If you talk to people who have been retired for at least 15 years or more, they will often talk about the major ‘stealth’ expenses that can arise after you stop working, such as a medical condition or major home repair.
Statistics show that one in five retirees and one in four retired widows will get hit with at least four major financial shocks after they stop working. These numbers could be fairly eye-opening for most pre-retirees. Or, at least, they can make them take a second look at their retirement plans.
The numbers also reflect that 28% of retirees and 13% of widows haven’t experienced any financial shocks yet. But they are the exception and not the rule. It’s prudent to think about any and all ‘surprises’ that can happen during your retirement years.
Not only does proactive planning give you a longer window for anticipating “stealth expenses” and setting reserves in place for them. It can also help you reduce the impact of these risks when you have to deal with them.
For example, you might take a tax hit from having to make a sudden withdrawal from your portfolio to cover an unanticipated health scare.
Here’s a look at some surprise expenses in retirement that may come your way — and how you can prepare for them. Read More
The modern financial landscape for today’s retirees is quite different from that of prior generations. Corporate pensions are disappearing, and the Social Security program faces new pressures from record-breaking numbers of people retiring.
Annuities have steadily emerged as a solution to these retirement income challenges. But up until some years ago, many retirees eschewed the use of annuities. Why? Because in order to get a guaranteed lifetime stream of income, they had to annuitize their contracts.
In order to do this, they had to effectively forfeit control of their money for the rest of their lives. Thankfully, life insurance companies have innovated and come up with a new benefit that gives more flexibility: an annuity income rider benefit. Read More
For retirement savers wanting more growth potential than what CDs and other fixed-interest assets might offer, fixed index annuities can be an attractive option. Indexed annuities can earn more interest over time than what these other options might.
Even so, some people would rather know that they are earning a guaranteed rate of interest. They are more comfortable with a minimum interest rate for their money’s growth.
Multi-year guaranteed annuities, or MYGA annuities, can fill this role for those who want a guaranteed interest rate with full protection of principal.
That means that for every dollar of MYGA premium that is issued, the insurance company must keep at least one dollar in its cash reserves to cover the outstanding amount. Read More
The following guest post has been contributed by Emily Kalan of Crediful. Emily is an experienced blogger that writes about all things finance, including debt, home ownership, loans, and financial identity protection.
Identity theft is far more common than you think – it’s one of those things that you hear about but don’t think it will ever happen to you. And it can be a particularly troubling problem to deal with when you are in retirement.
The reality is that millions of Americans suffer from identity theft every year, and it can leave you feeling targeted, vulnerable, and unsafe.
Thankfully, there are ways you can protect yourself against identity theft without having to spend hundreds of dollars on protective services. Keep reading to find out how!
Looking for identity protection for families? Then head on over to Crediful.com and check out our in-depth post on some of the best identity theft protection services. Read More
Turn on the TV or radio, and chances are you might hear of volatility hitting equity markets at some time or another. But what you might not hear as much about is the risk facing CDs, bonds, Treasury securities, and other fixed-interest holdings: interest rate risk.
What is interest rate risk? It’s a particularly important topic for retirees. After all, many retirement portfolio strategies use fixed-interest holdings to generate stable retirement income or to smooth out volatility in a portfolio.
These fixed-income assets also tend to be the place where millions of Americans protect their money. Or they may park cash there for short-term to medium-term goals. So, long story short, interest rate risk can have implications for millions of people
So, how should we define interest rate risk — and how might affect you? Let’s get into it. Read More
Planning for retirement isn’t easy. It’s complex and has many moving parts. For one thing, you will need to have enough income to last for the rest of your life once you step away from a full-time career.
Taxes, healthcare, and inflation are just a few things that can eat into your money. Not only that, you might have a longer retirement than you would think. Nowadays, thanks to advances in healthcare and technology, many people are spending as much as one-third of their lives in their post-retirement years.
How, then, can you plan for a financially confident future? A financial professional’s guidance can help you go the extra mile in many ways. They can help you evaluate your current financial progress. They can also help you spell out your goals, foresee retirement risks, and build personal strategies to assist you in your objectives.
With record numbers of baby boomers retiring, many new trends are coming into the retirement landscape. Among boomers, there is one growing trend of “solo agers,” or those who retired without marrying anyone or having any children. According to the American Society on Aging, around 20% of boomers fit this trend.
If you are a solo ager, here are some questions to ask when planning for your retirement. How you answer these questions can be crucial in helping you enjoy a comfortable and financially confident retired lifestyle. Read More
So, you have decided that an annuity makes sense for your retirement. But what type of annuity might be right for you? This will depend on the answers to a variety of questions.
What is your risk tolerance? What timeline do you have for your money? What annuity guarantees are important to you? What you hope to accomplish with the annuity contract? All of these considerations and more are relevant to what annuity might be a good fit for you.
Here are some questions to consider as you think about what annuity might be right for your situation. Read More
Editor’s Note: The following article is a retirement guest post that has been authored and contributed by John Freeman.
Watching our parents age can be difficult as they begin to need more assistance with different aspects of their lives. While your parents likely want to maintain as much of their independence as they can, and they should, you should be there to lend a helping hand when they need it.
More than 65 million Americans provide care for an aging, chronically ill, or disabled family member each year. And, since the U.S. has an aging population, with geriatrics outweighing younger demographics, more and more individuals will be taking on this role—many of whom are not adequately prepared.
If you are one of these individuals, or are simply trying to figure out how you can be useful to your parents as they age, there are certain aspects of their lives that you can help them handle to make the transition easier, starting with these 5 things. Read More
Earlier in your career, you focused on saving and growing your money so you could pursue your financial goals later in life. You might have worked with a financial advisor to do this.
Over the years, you socked away money in a retirement account and maybe even grew an overall portfolio. That meant having and following a strategy with a focus on accumulation and asset allocation. But as we reach the so-called retirement red zone — that crucial period of a decade before and into retirement — new planning is essential.
The income you earned from your career likely won’t be the same once you retire. Then there is the challenge of making your money work for you.
How do you ensure that the income you draw from your portfolio is as efficient and tax-wise as possible? You want to be sure that your money lasts as long as you need it to in retirement! Read More
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