Retirement Planning
Bob Carlson shares miscellaneous advice on retirement and related topics
Found 125 Articles.
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Biggest Retirement Surprises
This is an unscientific survey from The Wall Street Journal. One of its columnists, Glenn Ruffenach, recently answered a reader’s question about the biggest surprises he found in retirement. He then asked readers to submit their biggest retirement surprises and received a lot of responses. You might need a subscription to read the article. Some […]
Use Retirement Planning Software with Care
You can find plenty of no-cost and low-cost retirement calculators on the Web. The software helps you determine if you have saved enough money for retirement. My advice always has been that it’s best to use several programs, compare the results from the different programs, and prefer programs that let you change all or most […]
Don’t Let Your Estate Become Like a Reality TV Show
Have you followed the recent turmoil surrounding Sumner Redstone, majority owner of Paramount, CBS and Viacom? A few years ago, did you notice the events involving Donald Sterling, once the owner of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers? In each case, family, associates and others argued about whether the principal person was mentally competent to make […]
Saving Money in the Changing Auto Market
Transportation is one of the largest expenses for most seniors, as I pointed out in our May 2016 issue. Major changes are underway in the U.S. auto market. Consumers who know about them and adopt the right strategies will reduce their transportation costs. Others will be caught in the sea change and increase the percentage […]
Creating the Retirement Internship
You can enter retirement with more confidence and certainty than most retirees. Retirement planning has many projections, forecasts, and assumptions. In other words, there’s a lot of uncertainty in every retirement plan. In addition to the financial issues, many people retire either uncertain about how they will spend their time or with untested assumptions about […]
Thoughts of Extreme Savers
Forbes.com has a new e-book in which it interviewed extreme savers to learn their secrets and methods. This article summarizes some of the key points of the book. It’s interesting, even if you don’t want to go as far as these people do, many of whom are retired or plan to retire before 40. “Saying […]
Investing When Rates are Low, Poised to Rise
What do you do when interest rates are low but the Federal Reserve makes clear it is going to start raising rates? Now, you earn very little money from cash and safe investments. Bonds and similar investments have higher yields, but they’re going to lose value when interest rates rise. In many cases, principal losses […]
The Importance of Age 69 1/2 in Retirement Planning
Most people in retirement planning learn that age 70 1/2 is important. Here’ an article arguing that the year before is more of a benchmark. You have to start planning for the following years’ RMD, and it also means you’re approaching other key IRA milestones. Age 69 1/2 is a big deal, a major year […]
