Check On Your Social Security Benefit Estimate

A fellow Garrett Planning Network member recently informed the network that Social Security Statements are once again available. However, instead of mailing the statements, the Social Security Administration (SSA) requires you to put in a few moments of time. You have to go to the Social Security website: http://www.socialsecurity.gov/, look for the link in the menu on the left: “Get Your Social Security Statement...

Required Minimum Distributions and Your Employer-S...

Do you see age 70 rapidly approaching? If you haven’t had to draw on your employer-sponsored retirement plans before this: get ready, you have some decisions to make. Without getting too bogged down in the rules for required minimum distributions (RMDs), you need to know the basics. First, if you have separated from the employer, you have to start your RMDs either the year in which you turn 70 1/2 or, you can wait until the...

What Consumers of Financial Services and Investmen...

To Any Potential Consumer of Financial Services or Investment Advice, Who can you trust to give you unbiased investment advice?  If you are like most people, you assume that someone who provides investment advice to you must be required to act in your best interests.  Unfortunately, that’s only true for some advisors—those who are fiduciaries. Financial laws and regulations have two sets of rules.  One set is for...

First Things First

First, an admission; before I went to school and started learning about my current profession, I made the mistake that I’m going to be writing about today. When you know better; you do better, as Oprah likes to say. So what’s the mistake you ask? It’s haphazardly selecting mutual funds or other investments in your retirement plans. I’m going to talk a little bit about why our normal investment...

Saving for a Secure Retirement

The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College released a paper this month (11/11) titled: How Much to Save for a Secure Retirement. It is highly readable and gives a nice overview of the interaction between the age at which one begins to save for retirement, the average rate of return on the retirement savings and the age at which one chooses to retire. Based on these factors, one can get an idea of what percentage of...

Dangerous Day in the Markets?

Yikes! The Dow is down over 500 points while I’m writing this post. This is a dangerous day in the stock markets: but not the way you might think. For those of you that are investing for long term goals like your retirement, this day could be dangerous because it might scare you. The danger mainly lies in the possibility that you might become scared enough to sell out of your stock ETFs or stock mutual funds! If...