Financial News and Updates
The $1000 Rule and the 4% Rule of Retirement
How much money will you need saved for retirement? How much income should you withdraw each year? As retirement draws closer, you probably want to evaluate your income strategy. What sources of income will you have? You will receive income from Social Security benefits, as well as possibly retirement account
Don’t Take the Bait
In 2022, social media-based scams cost Americans a total of $1.23 billion, a 54% increase since 2021, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Typically, these sorts of scams start with someone claiming to be a mutual acquaintance of someone you know, or relative. Then, they either ask for financial assistance,
Paying For Medicare
Friends and colleagues who are approaching 65 are beginning to ask about Medicare benefits. Not just how to sign up, but what to select from among the various choices. The good news is, 94% of Medicare beneficiaries age 65 and up are satisfied with their quality of care. The not-so-good
What is a Pension? Do You Have One?
The phrase “pension benefits” has come up a lot in recent weeks, especially during the negotiations between the United Auto Workers union and the “big three” automotive manufacturers, narrowly avoiding a strike. But for the majority of private-sector U.S. workers, pensions seem to have disappeared a long time ago. Pensions
Did You Hear?
Did You Hear? According to LIMRA, annuity sales are on the rise yet again this year, after also breaking records last year. Investors building their retirement strategy looking to mitigate some risk have chosen to lock-in annuities–How smart is this choice? Well, there’s definitely a reason they’ve been selling recently. Reach
An Email Scam Going Around
We’ve previously discussed different types of scams you should be looking out for. This week, we wanted to bring yet another one to your attention. You might get an email claiming to be from someone with the Social Security Administration, a message along the lines of “Due to suspicious illegal
What Would a Government Shutdown Mean For You?
September 30th was the final day before government funding expired and the last chance to re-fund it. Thankfully, a last-minute agreement was passed by the House and Senate to keep the government going through to November 17th, narrowly avoiding a government shutdown. But… what happens when November 17th comes around?
An Important Warning
Did you know that the older you are, the more susceptible you are to telephone or internet fraud? One of the most common tricks scammers use is impersonating a child or grandchild, asking you for financial assistance. According to the FBI, Americans lost over 10$ billion to scams last year.
When to Buy an Annuity?
The average age at which one buys an annuity is their early 60s, with the majority of annuities purchased by individuals between ages 55–70. According to Oxford Economics, the U.S. population aged 65 and up is expected to grow by more than 8.3 million from 2022 to 2027, and so
Calculating Life Expectancy
We’ve provided some online tools to help estimate life expectancy, a topic we discussed last week. We found three we thought we’d share, each with varying degrees of specificity: Go through one or all three to get an estimate. It may be able to help you with your financial retirement
The Most Important Assumption
One of the most important assumptions you will make when planning for retirement is life expectancy. While we can reasonably estimate each of our retirement income sources and dollar amounts, a crucially important variable we don’t have is how long we’ll live: Therefore, you don’t know how long exactly your
Recession Now Pushed to 2024?
Recession Now Pushed to 2024? A recession is a significant and prolonged decline in economic activity within a country or region. It is typically characterized by a decrease in various economic indicators, including a contraction in gross domestic product, reduced consumer spending, rising unemployment rates, and decreased business investment. Recessions
When is the Right Time to Retire?
When is the right time to retire? The answer to this, like every other decision you have to make in retirement, depends on your own personal needs and circumstances. The National Bureau of Economic Research found that “retirement improves both health and life satisfaction” but the age at which you
Key Takeaways
Here are a few factors to consider when you making your retirement income strategy: When it comes to paying taxes on contributions, Roth IRAs and traditional IRAs differ from one another. While both are tax-advantaged accounts, your choice will impact when you pay taxes on the money: With a traditional
What is the Difference?
We sometimes are asked who a fixed indexed annuity might be a good choice for, versus who might be suited to a variable annuity. And to answer that question, our attention was drawn to a very simple article published by the Insurance Information Institute (Which you can read by clicking
Late Boomer’s Retirement
A study from the Center For Retirement Research looked into the decline in wealth for late boomers, and explored what may have contributed to it: “The results show that two factors were at play – a shift in the population towards lower-wealth households and, more importantly, a weakening of the
It Isn’t Just About Savings
When we think of retirement, we often focus on how much money we have in savings. We often forget that retirement doesn’t necessarily mean having to deplete our savings, it means creating a retirement income strategy off of those savings. Call us, we have some ideas that could allow you
Prolonged Grief Disorder
What is Prolonged Grief Disorder? Prolonged grief disorder (PGD) is a mental health condition characterized by intense grief lasting for an extended period following the death of a loved one. The diagnosis and treatment of PGD are not yet standardized in the way more established mental health conditions are. However,
