Retirement Planning
« Previous EntriesDo You Know What Your 401(k)’s Personal Rate of Return is for 2011?
Monday, October 3rd, 2011I just logged on to my wife’s 401(k) account. The balance is roughly $60,000 less than it was at the peak early this year (and this includes several thousand dollars of contributions). OUCH. Fidelity calculates a personal rate of return, which is the return adjusted for the timing of contributions. Our personal rate of return [...]
Report: Many Americans Will Not be Able to Retire Until They’re 80s
Tuesday, June 14th, 2011Lou Dobbs: “The Baby Boomers have been a highly irresponsible generation.”
Getting a Raise? Up Your 401(k) Contribution a Percentage Point
Tuesday, April 26th, 2011Let’s say you make $75,000 per year and you are saving 10% in your 401(k). Now let’s say you get a 5% raise, which puts your new annual income at $78,750. Now, before you go make a budget based on your new income, I want you consider increasing your 401(k) contribution percentage by 1% to [...]
How Old Will You Be When You Retire?
Monday, April 4th, 2011Interesting video from Vanguard: Whenever I hear interviews like this with random people, it makes me realize how little people actually know about retirement planning. That young guy that says a million dollars would be nice, has no clue. Sure, one million dollars sounds nice but it will be nothing by the time he reaches [...]
An Idea I Don’t Like: Variable Annuities Inside a 401(k)
Wednesday, March 9th, 2011Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal had a special retirement planning section. One of the articles was about using annuities during retirement to boost income and decrease volatility. One of the stable annuities for doing that is a fixed immediate annuity. I don’t have a problem with fixed immediate annuities because they are usually inexpensive, easy to [...]
The Five Personalities and Retirement Planning
Wednesday, February 16th, 2011I received an interesting email this morning from a PR person for Allianz Life (I’m not getting paid to post this) about a study that Allianz conducted recently about Americans’ readiness for retirement. They also placed the respondents into five different categories or personalities. From the email: Allianz Life’s Reclaiming the Future study polled 3,247 [...]
Your Goal This Year: Save $8.25 Per Hour
Friday, January 14th, 2011$8.25 per hour… That’s the number I get when I divide $16,500 (the 2011 maximum allowable employee 401(K) contribution) by 2000 hours (40-hour work week, 50 weeks per year). It seems like a lot. Granted, it does not include the tax savings on contribution. The actual dollar amount would be lower after taxes. Still, the [...]
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