After years of long work hours, responsibilities at home with the kids and busy schedules, retirement can be a great time to reconnect with a spouse — so long as they’re aware of each other’s goals for this next chapter. Retirement Tip of the Week: Before you even think about leaving the workforce, talk to your husband or wife about your ideas for the future, and ask to hear about [...]

The COVID-19 pandemic and shutdown upended our lives on multiple fronts. While enduring widespread unemployment and the economic downturn, many Americans leaned on their retirement accounts to help make ends meet. If you experienced retirement savings setbacks, consider using these strategies to refill your retirement bucket in 2021 and beyond. Reassess your situation “If you had to take a 401(k) loan or withdrawal, empty an IRA out or dig into [...]

QUESTION: I’m living on just my retirement during this pandemic. How can I stretch my dollars? ANSWER: Making ends meet on what normally is a limited monthly income can be challenging for many retirees and that’s particularly true during a pandemic. COVID-19 mandated restrictions have reduced some routine expenditures, such as eating out in restaurants, going to entertainment venues and sporting events. Likewise, other costs likely have increased, such as [...]

It's scary to stop earning income when you stop working, but everyone dreams of a comfortable retirement, so it's a bridge you'll have to cross eventually. Popular sources of retirement income, such as Social Security and retirement accounts, might be enough to cover bills for most investors, but there are several alternative cash flow opportunities that are often overlooked or underused. These four surprising sources of retirement income are less common for [...]

A group of small investors who frequented an internet chat board produced mammoth gains in GameStop stock in recent days, while saddling big Wall Street players with elephantine losses. In the fallout, the popular stock-trading app Robinhood and several hedge funds are reeling, even as some of the GameStop investors have moved on to other targets — most recently, the market for silver. Is this something that should concern retirement savers? [...]

Retirement savings challenges are derailing many workers amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.   The resulting economic crisis is taking a toll.  The retirement savings challenges last year disrupted many employees’ ability to build their retirement balances.  Fortunately, a single year cannot spell disaster for retirement savings – so long as it does not become a pattern that persists for many years. According to a recent BenefitsPro article, 2020 challenged 401(k) metrics like no other plan [...]