As early as age 62, spouses can collect either on their own career benefits, or take 50 percent of their spouses’ benefits, whichever is greater. The non-working spouse can begin to collect on the other’s record only if the working spouse has already begun receiving social security spousal benefits, a small but very important point. If the non-working spouse is taking care of a child under the age of 16 or who is disabled, then those benefits can begin before the earliest retirement age of 62 under other circumstances. (more…)

There are at least two schools of thought with regard to the basic principles involved in planning for retirement spending. The first, and most common, approach poses the problem as a seemingly simple determination of the retirement income needs of a retiree relative to pre retirement income. This is typically expressed as a “replacement rate,” in which a retiree targets a given fraction of his or her pre retirement income level as an amount adequate to sustain a desired lifestyle without working. Often, a particular level of income is given as a rule of thumb (e.g., 80% of pre retirement income). (more…)

People who are making career as retirement consultants are using the experience gained during their career in corporate or business. The expertise they gained through the life experiences of others to generate income in retirement. Any person who reached a level of maturity in retirement is possible, completed, acquired knowledge of one or the other, and expertise to sell, the consultant in time. (more…)

The first thing you need before having a comfortable retirement is making a better preparation. There are some points in retirement planning you should know. Retirement and financial planning should be coherent and mutually benefit each other. You should be smart and make sure to distribute funds in different ways using a number of simple things. Bellow you will find some ways to make your pension and financial planning work smoothly. (more…)

To get you started, here is a hypothetical timing schedule. If you are 50 or older, you need to condense retirement planning steps into a shorter span of time. Either way, they can act as a guide. It is never too late to design a retirement strategy.

Early financial planning is best. (more…)

If you are asking yourself, how much to retire? You are asking yourself the wrong question. It should be how bad do I want to retire?

It is 2009 and 401K’s have turned into 201K’s…or worse. It is especially cruel to the baby boomers that have saved and saved only to see many years of steady gains disappear in their portfolios.

There is hope to still go ahead and retire if you are willing to examine some alternatives to “normal” retirement. (more…)