Tag Archives: retirement savings

With Money, Act Your Age

savepiggyIt’s no secret, we think of money differently at age 20 than we do at 40 or 60. Of course, at 20 we are bulletproof. Retirement is a million years away, and we will worry about it later. Of course, “later” always seems to come too soon. At 40, we wake up, and start to panic a little. At 60, well…

Anyway, before “later” catches you by surprise, here are some spending, saving and investing tips from money dude Dave Ramsey, in a piece entitled “Your Age, Your Money: How to Spend, Save and Invest Right Now.”  . These are tailored for folks at various ages. Here are the bullet points…

  • 20s — Build a Solid Foundation: Avoid debt when you can, and pay off those student loans!
  • 30s — Shift to a Family Focus: Start budgeting for the millions of things kids need. Start saving for a house. Buy life insurance, etc.
  • 40s — Shovel the Savings: That’s me, and boy, am I shoveling into the ol’ IRA! Maintain your home and avoid big repair bills (they will happen anyway!)
  • 50s — Look Forward But Stay Focused: Keep investing, at least 15%, in retirement. Pay off your mortgage.
  • 60+ — Enjoy the Fruits of Your Labor: But buy long-term care insurance. A nursing home can wipe out your savings.

Are you a little freaked out by the whole spending/saving/investing thing? That’s natural, but there are steps to take, so be sure to read the original piece. Where are you on this timeline? Are you “keeping up?” Let us know over at the MindField Online Facebook page!

Playing Catch-up with Your Retirement Savings?

retirement savingsThis one is for the over-40’s who are facing (or avoiding) the fact that they don’t have any retirement savings, or very little. I think this is one of the few times in history where you could admit to something like that, and the people around you would totally NOT be shocked. It’s been a rough several years on the economic front. Sometimes saving takes a back seat to, you know, EATING or PAYING RENT.

Still, retirement is coming sooner or later (sooner), and you have to do SOMETHING, right? So how do you catch up? Our old standby Clark Howard has some ideas, in an article entitled, “Over 40 with no retirement savings? Take these 6 steps.”

Here are the bullets:

  1. Crunch the numbers: How much are you going to need? What will your Social Security income be? Etc.
  2. Get aggressive: Start putting aside as much as you can, max out your 401K, etc.
  3. Play the catch-up game: If you’re 50, you can go well beyond the typical max on your 401K.
  4. Rethink your retirement plans: You might have to work longer than you planned to.
  5. Scale back as necessary: Obviously
  6. The best time to start saving is always now!

So, don’t panic, I guess. Just get real with yourself, and look this thing you have been avoiding straight in the eye, and start making some changes.

Lots of good information in this one, so check it out! How about you? Confident? Nervous? A little of both? Let us know over at the MindField Online Facebook page!

Retirement Planning Pitfalls

ID-100178555Everybody has at least a little anxiety about retirement. Specifically, will we have enough money to get by? Many of us (me) don’t like to think about these things. Many of us (me) put off those icky decisions. But you (I) can’t put them off forever. And the sooner we start making good financial decisions, and taking action, the better off we will be.

And knowing what the right moves are starts what knowing what the WRONG ones are! That’s the topic of a recent Time Magazine article “9 False Moves That Could Derail Your Retirement”. Here are the bullet points…

  1. Raiding Your Home Equity
  2. Unplanned Roth IRA Withdrawals
  3. Failing to Put Away Anything
  4. Helping Adult Kids Financially
  5. Co-Signing for a Child or Grandchild
  6. Failing to Have a Plan B
  7. Poor Investment Choices
  8. Not Making Changes When Needed
  9. Taking Social Security As Soon As You Can

Again, just the bullets. Lots more info at the original piece, so check it out!  How about you? Are you making smart retirement moves, or not? Let us know over at the MndField Online Facebook page, and have a great weekend!

Saving Enough for Retirement?

2 Comments
Actually, financial planners prefer stocks and mutuals over gold eggs in a nest of twigs.

People aren’t saving enough. They are going to find out that they have totally inadequate amounts once they stop working. People need to change how much they are saving, when they start saving, and when then retire. If they don’t change, people will not be able to maintain their pre-retirement standard of living.   USNews.com

Yeah, so, Happy Friday everybody… The nonprofit Employee Benefit Research Institute says only about 25% of us are confident we have enough money for retirement (or are on the right path to saving it.)

We will need something like 80% of our salary after we retire, and most of us aren’t going to get there just with the 5 to 7% we are putting in our 401k’s.

This article has some interesting things to say about how much to save, when to start, when to retire and everything in between. Check it out!

Sorry to be brief. Flu season!  Have a good weekend!