YOU MIGHT NOT BE ABLE to spend all the money in your 401(k) plan before you die. If that happens, your retirement savings will pass to the person you name as the beneficiary of the account. The information on your 401(k) beneficiary form typically supersedes what is written in your will, so it's important to keep this [...]
THE FINANCIAL transition into retirement can be daunting. A suddenly lower income often leads to lifestyle changes. These adjustments aren’t always easy, especially if you’ve landed in retirement without as large of a nest egg as you hoped to have. Even if you knew your budget would downsize, it can be tough to know just how [...]
Retirement conjures as many worrisome thoughts as it does exciting ones, largely because it's such a big expense. It's not unreasonable to think you could need $1 million or more, and some people may even need $2 million to live comfortably during retirement. Saving that much is no easy task, and even if you do [...]
Last year, the Society of Actuaries (SOA) updated their 2017 Risks and Process of Retirement Survey, providing insights on how Americans decide to retire and manage resources in retirement.The study revealed that for most people, retirement is full of surprises. Most retirees’ experience a life different in many ways from what they originally planned. Here are [...]
The COVID-19 crisis has been hammering the U.S. economy for months, and not surprisingly, the pandemic has caused retirement plan values to plummet. But not all age groups have seen the same hit to their IRAs and 401(k)s. In a recent survey by Personal Capital, savers in their 30s actually saw a greater hit to their retirement plans [...]
Personal Finance Insider writes about products, strategies, and tips to help you make smart decisions with your money. We may receive a small commission from our partners, like American Express, but our reporting and recommendations are always independent and objective. About half of Americans have taken or plan to take an early withdrawal from a [...]
Everyone hates paying taxes. So why don't we all live in one of the nine states without an income tax? Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming don't tax earned income at all. If you're retired, that also means no state income tax on your Social Security benefits, withdrawals from your IRA [...]
If you've been planning on retiring soon, recent events may have you rethinking your choice. The coronavirus crisis has led to some significant declines in the stock market that may have affected your retirement account balance. Millions of Americans have also been left unemployed or with reduced income. For some Americans, delaying retirement simply won't [...]
It’s more than just toilet paper. Any common sense understanding of the madness of crowds suggests random acts of overreaction can cause irrational demand. This, in turn, often leads to shrinking supply. High demand? Low supply? If you remember your ECON 101, that formula can lead to only one conclusion: price inflation. Will inflation define [...]
Between the Secure Act and the Cares Act, retirement savers and retirees are grappling with a number of changes designed to enhance the durability of savings as well as emergency provisions meant to ease coronavirus-related hardships. With so many people in desperate economic situations or confused about how the rules apply, here is a primer [...]