama created the MyRA plan, which is designed to make retirement savings accounts more accessible to lower-income workers and those just starting out.… Read more 6/1/2015 - Here’s the Unsettling Truth About the Retirement Crisis (Time)

5/31/2015 - A Better Way to Tap Your Retirement Savings (The Wall Street Journal)

Dynamic withdrawal strategies have attracted attention as financial advisers have sought to refine and move beyond the so-called 4% rule. Widely used since now-retired financial planner Bill Bengen published groundbreaking research on safe withdrawal rates in 1994, the 4% rule calls for retirees to spend no more than 4% from their portfolios in the first year of… Read more 5/31/2015 - A Better Way to Tap Your Retirement Savings (The Wall Street Journal)

5/30/2015 - Should you delay Social Security payout? (USA Today)

Social Security is the central thread running through America’s social safety net. The program that supports older Americans, disabled workers and their families paid about$823 billion in 2013, according to the most recent Social Security Board of Trustees report. That was more than one-fifth of all federal spending that year, covering 58 million recipients. For decades,… Read more 5/30/2015 - Should you delay Social Security payout? (USA Today)

5/29/2015 - Help clients before they become the family bank (Investment News)

A recent national study by Merrill Lynch and Age Wave found that roughly six in 10 people (62%) age 50 and over are providing financial support to family members. The amount of support can be substantial — averaging $15,000 over five years. But among clients with assets over $5 million, the average level of support climbs to… Read more 5/29/2015 - Help clients before they become the family bank (Investment News)

5/28/2015 - Health savings accounts gain acceptance as retirement tool (Market Watch)

At the end of 2014, U.S. health savings accounts (HSAs) held $24.2 billion across nearly 14 million accounts, versus $19.3 billion across nearly 11 million accounts in 2013, according to Devenir, a Minneapolis-based provider of HSA investment products. Underlying this rapid growth is the increased adoption by employers of high-deductible health insurance plans, which shift… Read more 5/28/2015 - Health savings accounts gain acceptance as retirement tool (Market Watch)

5/27/2015 - The issue is net returns, not the nature of the fund (Market Watch)

Research conducted by economists at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College and other institutions have concluded that the high fees associated with investing in 401(k)s and IRAs seriously erode balances at retirement. Paying an additional 100 basis points reduces these balances by more than 20 percent. Read the full article in MarketWatch.  

5/26/2015 - How to Protect your IRA (CBS MoneyWatch)

Failure to name a person as a beneficiary means the IRA assets pass through your estate and that’ll cost your heirs. That’s because if you hadn’t already started taking distributions by the time of your death, the IRA assets must be distributed to your estate’s heirs within five years of death. Or if you had started, distributions… Read more 5/26/2015 - How to Protect your IRA (CBS MoneyWatch)

5/24/2015 - Public-Sector Jobs Vanish, Hitting Blacks Hard (The New York Times)

Working for the government has long provided a dependable pathway to the middle class and a measure of security harder to find in the private sector, particularly for those without college degrees.Roughly one in five black adults works for the government, teaching school, delivering mail, driving buses, processing criminal justice and managing large staffs. They… Read more 5/24/2015 - Public-Sector Jobs Vanish, Hitting Blacks Hard (The New York Times)

5/23/2015 - Ways to make a smooth transition to retirement (USA Today)

Many people have the time of their lives in retirement, while others feel adrift, especially when they are in transition to their new lifestyle. About two-thirds of retired Baby Boomers say they had challenges adapting to this change in their lives, one survey showed. Among the toughest parts: Missing the day-to-day social connections with colleagues,… Read more 5/23/2015 - Ways to make a smooth transition to retirement (USA Today)

5/22/2015 - What the Supreme Court’s fixes for retirement savings may do to your 401(k) (MarketWatch)

The U.S. Supreme Court prescribed some fixes to the retirement-savings world this week, but the long-term side effects could have some workers thinking they’ve been given bad medicine. The high court ruled unanimously in favor of current and former workers at Edison, a California-based utility, who claimed that the retail-class mutual funds selected as investment options… Read more 5/22/2015 - What the Supreme Court’s fixes for retirement savings may do to your 401(k) (MarketWatch)