Retirement Blog

Today is National 401(k) Day. If you run out to buy a card, make it a sympathy card because the advent of the 401(k) as a primary retirement savings plan is nothing to celebrate. The 401(k) will turn 30 in January 2011. It was devised as a way for workers to augment conventional, defined-benefit plan

You have a retirement savings account at work and every time you look at it you groan. Join the club. The brave new world of being your own retirement planning strategist can be ulcer-producing. Take it a step at a time. The first step toward smart retirement planning is opening a retirement savings account and

Sometimes, the best  retirement planning goes haywire. And sometimes that’s not such a bad thing. Over Labor Day weekend, I waved hello to my Detroit-area neighbor and remarked that I hadn’t seen much of him. He said that’s because he’s gone back to work after officially retiring in June 2009. My neighbor’s employer ran into

When Congress comes back into session in two weeks, the debate over tax rates promises to dominate political discussions through the end of the year. One of the hottest issues for anyone involved in retirement planning is the proposed increase in the tax rate on dividends. If Congress doesn’t intervene, dividends, which are now taxed at

Should you invest in a Roth or traditional? Whether we’re talking about a Roth IRA vs. a traditional IRA or a Roth 401(k) vs. a traditional 401(k), it’s not a slam-dunk decision because the benefits aren’t immediately apparent. With a Roth IRA or Roth 401(k), you invest after-tax money. It grows in the account and

This Labor Day survey is an inspiration for anyone focused on retirement planning. Extend Health, which helps companies advise employees on Medicare supplement plans, surveyed 471 retirees. Here’s what they learned. What do you love about retirement? I can do what I want with my time, 43 percent I don’t have the stress that was part

Lending money to your children can be a valuable part of retirement planning because it can help a family and avoid gift and estate taxes, according to Jonathan Bergman, vice president of Palisades Hudson Financial Group, a financial planning and investment firm in Scarsdale, N.Y. Let’s say your son and daughter-in-law are contemplating buying a

More parents are pulling money out of their retirement plans to pay for their children’s college educations, according to a Gallup survey for Sallie Mae that examines how people pay for higher education. In 2010, 6 percent of parents pulled an average of $8,554 from their retirement accounts, while in 2009 only 3 percent reduced

Long-term care insurance could be an unnecessary part of your retirement planning if you can afford to maintain two households, says David Keator, a principal in the Keater Group of Massachusetts-based financial planners. But it takes a lot of retirement savings. Keator calculates it this way: He estimates the cost of nursing-home care to be

More news on the retirement planning front. More than 2,000 companies and unions have been approved by the government to receive subsidies to pay for early retiree health care, according to an announcement today by the Department of Health and Human Services. This program is part of the new health care reform law. Known as