The arrival of spring has brought warmer weather, longer days, a renewal of life … and the yearly desire to clean out and get organized. It’s also the perfect time to get your financial house in order. Here are some housekeeping tasks you can tackle to help make sure you and your money are headed the right way in the year ahead.
401(k) plans were established by Congress to encourage individual savings towards retirement. Offered through employers, the plans are generally available to eligible employees who are allowed to contribute a percent of their salary to the plan.
The need for retirement planning didn’t really exist until well into the 1970s. Up to that point, people worked until age 65, spent a few years in leisure through their life expectancy which was about 69. Many retirees of that era were able to coast into retirement with a cushy pension plan.
Today’s retirees are finding that retirement requires at least as much psychological and emotional preparation as it does financial preparation. So, retirement planning needs to include a thorough assessment of human assets and liabilities along with an assessment of financial assets and liabilities.
Congratulations! Your hard work and contributions at the office have been recognized and you’ve earned yourself a raise. You might be tempted to start spending it right away, but this is probably a bad idea. Be cautious about raising your budget and lifestyle in a permanent way after getting a raise — it can make it harder to get ahead over the long term.
Are you in the final countdown to retirement? Congratulations! This can be an amazing time full of new opportunities. Put yourself in the best position possible for your next adventure with these seven retirement readiness tips.
According to collegeboard.org, the average yearly full-time student budget for tuition and fees, room and board, books, and other incidentals at an in-state public four-year college is currently more than $25,000. For a private four-year college, that costs skyrockets to more than $50,000.
Sometimes small moves can yield big results. If you want to plan for a better, more secure retirement, start by increasing your 401(k) contribution by just 1%. You might be thinking that 1% can’t possibly make that much of a difference — but you’d be wrong.
Regrets can be hard to live with: I wish I hadn’t eaten that banana split; I wish I’d bought that sweater when it was on sale; or I wish I learned to speak French. But these are all mild regrets compared to what you’d feel if you didn’t make the best choices for you and your family when preparing for retirement.
Loss aversion sounds like a good thing — trying to avoid losing. What could be wrong with that? Unfortunately, if taken too far, it can actually be a threat to your long-term financial health. Loss aversion is the tendency to prefer avoiding potential losses over acquiring equal gains. We dislike losing $20 more than we like getting $20.
Perhaps you’ve lost a job, faced an illness or have been delt a family crisis that emptied out your emergency fund. What are your next steps?
You’re eyeing center-hall colonials in your neighborhood and dreaming about the garden you want to plant in the backyard and all the holiday celebrations you’ll host. You’ve saved toward this goal and think you’re ready to pull the trigger. But the real question is: How much house can I afford?
Or is it?
Social Security’s financial cliff is coming closer into view. Experts project that the fund that pays for government retirement benefits through FICA taxes will be depleted within the next 15 years.
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