Pull Your Head Out (of the Sand)

Do ostriches really hide their heads in the sand when they’re afraid? I’m not sure about ostriches but I know many people do this when confronted with their personal finances. They figure if they ignore the facts, there won’t be a problem. The problem with this behavior is that by not taking a good hard look at your personal finances, you’re probably making an already bad thing worse. I know I’m generalizing, some...

Finding Your Financial Balance

Some people intuitively know how to manage their money. The rest of us struggle. And many of us find our way through attendance of “The School of Hard Knocks”: while others manage to flunk out of it when it comes to our personal finances. No matter how you’re currently doing financially, you need to own it. Accept it. And plan your way forward. The vast majority of personal financial planners would have everyone retire...

Social Security Strategies

First things first. Your Social Security strategy should not be: depending on it for your sole source of retirement income. With that out of the way, there are one or more choices to be made about it. If you are under your full retirement age (FRA), but 62 or older, you can begin taking Social Security. However, this should be a last resort option for you. If you are in poor health or unemployed and have no job prospects, if...

How Much Should You Save for Retirement?

Drum roll please: the answer is all you can! The real answer is: it depends. If you’ve been saving steadily over the decades, keep up the good work and check with a financial planner if you have any questions about whether you’re on track or not. If you’re 40ish and just starting to save, the first answer applies to you. To give you a rule of thumb (take it for what it’s worth), six times your gross income is low, but...

Need, Wants, Wishes: Goal-Based Retirement Plannin...

In my last post, I discussed the changing face of retirement and challenged the readers to picture their retirement. How does it look? If it doesn’t include working, do you have, or will you have enough money saved? Having a financial plan created for your retirement can help answer that. Depending on your age, Social Security and insurance should provide a safety net, but this base may not be enough to pay for your...

Retirement Redefined

Our retirement is not going to look like our parents or grandparents retirement. When Social Security started back in the 1930′s few people lived to take advantage of it. Back then, it was very common for people to work until they couldn’t any more. The work was much more physical and bodies were worn out. Today, for the vast majority of us, things are much different. Many people have delusions of how wonderful it will be...