Articles >> Retirement Planning
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Top Retirement Planning Mistakes
In recent years the vast majority of Americans have learned a very hard lesson, and that is that if they are going to be able to retire on time and in a manner in which that have envisioned, it will be up to them to ensure that it happens. No longer can people simply ride the economic ...
Estate Planning Tips
Throughout our lives we save, accumulate assets, make hard financial decisions and, some day, hope to end up with an estate big enough to nourish our retirement, and, if we do a really good job, be able to leave a legacy for our children. That's the mindset of most Americans and, yet, ...
Pre Retirement Fixed Annuities
Fixed annuities are a cornerstone of retirement plans for millions of pre-retirees, and, as people climb out from underneath the rubble of their decimated 401(k) plans, they are being considered by millions more as way to lock in some stability during turbulent times. Even as fixed ...
An Explanation of Retirement Annuities
The history of annuities can be traced back to Roman times when, as a means of raising money to fund wars, the government would promise a lifetime of payments in return for deposits from citizens and soldiers. Annuities, as secure retirement vehicles, rose to prominence during the ...
Annuity Retirement Planning
In addition to providing a death benefit, annuities can be an important part of any retirement plan. Even so, there are a myriad of ways to set them up. In order to determine how best to use annuities to best fit an individual situation, it is important to know the main differences between ...
401k Annuity
What is a 401k Annuity
The 401k – sometimes styled 401(k) – is a qualified retirement plan first offered in the United States in 1978. Although originally intended for senior level corporate executives, over time it became popular among individuals of all income ...
What are Retirement Annuities
Retirement annuities are one more option an individual investor has for saving for retirement. Retirement annuities function similarly to a traditional individual retirement account in that they grow tax-deferred while the investor is able to contribute earned income. But instead of an ...
Annuities and Retirement
Annuities have a role to play in most retirement plans, that role is to protect families from outliving the assets they have spent a lifetime accumulating. Though the term ‘annuity’ may have a negative connotation, in fact annuities can provide guarantees and peace of mind to ...
How Life Expectancy Impacts Retirement Planning
Increases in productivity are responsible for increasing living standards over the last few centuries. In turn, productivity is enhanced by improvements in technology, which enable us to produce more output from the same number of inputs. Technological innovations can take various forms ...
Best Investments for Estate Planning
In an economic system undergirded by the principle of private property, the primary purpose of investment is to benefit the investor. One option available to the owner of property, however, is to pass it along to survivors via bequest. Since a bequest is intended to benefit people other than ...
Expected Rates of Return on Retirement Investments
In retirement, we expect to live on the wealth we have accumulated throughout our working lives. We do that by withdrawing wealth for current consumption, to replace the flow of earned income that dried up with retirement. The size and duration of these withdrawals depends on two things ...
Retirement Income Sources
Almost all Americans will receive income from multiple sources in retirement. All income sources are not created equal. Each source has its own advantages and disadvantages. There are two dimensions to consider when gauging the value of a retirement income source – vertical and ...
Retirement and Capital Gains Tax
Retirement and capital-gains taxation are a matched pair of discussion topics. One study finds that retirement capital gains comprise nearly one-quarter of retirement income. This contrasts with a total of less than 10% for the general population.
A capital gain is realized upon ...
Retirement Planning Essentials
Professional financial planners interview their clients carefully in order to tailor a plan to their specific needs. It is not possible to design a “one-size-fits-all” plan for retirement. Still, fundamental principles of economics and finance permit a skeletal framework for ...
Pension Annuity
The words “pension” and “annuity” are both sometimes used to describe the same financial arrangement – a stream of money paid regularly to somebody who is no longer employed and lasting for the lifetime of the recipient. The words are also used to denote the ...
How Deflation Affects Your Retirement
The words “deflation” and “retirement” are seldom uttered in the same sentence – or even in the same context. ...
Common Retirement Investment Mistakes
Economic theory and logic tell us that we cannot reliably predict either stock-price movements or overall economic performance. Retirement investment strategy should focus instead on eliminating avoidable mistakes. Some of these are common enough to deserve special ...
IRAs vs. Roth IRAs: Which to Choose?
The Roth IRA is a particular type of Individual Retirement Account (IRA) that takes its name from its legislative sponsor, the late Sen. William Roth (R-Del.). The Roth IRA differs in important ways from a traditional IRA. Either type of IRA might be chosen by the investor, depending on ...
Retirement Investment Instruments
The defining feature of retirement is the end of income from full-time work. This is the one constant in retirement, unchanging from start to finish. We may associate retirement with old age, uncertain health and flagging vigor, but the fact is that age, health and vigor may vary across a ...
Reverse Mortgages: Pros and Cons
The United States has been the source of most of the world’s financial innovations over the last half-century, including index funds, junk bonds, financial derivatives, and many more. The life cycle of these products often follows a curious path. The products begin as designs on a ...
How Inflation Impacts Your Retirement Savings
Inflation is traditionally defined as a concurrent increase in the prices of all or most goods. This is unlike ordinary circumstances, in which price increases for some goods are offset by decreases in others. A sustained inflation must be the result of an increase in the supply of money ...
Retirement Planning
The stage when retirement planning shifts into high gear is perhaps the most crucial time in the individual’s financial life cycle. It begins between the ages of 45 and 55, roughly a decade before the planned retirement date. The individual is entering his or her peak earning period; ...
Annuities and IRAs
Annuities and IRAs are both retirement-oriented investment entities. Both offer favorable tax treatment to owners. Both subject owners to penalties for premature withdrawals.
Despite these similarities, the two are fundamentally different things. Outlining these differences helps ...
How to Choose a Financial Advisor
The reason why modern economies are so much more productive than ancient and medieval ones is because specialization is more highly developed. We don’t grow our own food, make our own clothes, build our own houses, or attend to our own medical needs. Most of us don’t even change ...
How to Save for Retirement
When people save for retirement, what action contributes the most to their success? Casual observation suggests that most people consider the selection of investments and the amount saved to be paramount. This is wrong. To see why, consider ...
Retirement Investment
In former times, an article on retirement investment would have been short and simple: “Shift everything to cash and conservative, fixed-income securities.” Advances in medicine, nutrition and fitness have lengthened life expectancy and changed the perspective of investing. ...
Insurance Annuities: Protecting Your Retirement
Today the word "annuity" refers to an investment contract between an insurance company and one or more individuals. Originally, however, the word denoted the stream of lifelong payments from insurance company to annuity holder that ...
Retirement Annuity Guide
Retirement planning covers the time leading up to retirement, the conclusion of work and the years spent in retirement. Annuities can play an important role at each stage of the process. An analogy illustrates the role played by investments ...
Retirement Annuity Rates Online
Retirement annuities are generally those obtained through a pension plan provided by an employer to provide monthly payments for life or a non-qualified annuity product bought by an investor from an insurance company with after-tax dollars in exchange for monthly payments over a specified ...
Fixed Annuities: Guaranteed Retirement Income
Fixed annuities provide guaranteed retirement income and are typically favored by individuals who either have already left the work force or who are nearing retirement. The guaranteed retirement income results from the fact that fixed annuities give their owners - who are called ...
Sources of Retirement Income
As people approach their
retirement, the need to maintain a reasonable level of income during their
retirement turns into a real concern. It occurs that one needs a reasonable and
steady stream of income if they are to maintain the standard of life they had
been accustomed to during their ...
Equity Annuities: Managing Retirement Risk
Equity annuities offer a good avenue for managing retirement risk because they provide the potential for a good return without the potential losses of principal associated with traditional investments. Equity annuities invest most of their premiums into a fixed annuity, with the rest placed ...
Retire Early With Annuities
Did you know that you can earn an early retirement through annuities?
Retirement in this context refers to the attainment of such a degree of financial independence that you don’t have to work again. It is the stage at which the stream of income coming from your ...
Buy Retirement Annuity
Buying an annuity is linked with a person’s age. When the investor is
young the expectations are more. Since the investor is employed or
running own business, the risk factors take a secondary position.
However, when a person is about to retire, the earnings become as vital
as the ...
