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Questions To Consider If You Want to Retire

The Chicago Tribune has outlinied some of the most important questions you need to ask yourself before you can determine if you can retire. The article lays out questions, some obvious others not as much, that you should answer affirmatively if you are considering retirement. Below are some of the more important questions to focus on.

1. If you withdrew 4 percent of your portfolio, would it equal half you current annual pay?
   If it doesn’t, then you might not have enough money saved to retire on. A good goal is to live on 75 percent of your current salary when you retire. To do this, you should try to get 50 percent from your savings and 25 percent from Social Security. If it takes more than 4 percent of your savings to reach half your yearly income, you may not be ready.
2. Have you discussed your retirement with your loved ones?
   If you have adult children, it is best for both of you to know your future plans. Your children might be relying on financial help from you or you may need some help from them. If you have a husband or wife it is important to make sure that both of you are aware of what you are looking for in retirement. A post-retirement divorce can be devastate you emotionally and financially.
3. Have you calculated basic, occasional and catastrophic costs?
   It’s easy to prepare for the basic costs. It’s also relatively to imagine the catastrophic medical bills that might come during retirement. What is all too easy to overlook are the occasional costs. Unless you’re driving the last car you’ll ever own, you should be prepared to purchase another one.
4. Do you understand the investments that will produce your retirement income?
   The key reason to understand how your investments will produce your income is so you understand the risks involved. If your taking risks with your money, you should know about it, even if you have a financial planner, it is important to become aware of how your money is working for you.
5. Have you figured out a portfolio withdrawal strategy that avoids penalties?
   The article lists a good example of a strategy when it states that, “If you retire or lose a job in your 50s, it may make sense to leave your 401(k) plan with your employer instead of rolling it into an IRA, because company plans in general allow penalty-free withdrawals at age 55, more than four years earlier than an IRA.”
6. Do you have health insurance?
   A seemingly obvious question, but one that can be easily overlooked if you’ve been covered by your employer for 30 or 40 years.
7. Does your plan reflect your true life expectancy?
   According to the article, many planners say that clients tend to underestimate how long they will live.
8. Do you have a back-up plan?
   Having other options available can be just as important as diversifying.

Remember, retirement accounts are protected from creditors, even during bankruptcy. If you're struggling with debt and think you should defer retirement savings or withdraw from your retirement accounts, you may want to think again.

Posted in Financial Literacy, Retirement, retirement and bankruptcy, retirement savings | Comments Off

Obama’s Plans for Your Retirement Savings

In an age of disappearing pensions and rapidly shrinking Social Security funds, individual retirement accounts are more important than ever – but many Americans have no official retirement accounts, connected to their jobs or otherwise. The Associated Press reports that President Obama is launching a plan to change that.

The plan has at its center one serious statistic: almost half of American workers have no retirement savings option through their jobs. That’s frightening, considering that, as a nation, we don’t have a great track record of saving money.

Four Main Points for Retirement Savings

The retirement savings legislation, still in the drafting phase, at this point includes four main parts to improve Americans’ chances of living comfortably after they stop working. The four prongs are:

• Automatic IRAs at work: Employers who do not already offer Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) to their workers would be required to do so. All employees would be automatically enrolled in such programs, with a chance to opt out. Studies have shown that participation in retirement savings plans is much higher when it’s automatic. To ease the administrative costs associated with the program, employers would reportedly be offered tax breaks for introducing the IRA plans.
• “Saver’s credit” for contributions: Sources indicate that the Obama Administration wants to include a provision that would incentivize retirement savings for lower-wage workers by introducing tax breaks and potentially including government-sponsored matches for initial contributions. Some critics suggest that this measure will face too many obstacles because of the potentially high cost to the government.
• Lifetime income: One aspect of the retirement measures that has been proposed would introduce investment products into retirement accounts that work on annuities and guarantee income for an investor’s lifetime. This measure would be intended to eliminate the possibility of a person’s money running out before their life, but could face challenges since accounts that offer such returns are often laden with fees. This might even include stronger retirement account protections in bankruptcy.
• Heightened 401 (k) regulations: Lastly, the administration has mentioned introducing more transparency into the regulations governing 401(k) plans, so that investors would be better informed about the fees and costs of their accounts and avoid unnecessary expenses.

Remember: it’s never too early to start saving for your retirement, and with fewer guaranteed income sources for the elderly, it’s more important than ever to plan to support yourself financially after you stop working.

Posted in Financial Literacy, Life After Bankruptcy, retirement savings | Comments Off