Market Timing: Risk vs. Reward
For first-time investors, putting money into the stock market may seem like an intimidating task. You may be asking yourself, what happens if you put your money in at the ... Read MoreRead More
For first-time investors, putting money into the stock market may seem like an intimidating task. You may be asking yourself, what happens if you put your money in at the ... Read MoreRead More
With the proliferation of the Internet and continued expansion of online investment tools, the role of a certified investment advisor is now of crucial importance. Personal investors have access to ... Read MoreRead More
Realistic Retirement: Leveraging expectations with reality. Our culture builds a certain degree of optimism around the concept of retirement—people always ‘can’t wait until they can retire’ and it’s a constant ... Read MoreRead More
In the first part of this article, we discussed several elements that often comprise the shape and tone of a retirement picture, and stressed the importance and absolute need to put some serious thought into how important each element is to you if you want to achieve a pictureperfect retirement. With the guidance of the Insured Retirement Institute’s (IRI) “Retirement Expectations Checklist,” we have already explored several needs you must weigh as you think about and ultimately set into motion a solid and realistic plan. But we also acknowledged that determining how much you would need to save — and later, to earn — to reach your retirement number, how old you wanted to be when you left the workforce,how you planned to treat investments and guarantees were just the beginning of several considerations you must ponder. And just for perspective, we noted how the baby boomer generation weighed in on the importance of these topics. In keeping with that tradition, we’ll now list a few more issues for you to place in your retirement picture — you just need to determine how prominently featured they will be. Your Debt Situation: The past several years have not been economically kind, and many Americans have been forced to incur more debt than they would like. In fact, for a whopping 48 percent of boomers, even the essentials, things such as food, medication, and gas, often had to go on the old credit card. Do you have any debt resultant from the recent economic strain or any other reason? No one wants to retire in debt, so start paying down what you can, and start now. You may find it helpful to ask an advisor to help develop a budget (that includes retirement savings) to which you could adhere until your debt is eliminated. Leaving a Legacy: Have you given any thought to whether you’d like to bequeath any funds to your loved ones after you pass away? How important is that, and importantly, how much money would you like to leave behind? Many baby boomers (62 percent) feel that leaving an inheritance is either “very” or “somewhat important.” If you are of a similar mind, you would do well to mention that goal to your retirement planner. Considering Long Term Care: To avoid burning through your savings or burdening one of your children should you become ill or somehow impaired, long term care insurance is one type of coverage worth exploring. The earlier you plan the better, since 47 percent of boomers worry they won’t have enough funds to cover the expenses associated with long term care. Talk to a professional agent or advisor to determine if long term care insurance will complement your ... Read MoreRead More
When you take the time to ponder your retirement picture, how much do you see and how well focused is the image? A comprehensive retirement plan is, in a manner of speaking, a picture of your future — a future in which an alarm clock won’t likely figure very prominently, if at all, since you’ll no longer be going to work every day. Having a fruitful retirement is the postscript to the American Dream — and the ideal is to spend those proverbial golden years in comfort and calm, spending your time and money when and where you will. But in order for that to happen, you must carefully think about several retirement concerns and how much value you place on each before you can really see the full picture. It all comes down to prioritization, but oftentimes there’s just so much to consider that the task becomes daunting. To guide you down this crowded planning path, the Insured Retirement Institute (IRI), a not-forprofit organization with a focus on insured retirement income, developed the “Retirement Expectations Checklist,” an extensive list of retirement concerns you should address when formulating your plan. To give you the resources and perspective you need to start developing a clearer view of it all, we’ll discuss a few of these important considerations as well as how other baby boomers generally feel about them so you can measure your concerns against those of your peers. The next step? Take your list of prioritized retirement needs to your advisor to discuss what you must do to meet your expectations and paint your perfect — and complete — retirement picture. Your Retirement Number: How much money will it take for you to retire? If you haven’t started thinking about this all important figure, like almost half (46 percent) of your boomer counterparts, now’s the time to do so. Once you have a general idea of how much you’ll need to save in order to enjoy a comfortable retirement, talk to your advisor or planner about which strategies and tools you can use to make it happen. And don’t forget to plan for a long postwork life — the chances that you or your spouse will survive at least to age 90 are pretty darn good, so plan with an eye toward never running out of income. Investment Product Criteria: Combine long life expectancies with an unsteady stock market and an uneasy economy, and many Americans start craving safety. There’s certainly nothing wrong with that. More and more boomers are becoming aware of the importance of guarantees — guarantees in both principal protection and income generation. In fact, one-third (33 percent) of boomers cite these guarantees as the most important criteria an investment or savings product must meet. What criteria ... Read MoreRead More
We’ve all heard the old adage that investing in the market is the same thing as gambling. With America’s #1 wagering event, the Super Bowl, still fresh in our memories, ... Read MoreRead More
With tax season just around the corner and the IRS having just released information that it plans to issue refunds about as quickly as it did last year (9 out ... Read MoreRead More
There are so many unknown variables when picking individual stocks (literally trillions), that is why it is impossible to consistently guess which ones are going to go up or when ... Read MoreRead More
Should investors try to predict the future? “I always have to remind investors to stop playing God. Specifically that means stop trying to predict the market, and stop trying to ... Read MoreRead More
The complexity of investing and the overwhelming tendency to perpetuate self-destructive investing behavior make it seem only natural to seek professional help. Many Americans turn to financial planners, brokers, or ... Read MoreRead More