Retirement Blog

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

This morning’s headlines about the insurance industry read: “Ownership of Individual Life Insurance Falls to 50-Year Low.” This particular report, released by insurance research and consulting firm LIMRA, says that 30 percent of households (35 million) have no life insurance coverage, compared to 22 percent of households in 2004. That sounds like a big number,

Sports Illustrated reported last year that the toughest challenge of their careers for many pro athletes is retirement planning: By the time they have been retired for two years, 78 percent of former NFL players have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress because of joblessness or divorce. Within five years of retirement, an estimated

In an opinion piece appearing in today’s Wall Street Journal, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger complains that the state of California is saddled with $550 billion of retirement debt, “thanks to huge unfunded pension and retirement health care promises … and also to deceptive pension-fund accounting that understated liabilities and overstated future returns.” If the professionals don’t get

Another retirement planning strategy is about to bite the dust. The Social Security Administration sent the Office of Management and Budget a proposal to revise the policy that allows recipients to change their minds midstream, pay back the Social Security that they have already received and refile for benefits at the age and level they are

Gerontologist Ken Dychtwald says frequently that the challenge these days for those approaching retirement is striking a balance between the “Tao and the Dow.” That is, finding a balance between work and play, spending and saving, now and tomorrow. My husband and I struggle with this issue — sort of. Actually, while stocks figure into

When Olympic Gold Medalist Wendy Boglioli competed in the 1976 Montreal games and won a gold and a bronze in swimming, her father — and coach – wasn’t there. He was too ill to travel from their home in Wisconsin. Even working together, the seven children in the family were unable to come up with enough

The state pension funds in 31 states are in jeopardy and could be exhausted by 2030, according to a new study by the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Within 10 years, the pension funds in Illinois, Louisiana, New Jersey, Connecticut, Indiana, Oklahoma and Hawaii are expected to be in particularly serious trouble. How

Fidelity Investments, the nation’s largest provider of workplace retirement savings plans, reported last week that in the second quarter savings were up, but hardship withdrawals from these 401(k)s also increased. Fidelity administers 17,000 plans, with 11 million participants. In the second quarter, some 62,000 employees initiated a hardship withdrawal, compared with 45,000 in the same