Retirement Blog

If you are old enough to be worried about retirement planning, then you already know women are different than men. Ameriprise Financial has been studying that truth, and it has come up with at least five ways women plan for retirement differently than men. None of them should surprise you. Women want to stay close

You hear all the time that you should wait until full retirement age — or until age 70 if you can — before collecting Social Security benefits. But is that the best advice, or is it simplistic? The February issue of Kiplinger’s Retirement Report illustrates the benefits of delaying in the article, “On the homestretch

Many people living in retirement are feeling more financially pinched this January than they did 12 months ago, according to a survey of financial security conducted for Bankrate.com. The survey looked at all ages and all employment situations, and you can see the overall results here. But I was interested in seeing how retirement planning

As we enter the full-blown political silly season, it’s hard to know where the politicians stand on the one topic that most older people can agree on — Social Security. For almost everybody living in retirement or getting close to making their retirement planning a reality, Social Security is an important piece. But nailing down

Sixty-four year-old Clem Bezold, senior futurist at the Institute for Alternative Futures, which is funded by the Kresge Foundation, released a report today that speculates on health care in 2025 — only 13 years from now. The report says that while it’s likely Medicare and Medicaid will have been trimmed by at least 20 percent,

Last week, Vanguard launched a Target Retirement 2060 Fund aimed at those people 18 to 20 years old who expect to retire 48 years from now. Most of the people reading this and I will be pushing up daisies by then, but for anyone just starting out in life, this is a great retirement planning

Mitt Romney’s retirement planning conundrum is a problem I wouldn’t mind having. Unlike most of us, Romney  has somewhere between $20.7 million and $101.6 million in his IRA, according to his federal financial disclosure report. That news has some people up in arms and others just plain jealous. The Wall Street Journal speculated last week

I firmly believe everyone is dealt certain gifts, which they should develop for the betterment of their own lives as well as that of the community. If we’re lucky, we can base our livelihoods on these gifts and enjoy their fruits during retirement. At age 77, artist Thomas Muhl exemplifies someone who has done just that.

Here’s some more retirement planning advice for people who are more concerned about safety than returns. If you have a fixed-rate annuity with a guaranteed minimum floor of 3 percent, don’t be in a hurry to surrender it, advises Investment News, a publication written for investment advisers. Six or seven years ago, that was a

A few years ago, cautious investors living in retirement put their savings in long-term U.S. bonds and happily collected 6 percent. Today, that isn’t much of an option because rates are below 2 percent. Even conservative investors like my CPA husband can’t find much good to say about that rate of return — no matter