If we boil things down to a simple two-part equation, retirement planning is all about managing inflows (income) during your earning years and outflows (expenses) during your retirement years. Of course, retirement means different things to different people at different points in their lives. Rather than a static state, retirement is a dynamic state, changing with life events, financial events, and even your own education as you learn more about concepts and products. The more information you absorb, the more comfortable you feel in being an active participant in the retirement planning process. Your plan for accumulating assets for retirement has to take all of this into account and be flexible enough to adapt to all kinds of changes. (more…)

The thought of retire early may be an illusion for some and a punishment for others. Everything is, as the saying goes, depending on how you look at it. First, is it the decision whether retirement is voluntary or forced? Often when companies offer their employee early retirement is not really such an offer since the other option is to be fired. (more…)

For as long as man has left any record of his hopes and aspirations he has expressed his desire for a long life. But as people live longer and more and more of them retire from work what is their potential for living a good life? Can the retirement years be as satisfying as the working years? This is the question facing millions of Americans, and it may be the question which prompted you to take part in a retirement preparation program. (more…)

If you are counting on your 401k plan for retirement - beware! The current financial crisis and stock market collapse are troubling enough, but what many retirement savers don’t know is that their 401k plans may not be up to the task.

401k’s have become the predominant retirement funding tool in the U.S. Twenty-five years ago, traditional defined benefit pensions plans were the primary type of retirement plan covering more than 60% of the workforce that had pension plan coverage. Today, defined contribution plans (mostly 401k) are the primary retirement plan for 63% of the covered workforce. (more…)

Planning for retirement can be boiled down to 2 part simple equation: it is all about managing income (inflows) during your working or earning days and managing expenses (outflows) during your retirement days. Different people will have different opinion regarding retirement, that’s natural. But rather than a static state, retirement is a dynamical state, changing with life events, financial events, and even your own education as you learn more about concepts and products. (more…)