Category: Pensions & Retirement
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Wednesday, December 14, 2022
What Are Safe Savings Withdrawal Rates In Retirement? / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Boris_Dzhingarov
Throughout most of my working life, I assumed I had my retirement sorted. I’d been building my own savings from the day I started working, as well as contributing to a retirement fund with automatic deductions from my salary.
However, as I got older, a lot of questions started to gnaw at my peace of mind. The amount I had saved seemed like enough, and still had time to grow. But I started to worry that I couldn’t truly know if I had enough available. After all, taking inflation into account, the amount I would need for my day-to-day needs would constantly increase.
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Friday, July 23, 2021
The Government Is Culpable for America’s Retirement Crisis / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: MoneyMetals
America faces a retirement crisis.
The chairman of the world’s largest asset management firm is sounding the alarm. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink told CNBC last week that he sees a “silent crisis of retirement.”
Fink cited ultra-low interest rates, combining with elevated inflation rates, as steadily diminishing the real value of retirement savings.
“People are going to have to, unfortunately, whether they like it or not…work longer because they’re not earning the same returns on their savings,” he said.
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Sunday, March 28, 2021
Amazing Investment Options for People Who Will Retire Soon / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Steve_Barker
Retirement planning is often overlooked. Sometimes, people get so confused and unsure of the options for retirement saving, they forget to invest anything at all. This leaves people scared or panicked in the years leading up to retirement. Does this sound like you? Whether you’ve already saved a little or a lot, it’s never too late to look at your retirement plans and start, change, or top up some investments.
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Saturday, May 23, 2020
3 Ways to Prepare Financially for Retirement / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Justin_Weinger
...
Wednesday, May 06, 2020
How to Find Trustworthy Will Writers in Birmingham / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Submissions
It is not something that everyone would want to think about, but having a Will written can make life so much easier for your loved ones should anything happen to you. Young or old, it doesn’t matter, a Will is something that everyone should have. As we go through life, we gather assets, whether they be possessions, a car, a house or money, everyone will have something. By creating a Will, you are leaving clear instructions as to how your assets should be shared in the event of your death. Without a Will, it is left for your loved ones to decide upon the distribution of your assets and not only may they be distributed in a way that you would rather not have but it can cause endless arguments between family members when decisions have to be made and sometimes it can cause a permanent rift. With a Will, you can also appoint an Executor, a person that you would trust, to have the responsibility to share your assets according to your wishes. You can find out more about will writers Birmingham through the provided site.
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Monday, April 20, 2020
How to Create a Foolproof Retirement Plan / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Submissions
One of the main rules to remember when drafting a retirement plan is to make sure not to run out of money. The second essential rule is never to ignore the first rule.
Very few people want to take significant risks when making investments for their retirement plans. Retirees want to stick to zero risk investments such as treasury bonds to avoid any unforeseen losses. However, these “safe investments” do not offer a substantial payback when it comes time to withdraw, and often the savings dry out way before time even if the retiree is making moderate withdrawals over their lifetime. To avoid these situations, it is essential to keep an investment portfolio diverse, keeping the need for safety of the investment and capital preservation both in mind. It is also crucial to consider factors such as economic growth and hedge inflation when designing a portfolio. This will keep the retiree safe from drying out their savings earlier than expected.
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Thursday, February 27, 2020
Advantages of Enrolling in a Retirement Plan / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Submissions
At some point in life, we all wish to have a happy old age ending in the countryside, free of city hassles and full of tranquility. Retiring is inevitable, and the earlier you start making preparations for the same, the better. Don't you want to have a peaceful home in the woods where your grandchildren would play later? Well, you can buy a home with your current earnings, but how do you ensure financial independence once you hang the boots? Remember, you'll still have bills to pay, and your children may not be around to help at all times. Moreover, they are probably looking up to you and wish they could be like daddy. So, either way, you have to set the pace, you lead first by example, then they'll follow.
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Friday, January 31, 2020
How Much Should You Have In Your 401k? / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Submissions
401k is considered one of the most common retirement savings accounts being offered by companies to their employees. It’s one of their ways to assist their workers in preparing for their future. This account is very beneficial as it has both savings and tax advantages.
This retirement fund is not limited to cash but can also be in the form of stocks, real estate investment trusts, and mutual funds. What’s good with this is that it’s temporarily deductible from the taxable income up the portion of the employees’ contribution.
Thursday, October 24, 2019
How GE Screwed Over Its Retirees / Companies / Pensions & Retirement
By: John_Mauldin
Remember “defined benefit” pensions?
That is the kind of plan in which the employer guarantees the worker a set monthly benefit for life. They are increasingly scarce except for small closely held corporations.
The same rules apply for small closely held businesses as for large corporations.
These plans can be great tools for independent professionals and small business owners. But if you have thousands of employees, DB plans are expensive and risky.
Thursday, September 12, 2019
Increased Pension Liabilities During the Coming Stock Market Crash / Stock-Markets / Pensions & Retirement
By: Nick_Barisheff
Many Canadian companies have significant unfunded pension liabilities on their balance sheets. With the traditional 60/40 allocation to stocks and bonds, pension deficits may become unmanageable during the next market correction if they are not dealt with urgently. Governments can afford to ignore this looming disaster and act irresponsibly largely because they can print money; however, corporations cannot afford the risk of unfunded liabilities nor can they eliminate pension deficits as easily. We would like to take this opportunity to illustrate how these pension deficits can be taken in hand.
President Barack Obama’s administration racked up nearly as much debt in eight years as in the entire 232-year history of the US before he took office. He entered office with $10.7 trillion in total debt, and he bowed out with the country owing $19.9 trillion. That’s an average tab of $1.15 trillion a year.
Under President Donald Trump, the debt has continued to climb. The $2.18 trillion increase works out to about $1.05 trillion a year, or slightly less than the pace Obama set.
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Tuesday, May 28, 2019
Getting Your Money Out For Retirement / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Rodney_Johnson
We’re in the thick of the real estate game now. Our home is on the market, which means it’s much cleaner, and more spare, than usual. When we have showings, we vacate the premises, and of course need to take the dog. That’s more of a challenge than we’d thought, but she’s gotten used to sitting with us in the car at the nearby Sonic, and the crew on roller skates thinks she’s adorable. I hope they wash their hands after petting her.All of this comes out of our talks about where, and what kind of life, we should live. The house is fabulous, but big, and on open water in a flood prone area. With taxes and flood insurance moving higher, the cost of carry is on a one-way train uphill. In our early 50s, this looks like a good time to sell while there are still buyers for this sort of property.
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Monday, May 27, 2019
The End of Risk-Free Retirement / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: John_Mauldin
In the last 150 years, we’ve had a number of innovations that radically changed the way we live.
You can tick off the list: electricity, the automobile, refrigeration, TV, the Internet. But one innovation rarely makes those lists. It is just as significant if not more so…
Retirement.
The idea that people can stop working in their fifties or sixties and then enjoy 20+ years of relative leisure is actually quite new.
For most of human history, most people worked as long as they were physically able to and died soon after.
Wednesday, May 22, 2019
The Coming Pension Crisis Is So Big That It’s a Problem for Everyone / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: John_Mauldin
A decade ago I pointed out that public pension funds were $2 trillion underfunded and getting worse. More than one person told me that couldn’t be right.
They were correct: It was actually much worse. It has gotten to $2 trillion and much worse in just a few years.
Note that we are talking here about a specific kind of pension: defined benefit plans. They are usually sponsored by state and local governments, labor unions, and a number of private businesses.
Many sponsors haven’t set aside the assets needed to pay the benefits they’ve promised to current and future retirees. They can delay the inevitable for a long time but not forever. And “forever” is just around the corner.
Monday, May 20, 2019
Not Maxing Out Your 401(k) or IRA Contributions Is Stupid / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Jared_Dillian
Uncle Sam doesn’t give out too many freebies when it comes to tax time, except in the form of retirement plans.
Surprisingly, not many people take advantage of them. Only 41% of people contribute to a 401(k) when they have the option to do so.
A 401(k) allows annual contributions up to $19,000. If you maxed out your contributions, you could save thousands of dollars on your taxes.
Why do more people not contribute?
Saturday, May 18, 2019
If You and Your Spouse Argue About Money, You Have to Read This / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Jared_Dillian
People fight about money all the time. It has been quantified. A third or more of all arguments in marriages are about money.Usually this falls into one of two categories:
- Spouse A thinks that Spouse B spends too much money.
- Spouse A thinks that Spouse B doesn’t spend enough money (i.e., is a CF).
I advocate for married couples to keep their money separate. My wife and I have always kept our money separate—for 21+ years. And it works great for us.
Tuesday, April 30, 2019
Pension Funds Recover but Annuity Income Falls / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: MoneyFacts
New data from the latest Moneyfacts UK Personal Pension Trends Treasury Report has revealed mixed fortunes for the retirement sector during Q1 2019, with pension fund returns performing strongly but annuity rates declining.
Pension fund recovery
Pension funds endured a marked downturn in Q4 2018, with the average pension fund falling by 7.3%. As a result, in 2018 pension funds suffered their biggest losses since the 2008 financial crisis. However, performance-wise, pension funds have made a bright start to 2019. In Q1 2019, the average pension fund recovered much of last year’s lost ground by generating returns of 6.7% – the strongest quarterly pension fund performance since Q3 2016.
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Saturday, April 20, 2019
Paying the Retirement Bill / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Rodney_Johnson
I find myself thinking more about retirement.I don’t want to trade my daily routine for the cruise ship, but I’m developing a laser focus on generating more income that I can put away for later use… which explains my latest business foray into the golf cart rental business.
The venture is turning a profit after a couple of months, and our biggest battle right now is with mother nature. What I would give for a sunny weekend on the Texas coast!
But I face bigger hurdles in my efforts to generate cash than just the weather: the Fed and the tax man. And the two intersect in a very unlikely place: pensions.
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Friday, March 29, 2019
Behind in Retirement Savings? It’s Not Too Late to Catch Up / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Jared_Dillian
You’ve screwed up:
- You’re drowning in debt.
- You haven’t saved for retirement.
- You’ve chopped yourself to bits in the stock market.
“Too late now, I’m screwed.”
You are not screwed. The only way you are screwed is if you are at retirement age already. Then it is kind of too late.
Thursday, March 21, 2019
This Formula Will Tell You How Much You Need to Retire—and It May Be More Than You Think / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Jared_Dillian
How much money do you need to retire? Ask Google!
The first page gives you a wide range of numbers, mostly between $1 million and $2 million.
Of course, most people retire with less than that. They make it work.
Here’s my advice: stop thinking about retirement in terms of absolute numbers. It is all relative.
One of my longtime readers, Neile Wolfe, of Wells Fargo Advisors in Austin, TX has an elegant solution to the problem.
Tuesday, March 19, 2019
The Average American Can’t Save Enough to Retire / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: John_Mauldin
How much money do you need to retire?Answering this question is one reason a good financial advisor is worth every penny you pay them. But let’s talk about some generalities.
Say you want to stop working at 65. You’re in good health and your family tends toward long lives. You expect to reach 90, having been retired for 25 years.
Will Social Security alone be enough? Probably not.
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Friday, December 21, 2018
You Will Probably Live Longer Than You Thought—But Can You Afford To? / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: John_Mauldin
I have long warned that demographic changes have made Social Security unsustainable.
In 1940, the Social Security system had 159.4 workers per beneficiary. Then it went off the rails quickly. By 1945 the ratio was down to 41.9 and a decade later was in single digits.
We usually think this is a result of the Baby Boom generation turning 65, and that’s a big part of it. But rising life expectancy is equally and maybe more important.
Friday, November 16, 2018
Will The Fed Sacrifice Retirement Portfolio Values For The "Common Good"? / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Dan_Amerman
Martin Feldstein, who was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors under President Reagan and is currently a Harvard professor, wrote an extraordinary editorial in the Wall Street Journal in which he strongly advocated that the Federal Reserve pursue policies that would: 1) continue to raise interest rates; and 2) thereby pop asset bubbles in the stock and commercial real estate markets; 3) which would cause an estimated $9+ trillion in investor losses; 4) possibly lead to another recession and the accompanying major job losses; and 5) would be followed by forcing interest rates down again to near historic lows.
Now, the eminently respectable Professor Feldstein and other mainstream economists are not intentionally trying to hurt investors, that is not the reason to raise rates. Quite the reverse, this is all supposed to be for our own good, and the intentions are to over the long term help economic growth and create healthier investment markets.
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Thursday, August 16, 2018
“The Big Grab” - Failing Pension and Retirement System / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Andy_Sutton
It has been quite some time since we last collaborated on an article, opting instead to chase other pursuits and let some of the hysteria going on in the world fade into some type of steady state. It hasn’t happened, but there are pressing matters that need attention regardless. The circus going on all around us makes for great theater and distraction – and that is its intent.
The topic at hand is the failing pension and retirement system. Americans are notorious for spending well in excess of what they make, saving nothing in the process. The only way most save are the deductions from their paychecks for a 401k or IRA. Or perhaps they contribute to an IRA at tax time, when they realize doing so will reduce their tax liability.
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Friday, August 10, 2018
Dreaming of a "Comfortable Retirement" on a Public Pension? / Stock-Markets / Pensions & Retirement
By: EWI
A 9-year bull market fails to close the pension gap
Did you realize that many U.S. pension funds are in trouble even though stocks have been rising since 2009?
Even so, many retirees expect a comfortable retirement.
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Wednesday, May 02, 2018
UK Pension Funds Performance Deteriorates in Q1 2018 / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: MoneyFacts
New data from the latest Moneyfacts UK Personal Pension Trends Treasury Report has revealed deteriorating pension fund performance in Q1 2018 at a time when members of auto-enrolment schemes are seeing their mandatory minimum contribution rates rise from 1% to 3%.
The report shows how after a run of positive gains in the previous nine quarters the average pension fund registered a loss for the first time since Q3 2015, falling by 3.8%.
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Thursday, April 12, 2018
Retirement Expectations of Consumers Fall Short / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: MoneyFacts
• Over a quarter of consumers under the age of 45 only expect to retire after the age of 70
• 14.8% of consumers under the age of 45 worry they’ll never be able to retire
• 79.5% of those aged between 45 and 64 hope to retire by 65
• More than half of respondents knew exactly how much is in their pension pot
• Respondents desire for 63% of their current annual income to be their pension income
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Monday, January 22, 2018
Pension Crisis And Deficit of £2.6 Billion At Carillion To Impact UK / Stock-Markets / Pensions & Retirement
By: GoldCore
– Carillion collapses leaving a £900 million debt pile and 30,000 pensions at risk
– Carillion PLC share price has collapsed 94% in last twelve months
– Private analysis of Carillion’s pension deficit reveals it to be as high as £2.6 billion
– Figure adds to the UK’s ongoing pension crisis, both private and state are severely underfunded
– UK’s Private Pension Fund already has a levy of £550 million for next twelve months
– UK state pension crisis as state fund to be ‘exhausted by 2033’
– Ensure your pension is funded and properly diversified with gold
Wednesday, November 01, 2017
UK Retirement Incomes Still 27% Lower than 2008 Financial Crisis Levels / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: MoneyFacts
Key findings:
• Record personal pension membership and contributions mask significantly lower retirement incomes than at the height of the 2008 financial crisis
• Pension fund performance continued to weaken in Q3 2017
• Annuity uncertainty still impacting pricing with the income gap between the most competitive and least competitive open market annuities now at a record low
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Thursday, October 12, 2017
Your Pension Is a Lie: There’s $210 Trillion of Liabilities Our Government Can’t Fulfill / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: John_Mauldin
In the US, we have two national programs to care for the elderly. Social Security provides a small pension, and Medicare covers medical expenses. All workers pay taxes that supposedly fund the benefits we may someday receive.
The problem is that's not actually true. Neither of these programs is comprehensive.
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Saturday, September 30, 2017
The Magnitude Of The Coming Pension Storm Will Come To Light In 2018 / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: John_Mauldin
BY PATRICK WATSON : Part of my job is helping John Mauldin with the research for his Thoughts from the Frontline letters. Regular readers know John isn’t a doom-and-gloom guru. He’s optimistic on most of our big challenges.
Except for a few things—like the brewing state and local pension crisis.
The more John and I dig into it, the worse it looks. We have both spent many hours trying to find any good news or a silver lining, without success.
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Wednesday, September 27, 2017
Nobody Will Escape the Coming Pension Storm—It Will Be Every Man for Himself / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: John_Mauldin
The coming pension and unfunded government liabilities storm is so big that many of us simply can’t get out of the way, at least not without great difficulty. This holds true not just for the US but for almost all of the developed world.
I did a lot of thinking after we published last week's Thoughts from the Frontline about the coming pension tsunami (subscribe here for free)—especially as I was reading your comments—and I wished I had made my warning even more alarming.
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Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Americans Don’t Grasp The Magnitude Of The Looming Pension Tsunami That May Hit Us Within 10 Years / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: John_Mauldin
Total unfunded liabilities in state and local pensions have roughly quintupled in the last decade.
You read that right—not doubled, tripled, or quadrupled—quintupled. That’s nice when it happens on a slot machine, not so nice when it’s money you owe.
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Friday, September 08, 2017
Financial Planning: The Importance of Building a Diverse Investment Portfolio / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Boris_Dzhingarov
“Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.” - Alan Lakein
It is vital not to underestimate the importance of planning for your retirement as well as your future. Simply stated, even in countries where there the state offers what used to be adequate pensions, the cost of living has risen to the extent that it is tough to make ends meet solely on a state pension.
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Saturday, August 05, 2017
Why Switching to a Roth IRA May Be the Best Investment Decision You’ll Ever Make / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: John_Mauldin
By Terry Coxon : Should you convert your traditional IRA or 401k to a Roth? Or are you better off sticking with what you already have?
Either way, you stay plugged into the same powerful, wealth-building advantage that makes an IRA such a good thing to have—continuous compounding of investment returns unhindered by the drag of taxes.
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Monday, June 12, 2017
The Disturbing Trend That Will End in a Full-Fledged Pension Crisis / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: HAA
Shannara Johnson writes : Some experts think it will be the trigger for the next financial collapse. Others call it a “national crisis” of unprecedented proportions.
But what all of them agree on is that there’s no way US pension funds can keep their promises to the next wave of retirees.
Right now, millions of Americans are hard at work believing their pensions will be their saving grace for retirement. But the predicament pension funds across the United States find themselves in does not just spell trouble for the distant future.
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Thursday, May 11, 2017
UK Retirement Incomes Hit 33-month High as Record Numbers Turn to Personal Pensions / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: MoneyFacts
Key findings:
· Average retirement incomes increased by 5.2% in Q1 2017 and have risen by almost 15% over the last year. They are now at their highest level since July 2014.
· Retirement incomes have been boosted by strong pension fund returns and generally higher annuity rates.
· The uplift comes at a time when personal pension membership and contributions are at record highs.
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Tuesday, April 25, 2017
Pensions Are On The Way Out But Retirement Funds Are Not Working Either / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: John_Mauldin
US law provides for many kinds of tax-advantaged retirement plans. They fall into two broad groups: defined-benefit (DB) and defined-contribution (DC) plans.
Defined-benefit plans are mostly the old-style pensions. They came with a gold watch and ensured you some level of benefit for the rest of your life.
Your employer would invest part of your compensation in the plan, based on some formula. In some cases, you, the worker, might have added more money to the pot.
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Saturday, April 22, 2017
5 Key Steps For A Comfortable Retirement From Former Wall Street Trader / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: John_Mauldin
BY JARED DILLIAN : “Are you good with money?” You hear that question a lot. But, what does it mean?
It means:
- Paying your bills on time
- Being able to put something aside
- Maybe investing it
- Fully funding your retirement accounts
- Retiring comfortably
It doesn’t matter what you do for a living or how much you make. I know people who have never made more than a five-figure income and are millionaires (true story—more on this later).
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Saturday, March 11, 2017
Investment Guide When Planning Your Retirement / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Submissions
....
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
A Snapshot of My Retirement Strategy and Why it’s Not Like Yours / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Harry_Dent
I think most of you intuit that I’m not like the normal guy out there. I think outside the box, analyze everything, respect and revere cycles as much as I hate them for their downside and discipline.The truth is, I’m an entrepreneur, more than I am an economist. In fact, I think economics is mostly a load of B.S., and there are only three classical economists I pay any attention to: Dr. Lacy Hunt, Steve Keen, and Robert Shiller.
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Wednesday, October 19, 2016
The Fed Destroyed US Boomers’ Retirement Dreams / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: John_Mauldin
The more I think about where the “monetary policy community” of academic elites has brought us, the angrier I get. It’s been a long time since I’ve been this passionately upset about something.
Almost everything the Fed did to us since 2008 falls into two broad categories: interest rate repression and quantitative easing.
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Saturday, October 01, 2016
Why Nervous Pensioners Are Running for the Exit / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: EWI
The Dallas pension system embraces risk with alternative assets
[Editor's Note: The text version of the story is below.]
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Wednesday, September 28, 2016
The Fed Put a 50% Tax on Your Retirement Plan / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: John_Mauldin
If a politician said he thought he should tax the income from your retirement plan, right now, at 50% (no matter where you are in the retirement process, that would certainly hurt the ability of your portfolio to compound), what would you think (other than that he was completely Looney Tunes)?
But that's exactly what the Federal Reserve has done by keeping interest rates low.
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Friday, September 23, 2016
Pension Shortfalls Could Be 4X To 7X Greater Than Reported / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Dan_Amerman
The reported shortfall for the California Public Employees Retirement System (Calpers) is $139 billion - but that is based upon investment assumptions that may be unlikely in current markets.- As developed using a 40 year financial model and recent actual results, the real present value shortfall could be in the $500 billion to $1 trillion range, which is 4X to 7X as great as reported.
- Calpers is used as a real world example to explore nationwide issues that could change our financial futures - and our choices - as investors, taxpayers and pension beneficiaries.
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
2016 The Worst Ever Year for Annuity Income / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: MoneyFacts
As tomorrow marks Pensions Awareness Day (PAD), new research compiled by Moneyfacts has revealed that annuity rates are on track for their biggest ever annual fall. Based on a benchmark annuity (standard level without guarantee), the average annuity income for a 65-year-old has fallen by 14.8% on a £10K purchase price and by 15% on a £50K purchase price so far during 2016.
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Monday, August 15, 2016
Here’s How Millennials Can Weather the Perfect Storm / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: John_Mauldin
BY PATRICK COX : Millennials are struggling. We see it in the media every day. About 45% of Millennial college grads are working low-wage, dead-end jobs and have record levels of student debt. The number of young people making less than $25,000 per year is higher now than at any time in the last 25 years.
Boomers and Gen-Xers like to pile on, too. They say young people should be out on their own instead of living at home. They agree that Millennials don’t work serious jobs (if they work at all) and wonder why they put off marriage longer than any generation before them.
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Friday, July 29, 2016
Retirees Are Risking Their Life Savings on Junk Bonds / Interest-Rates / Pensions & Retirement
By: John_Mauldin
Retirees and other investors are reaching farther and farther for yield. They’re piling into all sorts of increasingly risky investments. So, it should come as no surprise that credit spreads are shrinking between what in theory are risk-free investments and other investments.
My friend Danielle DiMartino Booth, formerly at the Dallas Fed, covers a range of topics affected by central-bank policies. I think she is going to be an increasingly visible force in the world of central bank critics.
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Tuesday, July 26, 2016
UK Annuity competition has never been weaker / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: MoneyFacts
The latest analysis of the annuity market by Moneyfacts has highlighted the challenging pricing conditions facing the sector and suggests that competition in the annuity market has never been weaker.
The analysis conducted for the Moneyfacts Personal Pension and Annuity Trends Treasury Report shows a seeming lack of appetite among providers to compete for annuity business, a factor which is contributing to record low annuity rates.
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Friday, July 15, 2016
Will They Come For Your IRA? / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Dr_Jeff_Lewis
I received this note from a reader regarding the confiscation of retirement accounts:
Doc,
Thank you for your kind words. I do have a question for you.
You only need to read the first paragraph of this article for my question:
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Friday, July 08, 2016
Signs the Government Is Planning to Confiscate Your Retirement Funds / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Jeff_Berwick
We’ve warned that bankrupt governments will be eyeing the multi-trillions of dollars in “un-taxed” retirement funds when they get desperate enough.
It is an incredibly common occurrence. It has happened in numerous countries in just recent memory. Poland, Hungary and Bolivia are a few in the last years where retirement funds have been seized.
Total funds currently held in private IRA and 401K accounts in the US are estimated to be in the neighborhood of $10 trillion. That number looks awfully enticing to the US government which is currently indebted to the tune of $19 trillion and holding liabilities of over $100 trillion.
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Thursday, May 26, 2016
Statistics for Funeral Planning in UK Grave / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: ....
Recent research has revealed that a shocking 45% of Britons have made no provisions for the event of their death, and that one in ten of the survey respondents foresee that their friends and family will have to foot the bill when they pass away. British Seniors Insurance Agency, an insurance company specialising in British Seniors, conducted this research via Opinium Research earlier this year.
This research uncovers the grave truth about funerals, memorial services and deaths - often loved ones are expected to take on the financial burden. With costs of funerals rising to an estimated £5,469 in some areas of the UK, this can cause substantial emotional stress. The research results suggested that, of the respondents surveyed who had managed the affairs of their loved ones, 58% admitted that it had a direct effect on their emotional health. This statistic was even higher among those respondents in the age bracket of 18-34 years old.
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Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Report Reveals 10% fall in UK Retirement Incomes in Just One Year / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: MoneyFacts
Key findings:
· Average retirement incomes are at record lows one year into the new pension freedoms landscape
· Retirees looking for a secure income face the unenviable position of annuitising at all-time low rates
· Enhanced annuities have seen bigger rate decreases than standard annuities
· The average pension fund has fallen by 2.3% over the last 12 months
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Friday, April 01, 2016
A Visual Look At The Fed Decision From A Retirement Investor's Perspective / Interest-Rates / Pensions & Retirement
By: Dan_Amerman
Below is the transcript for the video. While the images are included below, the motion graphics and use of a pointer are quite helpful for conveying the information, and these can only be seen by watching the video.
Thursday, March 31, 2016
How Pension Plans Are Coping With Financial Repression w/FRA / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Gordon_T_Long
Professor and CEO of Create-Research Amin Rajan shares his knowledge with an in depth interview on Risk Mitigation and how European Pension Plans are Coping with Financial Repression with FRA Co-Founder Gordon T Long .
Amin Rajan worked as an economic forecaster in the UK treasury for over 8 years, and since then has been focusing on investment matters driven by macro investment behaviors catering to pension funds, insurance companies and wealth managers.
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Thursday, February 11, 2016
More Bankruptcy For Your Retirement Portfolio / Stock-Markets / Pensions & Retirement
By: Rodney_Johnson
There’s an old saying that if you owe the bank $1 million, you have a problem. But if you owe the bank $100 million, then the bank has a problem.
That’s the situation we’re in today.
States around the country have racked up outrageous unpaid balances for their pensions. Few of them have any plan for digging out of the hole. Since they have no plan, they’re creating issues for everyone who might be called upon to help them make good on their obligations.
Friday, February 05, 2016
How Pension Plans are Responding to Financial Repression / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Gordon_T_Long
In this 35 minute video, Chief Executive of CREATE-Research, Amin Rajan discusses investing in the age of financial repression as well as key points for risk mitigation with FRA Co-founder Gordon T. Long. CREATE-Research is a a network of prominent researchers undertaking high level advisory assignments for governments, global banks, fund managers, multinational companies and international bodies such as the EU, OECD and ILO. In 1998 Amin was awarded the Aspen Institute's Prize in leadership. It is a subject on which he has done extensive research involving some of today's outstanding business leaders. In two resulting publications, he has developed a close link between leadership and the emerging business models.
Monday, January 11, 2016
Another Poor Year for UK Annuity Rates / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: MoneyFacts
New research from Moneyfacts has revealed that 2015 was another poor year for annuity rates as low gilts, uncertainty created by the new pension freedoms and preparations for Solvency II took their toll.
Annuity rates have more than halved since 1994
The research found that annuity rates in 2015 fell for the second year running, and have now declined in 17 out of the 21 calendar years since Moneyfacts started surveying the annuity market in 1994. During this period the average annual income payable from a standard level without guarantee annuity has fallen by a considerable 56%.
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Thursday, December 10, 2015
Why Getting Valuation Right Is So Important To Retired Dividend Growth Investors / Companies / Pensions & Retirement
By: Charles_Carnevale
Although getting valuation right before you buy a stock is critically important to the long-term oriented retired dividend growth investor, it is not a short-term market timing concept. My point is that short-term market movements are typically volatile and unpredictable. The reason is simple. Over short periods of time, which I define as less than a business cycle (3- 5 years), emotion has a major effect on stock prices.
Monday, October 26, 2015
Someone Is Spending Your Pension Money / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: John_Mauldin
“Retirement is like a long vacation in Las Vegas. The goal is to enjoy it to the fullest, but not so fully that you run out of money.”– Jonathan Clements
“In retirement, only money and symptoms are consequential.”– Mason Cooley
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Wednesday, October 21, 2015
How the Big White Lie of Investing Could Cost You Your Retirement / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: DW
Mark Ford writes: I consider myself an expert of sorts on retirement. Not because I've studied the subject, but because I've retired three times.
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Over 65 and Looking for Finance? You’re Barred / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: MoneyFacts
Over the past few years personal finance products have come under greater scrutiny and tighter regulation in order to protect those with poor credit ratings from borrowing beyond their means. However, while this regulation has been put in place for the right reasons, it is also having a negative impact on older borrowers, who are increasingly facing high minimum income or funding requirements or, even worse, being turned away from finance altogether.
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Monday, October 12, 2015
UK State Pension Top Up, Is It Worth It? / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Nadeem_Walayat
As of today Britain's pensioners are being offered a chance to top up their state pensions under what is known as Class 3A Voluntary Contributions .
The top up is open to all current pensioners and those about to retire by April 2016
The maximum increase in weekly pensions is £25 per week or £1300 a year on top of the current state pension of £115 per week / £5980 per year.
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Tuesday, October 06, 2015
Designing a Dividend Growth Portfolio for a Specific Retirement Yield Objective / Portfolio / Pensions & Retirement
By: Charles_Carnevale
Managing an investment portfolio is a very personal matter. Consequently, the most important consideration is to design a portfolio that meets your own unique goals, objectives and risk tolerances. Everyone is different, and consequently, every investment portfolio can and should be appropriately different as well. Stated more straightforwardly, I do not believe in cookie-cutter or one-size-fits-all approaches to portfolio design.
In the same vein, I believe that investment portfolios, especially retirement investment portfolios, should be designed and constructed to meet the specific needs of the individual it is built for. In some cases the objective might be current income and safety. In other cases the objective might be the necessity to earn the highest possible rate of return. Importantly, the most appropriate objective for each individual will often be driven by factors that are external to the portfolio itself.
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Tuesday, October 06, 2015
Target Date Funds As Aid In Retirement Investment Portfolio Design / Portfolio / Pensions & Retirement
By: Richard_Shaw
- Investors in or near retirement should be aware of portfolio design leading fund sponsors suggest as appropriate
- Leading target date funds appear to generally have less severe worst drawdowns than a US 60/40 balanced fund
- The funds have slightly higher yields than a US 60/40 balanced fund
- Target date funds have underperformed a US 60/40 balanced fund in part due to a cash reserve component and non-US stocks
- Non-US stocks drag on historical performance could become future boost to performance.
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Designing the Common Stock Portion of Your Retirement Portfolio: Concentrated or Diversified / Companies / Pensions & Retirement
By: Charles_Carnevale
Designing the common stock portion of your retirement portfolio is very challenging. For starters, there is no absolutely perfect or even best way to design a stock portfolio. However, there are many effective strategies that have produced successful long-term results. The key to success is to find and implement the strategy that best fits your own unique goals, objectives, needs, and most importantly - risk tolerances.
There are many aspects associated with designing a common stock portfolio that need to be considered. The number of individual companies to include in your portfolio is a big one. In addition to the number of companies, how much weight you should put in each one. Should they be equally weighted? In other words, should you put the exact same percentage of your portfolio in each company? Or, does it make more sense to overweight some and underweight others? Moreover, should you own stocks from every sector or just the ones you like the best?
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Monday, September 21, 2015
Income Options for Seniors Running Out of Money / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Investment_U
Marc Lichtenfeld writes:Many people remember fondly when their parents gave them allowances for doing chores around the house or maybe a few bucks for their birthdays.
However, with over half of today’s seniors unable to pay for their basic needs, more and more adult children are taking care of their parents’ finances.
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Monday, September 14, 2015
UK Average Retirement Incomes 7.9% Lower than a Year Ago / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: MoneyFacts
New research by Investment Life & Pensions Moneyfacts has revealed that today’s retirees, who choose to take an income via an annuity, are set to receive annual retirement incomes that are 7.9% lower than those received by retirees last year. It also warns that current pension contribution levels are insufficient to bring retirement incomes back to the levels enjoyed by retirees 15 years ago.
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Friday, September 11, 2015
Pay Your Fair Share (to the Teachers’ Union) / Stock-Markets / Pensions & Retirement
By: Casey_Research
By Justin Spittler
Taxpayers take note…you could get a much bigger tax bill than you expect.
The California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) recently announced that it may move 12% of its assets, or $20 billion, out of stocks and bonds.
CalSTRS is the second-largest public pension fund in the U.S. It manages roughly $191 billion for 868,000 teachers in California.
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Saturday, August 29, 2015
Don't Let 'The Glidepath Illusion' Ruin Your Retirement / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: DailyWealth
Dan Ferris writes: The traditional notion of retirement says you should take bigger risks in the stock market when you're young.
You have more time to make up for losses than when you're older. As you age, you should take less and less risk, so you won't lose your retirement money... so the conventional wisdom goes.
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Thursday, August 27, 2015
It’s Hard to Be Broke and Happy at the Same Time / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Investment_U
Alexander Green writes: Editorial Note: There's no ignoring what's happening in the markets today. Global fears have sent U.S. stocks into a free fall. Of course, we're not going to pretend it's the best of times. But, as Alex has advised in the past, now is not the time to try and time the markets. In his words, "Nobody rings a bell at the top of the market. So the amateur lurches about and suddenly gets out... then finds that stocks keep going up without him." As we write, the Dow is already up 338 points from this morning's low. So keep that in mind as your fellow investors run screaming into the streets.
A new report from Bankrate.com reveals that more Americans than ever are saving nothing for retirement.
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Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Game Theory and Retirement Choices / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Dan_Amerman
Game theory is a hot topic in many fields right now and for good reason - it can uncover better ways of making decisions, that are often otherwise missed. A particularly good example is the uncommon insights that game theory can deliver for us when it comes to making better retirement decisions.
For our decision-making "game", let's say there is a $1 million pool of money to be split between you and nine other people. If you wait until the end of ten years to cash out - you and everyone else are promised that you'll be equally entitled to $250,000 each.
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Saturday, July 18, 2015
Why Pensions Are A (Big) Black Swan / Stock-Markets / Pensions & Retirement
By: John_Rubino
When talk turns to what might derail today’s debt-driven “recovery,” the big names and easy stories get most of the attention: China with its soaring debt, volatile equities and heavy-handed intervention; Japan with its stratospheric debt and science fictiony demographics; Greece, which needs no explanation; the developing countries with their weak currencies and mountain of dollar-denominated debt. And of course America’s triple bubble of stocks, bonds and derivatives.
Thursday, July 09, 2015
Are Roth IRA Owners Likely To Be Subject To Double Taxation? / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Dan_Amerman
Roth Individual Retirement Accounts are an uncommonly attractive and powerful method of creating wealth for retirement when viewed from the usual financial perspective. What sets them apart is that contributions are made with after-tax dollars, but withdrawals are made on a tax-free basis – which is the reverse of most other retirement accounts.
This is among the reasons why Roth IRAs are enormously popular with many millions of retirement investors in the United States and why they are so widely recommended by financial planners, CPAs and many other financial professionals.
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Monday, June 22, 2015
Public Pensions: Live and Let Die / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: John_Mauldin
When you were young and your heart was an open book
You used to say live and let live…
But if this ever-changing world in which we're living
Makes you give in and cry… Say live and let die.
– Paul McCartney, the Bond movie theme, performed by Wings
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Friday, May 22, 2015
One Investment Could Save Two Generations' Retirements / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: ...
MoneyMorning.com Peter Krauth writes: The goal of a comfortable retirement is getting more challenging by the day.
That's overwhelmingly thanks to the Fed's Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP).
A recent poll reveals Generation Xers, the next wave of retirees to follow the Baby Boomers, expect to be a whole lot more self-sufficient.
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Wednesday, April 15, 2015
How to Escape the Pensions Squeeze / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Money_Morning
Peter Krauth writes: With mid-generation baby boomers just entering the retirement wave, their ability to stop working is a hot topic that's getting hotter. Study after study questions the ability of public and private pensions to meet the needs of retirees.
Financial repression through the Fed's Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP) has compounded the problems of underfunded plans and retirement accounts.
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Sunday, April 05, 2015
Wealth Net Worth - Is $1 Million Enough? / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Investment_U
Rachel Gearhart writes: Last week we looked at a chart showing how much annual income Americans think they need to be considered rich.
This week, we’re using the same Gallup Poll data to visualize the household net worth required to join the wealthy upper class. (This is, again, according to a group of randomly surveyed individuals.) The median number? $1 million.
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Wednesday, April 01, 2015
Did The Fed Just Admit to Deep Uncertainty About Our Financial Security In Retirement? / Interest-Rates / Pensions & Retirement
By: Dan_Amerman
Generally speaking, the chairperson of the Federal Reserve is treated by the mainstream financial media as being the very paragon of respectability. If the Fed says it - then the voice of economic authority has spoken, and we need to listen carefully.
Yet, recent comments by Janet Yellen have instead made her a source of "controversial" economic ideas, with some financial reporters and their editors apparently feeling a duty to protect their reading audience - and let them know this is not acceptable economic thinking, but rather is "far outside the mainstream."
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Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Will Your Retirement Accounts Survive The Coming Tax Code "Revolution"? / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Dan_Amerman
Suppose that you live in a capital city under siege, that is surrounded by revolutionary armies. And while you don't know the exact timing or specifics, you do believe that the overthrow of the current regime is close to a 100 percent certainty. So you take your life savings and enter into a series of binding contracts with the current regime, under advantageous terms for you. The revolutionary armies enter the capital city, the current regime is ousted, the new regime repudiates the contracts of the previous regime – and you are left penniless.
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Retire Abroad and Offshore Your IRA / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Casey_Research
By Nick Giambruno
Money represents your energy and your time: the days, the weeks, the months, the years it takes you to earn it, and all the things you hope to do with it.
In short, money is like stored life.
Taxation, inflation, and artificially low interest rates are therefore similar to a needle and syringe tapped directly into your vein, sucking the life right out of you.
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Monday, February 16, 2015
Mamas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Pension Fund Managers / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: John_Mauldin
We do not have to look to Greece to find massively underfunded obligations. Here in the US we can find hundreds of examples, willingly created by politicians and businessmen who proclaim they are working for the public good. We call them pension funds, but they’re just another form of unfunded debt. A sovereign bond is a promise to pay a certain amount of money over time. A defined-benefit pension fund is a promise to pay a certain amount of income over time. The value of either is determined by the ability of the government or the pension fund (or its sponsor) to pay.
Thursday, February 05, 2015
When Pro Players Fritter Away Millions / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Dennis_Miller
By Dennis Miller
How is it possible for one man to burn through $400 million and wind up filing for bankruptcy, $27 million in the hole? Boxer Mike Tyson made it happen, and he’s in good company among professional athletes. Yet other professional athletes parlay their sizable earnings into nest eggs that grow and last.
Why the two divergent paths?
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Thursday, January 29, 2015
Are You Sure You Want to Delete This? / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Dennis_Miller
As I sat in my office with tears streaming down my cheeks, my wife walked in and asked, “What’s wrong?”
After a short sniffle, I blurted out, “I just deleted Dad!” The absurdity of my remark hit us both, and we burst out laughing. Dad had been dead for over two years.
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Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Can a Doublewide Save Your Retirement / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Dennis_Miller
The rumors are true: Florida is full of 55-plus communities with rows of doublewide mobile homes. The nicer ones have amenities like golf courses, swimming pools, clubhouses… you name it. As you’d expect, the living cost is modest. But here’s the part that blows people away: many of the people who live in these communities are quite wealthy.
That’s right—not everyone living in a doublewide is a NASCAR fan.
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Thursday, January 15, 2015
The Most Overlooked Threat to Your Buying Power / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Dennis_Miller
Decades ago, one of the first things I did when I started looking after our aging parents’ money was move a substantial sum from their checking account to an interest-bearing account. When I asked why they had so much sitting in their checking account, they answered, “You never know. We may want to buy a new car.
For a long time, the conventional wisdom was to keep 20-35% of a retirement portfolio in cash. Today holding that much cash in the bank or your brokerage account is like a leaky faucet. It leaves your purchasing power going drip, drip, drip. And a bundle hidden under a mattress? Don’t even think about it!
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Thursday, January 15, 2015
New 4% Pensioner Bonds Election Bribe - Grab it While You Can / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The government in a blatant election bribe for the over 65 pensioner grey vote has today put on sale the 65+ Guaranteed Growth Bonds issued through the NS&I that pay 2.8% for 1 year and 4% for 3 years (gross). Demand has been heavy all day which means website / application access has been sporadic resulting in server error pages. However there is nothing on the market that comes anywhere near matching the 3 year bonds so do persist as the issue could be fully subscribed within a couple of weeks, thereafter the risk is that the government might not release a second tranche (election bribe).
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Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Dependent Adult Children Can Destroy Your Retirement - Five Financial Keys to Fatherhood, Not Friendship / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Dennis_Miller
My oldest grandson, Justin, has cerebral palsy. When he was in middle school, my daughter and her husband invited me to attend a parent-teacher conference. Justin’s teacher told us that one of his classmates had announced to the whole class that, according to his mother, all of the kids would be moved along no matter what.
Friday, December 19, 2014
Retirement Planning - Five Rare Birds Sing a Wise Tune / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Dennis_Miller
In the spirit of the holidays, I’m sharing a happy truth: many people do, in fact, retire rich. Who are these rare birds and what can they teach us?
Rich Retire #1—The Pension Holder. If you have a large pension in 2014, you likely are or were a government employee. Many government workers receive pensions equal to 75-80% of their working salaries. In some government departments, it’s the unwritten custom for department heads to bump a worker’s salary 20% or so when he or she is a year or two from retirement. This boosts the employee’s base for his retirement pay.
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Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Take Back the Retirement You Dreamed of at 40 / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Dennis_Miller
Is it even possible today to retire rich? The short answer is “yes.” We all know people who have done just that. Watching your neighbors Bob and Betty Rich live the good life well into their 90s only tells you it’s possible, not whether you’re prepared to do it too. So let’s forget about the Riches and focus on you.
The first question you should ask yourself is: “Do I have enough money for the duration?” Or, if you’re still in your 30s, 40s or 50s: “Am I on track to save enough?”
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Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Will You Light $180,000 on Fire by Taking Social Security at Age 62? / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Dennis_Miller
On the television series Dragnet, Sgt. Joe Friday was known for his calm demeanor while questioning witnesses. When they began to ramble, he would corral them with comments like, “Just the facts, ma’am.” Sound advice for the witness stand, but when it comes to retirement planning, Sgt. Friday was giving the wrong instructions. Instead of asking for “just the facts” we should ask for “all the facts.”
Monday, October 27, 2014
Annuity Rates Plummet Amid ‘Perfect Storm’ / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: MoneyFacts
The latest Moneyfacts Personal Pension and Annuity Trends Treasury Report, has revealed how the annuity market endured a perfect storm during Q3 2014 as a combination of plummeting gilt yields and a marked slowdown in demand following the 2014 Budget took their toll on annuity rates.
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Thursday, October 23, 2014
Annuities - Afraid Your Money Will Vanish before You Do? / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Casey_Research
By Andrey Dashkov
Unlike Jack Nicholson’s character in A Few Good Men, we trust that you can handle the truth. No matter your age, securing a comfortable retirement is a huge concern. Folks want the whole truth about their financial outlook, but straight answers are hard to come by.
Both sides of the mainstream media habitually present opinion-tainted partial facts. Case in point: the unemployment numbers announced earlier this month. One side is cheering because unemployment dropped to a six-year low, while the other side is calling it pure fraud.
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Tuesday, October 14, 2014
9 Ways to Retire Rich / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
“In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.”—Yogi Berra
It’s October, AKA the major league baseball postseason. As a lifelong baseball fan, I take the wisdom of Yogi Berra seriously. And when it comes to planning for the autumn of life, Yogi is spot on.
It seems as though every day an article titled “5 Tips for Retirement Saving” or something similar hits my inbox. I scan for the author’s name, and I’m amazed by how often it’s distinctly contemporary—Jennifer, Brandon, or another name of that vintage. Jennifer’s title is something like “staff writer,” and I immediately picture a fresh-faced young person with a newly minted journalism degree. After work, maybe she jumps in her starter BMW and heads to a local watering hole with her friends to gripe about student loan repayments.
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Thursday, October 09, 2014
Yield-Hungry Baby Boomers Are on a Death March / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Donald_W_Dony
Today’s forecast: yield-starved investors forced into the market by seemingly permanent low interest rates will continue to be collateral damage. For some, that collateral damage may involve more than the loss of income opportunities… many could be wiped out completely.
At the Casey Research Summit last month, I asked the participants in our discussion group: “If there were safe, fixed-income opportunities available paying 5-7%, would you move a major portion of your portfolio out of the market?”
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Thursday, August 14, 2014
If Mr. Rogers Ruled Wall Street / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
Wall Street is “rigged.” That’s the word Michael Lewis, author of the bestseller Flash Boys, is spreading among the news networks, and it’s produced a vast outcry in the financial community.
Really? As Gordon Gekko, the unscrupulous corporate raider in the ‘87 classic Wall Street, says, “Come on, pal. Tell me something I don’t know.”
There’s a lot to learn from Gekko, who spends the bulk of the film demanding a young stockbroker named Bud Fox bring him information—information no one else can or will deliver. A few Gekko-isms should jolt your memory of the movie:
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Tuesday, August 05, 2014
Your Insurance Company Lands in Rehab—Will Your Annuity Survive? / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
Your insurance company probably won’t go under; however, one might have said the same of AAA bonds in 2007. As many investors found out, sometimes the unlikely suddenly becomes your very own nightmare.
In 2012 the Financial Guaranty Insurance Company with $2.1 billion in assets failed. Also, in 2009 the Shenandoah Life Insurance Company with $1.7 billion in assets went under. In 2008, Standard Life Insurance Company of Indiana with $2 billion in assets collapsed as well. Although these failures weren’t all national front-page news like the AIG fiasco, anyone who owns an annuity or is thinking of buying one should take note.
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Thursday, July 31, 2014
Need-to-Know Tips for Buying Annuities… And Knowing When They’re Not For You / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
You're probably something of an expert in your own field—and that field probably isn't insurance or annuities. How, then, can you work through the minefield of clauses, guarantees, and pages of small print? Here are nine ways to start.
While you may feel uncomfortable doing this, you're the one putting down thousands of dollars, and you have every right demand this. Remember: caveat emptor! It's the buyer who must beware; you must protect yourself. Ultimately, the language in the annuity contract is what matters, but it doesn’t hurt to memorialize your verbal agreement with the agent in writing.
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Wednesday, July 23, 2014
When All You Have Left Is the Cost of Breakfast at McDonald’s / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
When I was 20 years old, I sat through my first day of a business law course at Northwestern University. The professor began by writing two words on the blackboard (in the prehistoric days of blackboards and chalk): Caveat emptor. He raised his voice and said, “Let the buyer beware!” I’m here to echo his warning, but this time it’s about annuities.
Annuities are at the top of the list of complicated products that often profit insurance companies without adequately compensating the buyer in return. Put plainly, sometimes you don’t get what you thought you paid for.
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Thursday, July 17, 2014
Fake Pensions - They’re Lying To Us / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: John_Rubino
Most people learn by the age of 10 or so that making promises is easier than keeping them. That’s why really big promises like corporate pensions and national retirement/health care programs are so easy to screw up. Offering someone a cushy retirement or a lifetime of healthcare feels great and generates massive goodwill from the recipient. So elected officials and corporate executives tend to over-promise in the moment and leave the hard part — actually making good on those promises — for their successors.
Friday, June 06, 2014
How to Die in Dignity Without Leaving Your Spouse to Starve / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
We’d all been waiting for the big day, but the chapel the ceremony took place in was very small—just a room with Christian symbols and a few chairs. My wife Jo's father was waiting for us in his hospital bed, grinning from ear to ear. Despite the feeding tube, he still managed to devour a few bites of our wedding cake. Parkinson’s is a powerful disease; it can take the sturdiest tree in the forest and wilt it like an aging rose.
Yes, Jo and I got married in a nursing home chapel. Little did we know that we would spend the better part of the first 18 years of our marriage dealing with nursing homes and assisted-living facilities for both sets of parents.
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Tuesday, June 03, 2014
Be Very Afraid of the Underfunded Public Pensions Nuclear Solution / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
With few exceptions, state and local pension funds are woefully underfunded. Five heavily populated states—California, Illinois, Ohio, New Jersey, and Texas—collectively lack $431.5 billion; money that won’t be paid out to hopeful pensioners. That’s according to those states’ own accounts published in a 2012 Harvard University study that was led by former Assistant Treasury Secretary Tom Healy.
Friday, May 09, 2014
Collateral Damage: What You and Monica Lewinsky Have in Common / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
Collateral damage can assume many forms—and though some may be more newsworthy than others, the latter are no less real, nor any less frightening.
On Tuesday, controversial radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh called Monica Lewinsky “collateral damage in Hillary Clinton’s war on women,” saying that President Bill Clinton and his wife destroyed the former White House intern “after he got his jollies, after he got his consensual whatevers.”
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Thursday, May 01, 2014
Retirement Guard Duty 101 / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
I was just a kid—barely wet behind the ears. At two minutes before midnight, the sergeant of the guard and I marched onto the runway tarmac. Following protocol, I formally relieved the previous guard of his post.
This was mid-July at the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, Arizona. For the next four hours, dressed in combat fatigues, I carried an (unloaded) M-1 rifle.
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Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Retirement Kitchen Table Economics / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
What is it about retirement that causes confident, successful businessmen and -women to lose that edge when they invest their own life savings? Many otherwise dynamic people become virtually impotent in the face of retirement investing. I have many friends who were very effective in business—folks who made sound decisions affecting how millions upon millions of dollars were spent. They would gather the facts, make a plan, and make the right call with confidence. Whywas it so taxing for these same friends to manage their personal retirement accounts?
Monday, April 28, 2014
The World's Biggest Pension Fund Just Made a Huge Bet / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Money_Morning
Peter Krauth writes: On numerous occasions, I've told you to remain on lookout for threats to your savings, including the proposed new MyRA account.
If you've been counting on your pension, whether from work or even Social Security, you may want to revise those plans, as most are way underfunded.
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Thursday, April 17, 2014
10 Ways to Screw up Your Retirement / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
There are many creative ways to screw up your retirement. Let me show you how it’s done.
Supporting adult children. My wife Jo and I have friends with an unmarried, unemployed daughter who had a child. Our friends adopted their grandchild and are now in their late sixties raising a kid in grade school. The same daughter had a second child, and they adopted that one too. When she announced she was pregnant a third time, they finally said, “Enough! It’s time for a third-party adoption.”
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Tuesday, March 25, 2014
The Three Stooges Debunk myRA Retirement Plans / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
A little skit ran through my head the other day…
The house lights dimmed and the bright American flag glistened in the background. The crowd hushed as a tall man in a strange costume strode confidently onto the stage.
Curly turned to Larry and Moe and exclaimed, "Oh my, that's our favorite—Uncle Sam, our boyhood hero." Moe put his finger to his lips as if to say "Shhh!"
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Thursday, March 20, 2014
Pensions Annuity Freedom Prompts Vultures Stock Price Crash - Budget 2014 / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Nadeem_Walayat
George Osbourne announced "Let me be clear, no one will have to buy an annuity. People who have worked hard and saved hard all their lives, and done the right thing, should be trusted with their own finances.", and with that statement the annuities vultures stock prices crashed by as much as 55% as time is now up for all of the pension funds financial blood sucking vampires as illustrated by life time accumulated savings being forced to be converted (lost) into annuities in return for a pittance in annual payments, which was the reason why for so many retirees annuities have amounted to nothing more than a scam where the pensions industry sales pitch promises never materialise.
Thursday, March 13, 2014
Why Unemployment Rates Matter to Your Retirement / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
My biological clock is ticking—as is yours and everyone else's. With each passing day, you are either moving closer to or further past the day you quit working full time. Baby boomers are retiring at a rate of 10,000 per day and will continue to do so for the next 17 years. Whether you count yourself among that group or not, understanding where economic data—such as unemployment rates and inflation—come from will make you a better investor and savvier retiree.
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
How Social Security Trust Funds Will Change Private Retirement Income / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Dan_Amerman
It can be difficult to completely avoid a $5 trillion elephant in the middle of one's own living room.
In an ironic twist, millions of people who are investing for retirement specifically to escape from dependence on Social Security may find that no matter where in the room they go - that elephant is still there. And over the years ahead, the spending down of the $5 trillion in Treasury bonds held in Social Security and other government trust funds may be transforming the returns on their private savings in ways they never anticipated.
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Thursday, March 06, 2014
Maximizing Your Retirement Planning IRA / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
As working folks get closer to hanging up their spurs, it is easy to become overwhelmed. When should you take Social Security? What type of insurance do you need? Should you buy an annuity? Do you need nursing home insurance? Should you roll over your 401(k) into an IRA? The list goes on and on.
Retirement planning requires many irreversible decisions. We each need to get it right; however, what is right for us is not always right for someone else. And, in addition to basic number-crunching, we each make assumptions about life and politics—sometimes without even realizing it.
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Thursday, February 27, 2014
The Ty Cobb Approach to Retirement Investing / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
When baseball fans talk about players from the early 1900s, Babe Ruth is normally the first person mentioned. He was a great home-run hitter with 714 career home runs, a record that stood for almost 40 years. Only two men have surpassed it. Ruth struck out 1,330 times—a record that also stood for several decades.
Most people think of Ty Cobb as a gritty player who held the career stolen-base record for many years. But let’s look a bit deeper. Ty Cobb broke into major-league baseball in 1905 at the age of 19 and hit .240 his first season. For the next 23 seasons, he hit over .300.
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Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Retirement Investing, Why 65 Is Not a Magic Number / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
Is retirement really all it's cracked up to be? The answer depends on where you find yourself financially, emotionally, and health-wise come age 65 or so.
When we're young, we trade time for money and hope to stash away enough of it to later reverse the process and trade money for time. Ideally, we'd each have a few decades of independence before the grim reaper—or assisted living facility—comes knocking.
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Monday, February 10, 2014
Prepare for When the New MyRA Becomes "TheirRA" / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Money_Morning
Peter Krauth writes: In his recent State of the Union Address, President Obama unveiled something new: a retirement savings account to "help" Americans build a nest egg, coining it the "MyRA."
Something immediately felt wrong about the proposal... but I couldn't put my finger on it.
So I researched the new MyRA and found details to help you understand just how it works.
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Tuesday, February 04, 2014
Pension Promises Go Unfulfilled / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
I don't know which is worse: realizing you cannot keep a promise you made to someone important to you, or being the person who relied on the promise when you grasp that it is not going to be kept.
In 1973, I was 33 years old and just starting a public-speaking career. The National Speakers Association asked me to join, and I became a charter member. Our first president, the late Bill Gove, was a terrific speaker and also a great salesman—one of the top life insurance salesmen in the country for many years.
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Friday, January 31, 2014
Who Most Benefits From MyRAs: Savers Or The US Treasury? / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Dan_Amerman
By executive order of the President of the United States, as announced in the State of the Union address, there is now a new type of tax-advantaged retirement account.
These are the MyRAs, the user-friendly "my retirement accounts" for small investors, that are presented as being one part of the campaign to help close the income and wealth disparity gap in the US. And one of the issues that is identified as being part of that gap is that the poor and middle class have relatively little money in retirement accounts when compared to the wealthy and the upper middle class.
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Thursday, January 23, 2014
Laddering Adds Another Layer of Financial Protection for Retirement / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
Laddering reminds most people of a strategy often used when owning multiple CDs. Back when interest rates made them worthwhile, if you were trying to arrange cash flow, you could stagger the maturity dates of your CDs so you always had one maturing in the near term. Longer-term CDs had better rates, but they tied up your money; laddering mitigated that problem.
Thursday, January 02, 2014
Don’t Plan on Retiring, Work Until You're Dead? / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Mike_Whitney
Millions of older Americans say they will never be able to retire. They simply don’t have the savings. According to CNN, “Roughly three-quarters of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck, with little to no emergency savings…50% have less than a three-month cushion and 27% had no savings at all….” (“76% of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck“, CNN Money)
Thursday, January 02, 2014
Retirement Reboot - The Ultimate Layer of Financial Protection / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
From international real estate to international government regulation to international business, Nick Giambruno, the senior editor of International Man is the go-to guy. While my passport is good for another eight years, I’m sure he has to replace his annually. Nick has recently been traveling with legendary investor, Doug Casey, and I had the opportunity to ask him a few questions about this trip as well as tips for folks looking to protect themselves and their wealth by diversifying internationally. So, without further ado…
Friday, December 13, 2013
Why America's Bestselling Retirement "Plan" Is Jeopardizing Your Retirement / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Money_Morning
Robert Hsu writes: I recently received a call from "Russ," a client of mine. He was wondering why the investments he holds at my money management firm have gone up so much more than the money he's entrusted to a major fund broker.
I'd be wondering, too.
That's because, in a year filled with hundreds of 52-week highs and a broad market that climbed roughly 25%, they've managed to "grow" Russ' money all of... 2%?
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Thursday, December 12, 2013
Six Traits of Successful Retirees / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
When I coached baseball many years ago, a young ballplayer came to me asking for advice. I offered my opinion: he needed to get his act together. Then, like many young men might do, he griped about me to one of the other coaches. Our paths crossed again when he was 28 years old, at which point he said, "Now that I have a family of my own, I've thought back on your 'lectures' and realized you were just answering my questions honestly. Thank you."
Sunday, December 08, 2013
Why 401K Stock Investors Should Move to Cash / Stock-Markets / Pensions & Retirement
By: EconMatters
Actively Monitor 401k Designations
The stock market is so corrupt, such a gamed enterprise it is comical and is no place for 401k type investors to have their life savings and only retirement funds at risk with the lunatics and absolute corruption of the US stock market.
I am an experienced market participant so I know all the tricks from the inside, and even I am fooled by Wall Street shenanigans from time to time, and I have seen it all and have historical data and sophisticated tools that the mom and pop investor has absolutely no ability to access.
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Wednesday, November 20, 2013
New American Retirement Nightmare, No More Money to Retire / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Mike_Shedlock
Except for public union workers with pensions that ultimately will not be met, retirement age for most keeps inching up.
People need to work longer or go back to work after a few years of retirement because they have insufficient savings. This creates competition between those over 60 and those under 20 for low-paying jobs.
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Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Getting the Most from Your 401(k) / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
Getting the Most from Your 401(k)
People who invest heavily in their 401(k)s expect to have enough money to retire. Many are surprised when they come up short—a topic Frontline recently covered in "The Retirement Gamble." What is going wrong?
The show cited mutual fund fees, a topic we tackled in depth in our special report The Top 10 ETFs to Replace Your Expensive Mutual Funds. In addition to fees and some basic number-crunching, there are fundamental issues that determine how well our 401(k) and other retirement accounts perform.
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Monday, November 04, 2013
Hijacking Your 401(k), The Government Wants to Grab Your Retirement Assets / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Money_Morning
With Washington battling over what to do about its $16.4 trillion debt pile, rumors are swirling that the government will start taking 401(k) money to cure its fiscal ills.
There's plenty to take.
A study published by the Investment Company Institute in 2012 stated that U.S. retirement assets at the mid-point of the year totaled somewhere in the neighborhood of $18.5 trillion.
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Thursday, October 31, 2013
Kiss Your Pension Goodbye! / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
I was on the reunion committee for my 50-year high school class reunion a few years back. As we tried to track down classmates, we discovered that many—including a few I had known quite well—had died from lung cancer. These folks would light up a cigarette, joke about cancer sticks, cough, and make fun of their addiction. They ignored their symptoms and the constant warnings from their families and doctors, and they suffered the ugly consequences.
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Still Feel Confident About Collecting Your Pension After This? / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Raul_I_Meijer
If your answer to that question is affirmative, I suggest you take a good hard look at what's coming out of Detroit these days. Why don't we just call it a bail-in model, not unlike Cyprus, where the waters are tested for forcing parties who historically thought they were safe from cuts, find they no longer are.
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Tuesday, October 29, 2013
New Retirement Trend: One-Third of Americans Need to Work Until 80 / Economics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Profit_Confidential
Michael Lombardi writes: According to the just-released annual Wells Fargo & Company Middle Class Retirement Study, about 60% of middle-class Americans say that getting monthly bills paid is their top concern. This number stood at 52% in the 2012 study. (Source: Wells Fargo & Company, October 23, 2013.)
But there are more depressing results of the survey…
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Tuesday, October 15, 2013
The Simple Secret to an Early Retirement / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Money_Morning
Robert Hsu writes: In my early career, I was fortunate to do well financially while working at Goldman Sachs. I also made the decision to live below my means, and to invest intelligently. By my late twenties, I had amassed a seven-figure nest egg, and in my early thirties, I actually took an extended vacation for about five years.
What I came to learn, however, is that you don't have to work for Goldman Sachs - or be a multi-millionaire - to be able to retire comfortably or early.
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Sunday, October 13, 2013
Terrible News for Retirees - Could You Stand Low Interest Rates for the Next 20 Years? / Interest-Rates / Pensions & Retirement
By: DailyWealth
Dr. Steve Sjuggerud writes: I couldn't believe it...
It was huge news last week for the financial markets... but nobody reported it.
I guess nobody wanted to believe it... Maybe it was so extreme that nobody could even process that it was possible.
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Thursday, October 10, 2013
How to Avoid a Devastating Retirement Planning Mistake / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
Think you have reached the holy grail of retirement? Good financial planners use sophisticated computer programs to help us set retirement savings goals. They input dozens of variables based on assumptions about how the world works, and out pops a number telling us how much we should save during our working years. That number, combined with Social Security and any pension we're lucky enough to have, is supposed to be the holy grail of retirement. Reach it and you're set for life.
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Wednesday, October 09, 2013
Zero Interest Rates - The Federal Reserve’s War on Seniors / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Jeff_Berwick
Antonius J. Patrick writes: The Federal Reserve’s “zero interest rate policy” (ZIRP) of the last half dozen years or so has been a financial act of war on the country’s seniors and, for that matter, on all savers. Under ZIRP, interest rates are artificially lowered through the Fed's monetary policy popularly known as, "QE," quantitative easing.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
America's Unfunded State Pensions Crisis - Rich, Poor and Begger Cities / Economics / Pensions & Retirement
By: John_Mauldin
"The future is already here," intoned William Gibson, one of my favorite cyberpunk science fiction authors, "it's just not very evenly distributed." Paraphrasing Gibson, the pension crisis is already here; it's just not very evenly distributed. For the past two weeks we've been exploring the problems of state pension funds. This week we will conclude our look at pension plans for the nonce with a 30,000-foot overview of the states and then take a deeper dive into one city: mine. This will give you at least one version of how to do your own homework about your own hometown. But fair warning, depending on your locale, you may need medical help or significant quantities of an adult beverage after you finish your research. Then again you may be pleasantly surprised and congratulate yourself on choosing a particularly adept hometown. And be on notice that, no matter what your personal conclusion and how well-grounded your analysis is, there will be people who live in your neighborhood who think you are utterly full of, well, let's just say "nonsensical matter" and leave it at that. This is a family letter.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Tortoises Win the Retirement Race / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
The race to the finish line—the time between an empty nest and retirement—is tightening. A major generational shift has taken place, and it's having a huge impact on when and how we save and plan.
Most older baby boomers like myself had children in their 20s and empty nests by age 50. They used that time to accumulate enough money to retire. When my children were in high school, their friends' parents were in their late 30s or early 40s. It was unusual to run across 50-somethings at a PTA meeting or high school basketball game.
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Thursday, September 12, 2013
Are You Really Retired Just Because You Stopped Working? / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
From the time I took my first job washing cars at age 15 to the day I retired, working kept money flowing into my bank account. I needed money, and so I had to work (no silver spoon here). A few weeks back, I penned an article highlighting how most older folks . Several readers suggested that continuing to work as long as possible is the best way to quell that fear. Could the solution be that simple?
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Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Poland Confiscates Private Pensions - Yours Are Next / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Jeff_Berwick
We have been saying for the last four years that as Europe, the US and other Western and global nation-states continue their debt-fueled collapse the governments of these countries will continue to consider their citizens' wealth to be their own and seize more of their assets.
We have, unfortunately, been vindicated already numerous times.
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Tuesday, September 10, 2013
How a 1% Gain Can Destroy Your Retirement Dreams / Stock-Markets / Pensions & Retirement
By: Money_Morning
Robert Hsu writes: This has been the bond market's worst showing in 19 years, thanks to the recent spike in the 10-year Treasury yield. But bond investors aren't the only ones getting hit.
A higher "risk-free" rate affects you, too. And me. And anyone else trying to grow their money.
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Sunday, September 08, 2013
Pension Funds Unrealistic Expectations, Nominal or Real Returns? / Economics / Pensions & Retirement
By: John_Mauldin
"In the short run, the market is like a voting machine, tallying up which firms are popular and unpopular. But in the long run, the market is like a weighing machine, assessing the substance [intrinsic value] of a company." – Benjamin Graham
Way back in the Paleozoic era (as far as markets are concerned), circa 2003, I wrote in this letter and in Bull's Eye Investing that the pension liabilities of state and municipal plans would soon top $2 trillion. This was of course far above the stated actuarial claims at the time, and I was seen as such a pessimist. Everyone knew that the market would compound at 9%, so any problems were just a rounding error.
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Thursday, August 29, 2013
5 Ways To Protect and Grow Your Retirement Whatever Your Age / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
We just recently Money Weekly's first birthday, and this milestone also got me thinking… If I had a magic wand and could instantly pass along a bundle of critical information to my peers, what would that message include? Since I don't have a magic wand, I had to distill a bit of my practical wisdom down to five points (no easy task).
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Custom Made Retirement / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Casey_Research
You may have heard the popular legend about Eskimo tribes sending the elderly off to die at sea. As the stories go, when grandpa and grandma could no longer hunt or earn their keep, the younger folks would put them on an iceberg and ship them off. Fewer mouths to feed gave the younger generations a better chance at survival. I shudder at the thought.
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Four Benchmarks to Keep Your Retirement Finances on Track / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
When I was still a young buck out in the workplace, financial magazines periodically published worksheets for calculating when you had enough money to retire. The process became much easier when we got our first PC. Programs like Microsoft Money had a retirement planner tab where you entered your personal data, and the program did the calculations for you.
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Don’t Plan on Being Retired Very Long / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
I don't know which is worse: realizing you cannot keep a promise you made to someone who was important to you, or being the person who relied on the promise when you finally grasp that it is not going to be kept.
In 1973, I was 33 years old, just getting started as a public speaker in a career that would span another 30 years. I was asked to join the National Speakers Association and became a charter member. Our first president was the late Bill Gove. Bill was a terrific speaker and also a great salesman—one of the top life insurance salesmen in the country for many years.
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Sunday, August 04, 2013
Annuities The Worst Investment You Can Make? / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Investment_U
Alexander Green writes: A couple months ago, I wrote a column about a good friend who’d plunked a substantial part of his life savings into an expensive and unnecessary whole life policy. I explained why this is almost always a terrible investment.
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
The Most Dangerous Myth About Retirement Investing / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Money_Morning
Robert Hsu writes: The most dangerous myth out there right now is that Treasuries are the key to safe wealth building.
Forget about Fed Chairman Ben Benanke's latest palliative.
This misconception will turn your nest egg into a pile of sticks faster than you can say quantitative easing.
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Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Will You Still Work When Retired? / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
You may have heard the popular legend about Eskimo tribes sending the elderly off to die at sea. As the stories go, when grandpa and grandma could no longer hunt or earn their keep, the younger folks would put them on an iceberg and ship them off. Fewer mouths to feed gave the younger generations a better chance at survival. I shudder at the thought.
Friday, June 21, 2013
How to Avoid the Pitfalls of Variable Annuities / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
Last year consumers purchased $200 billion in annuities. On top of that, there are currently $2-3 trillion in annuities already in force. With all the variations, options, riders and strategies available, it's easy to feel lost. At Money Forever, we aim to simplify complex financial topics. To that end I’m going to share a case that jumped out at me as we researched our special report on annuities. The evaluation process used here translates to any sort of annuity you may encounter; its information you can keep in your back pocket and draw on when annuity salespeople try to overcomplicate products and make predictions sound like guarantees.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Are Annuities the Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread? / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
Well, no, but they do make sense for some investors as part of their portfolio. However, we have to shop wisely and not allow sales agents to push us into the wrong products just to fatten their own wallets. Unfortunately, that makes some folks shy away from something that could help them make their money really last a lifetime… or longer.
Monday, June 03, 2013
Should You Buy an Pension Annuity? / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
In simple terms, an annuity is a contact between a person and a company. The person gives the company a sum of money, and in return is promised a monthly payout, generally for the rest of their life. There are many cases where annuities make sense for retirees or folks planning to retire soon. At the same time, there are risks and situations where annuities are the wrong choice.
Monday, June 03, 2013
How 401(k) Fees Are Costing You 33% of Your Nest Egg / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Money_Morning
Gary Gately writes: If you have a 401(k) chances are you're getting ripped off and you don't even know it.
With all of the associated 401(k) fees, the truth is you could be losing as much as 33% of your retirement nest egg to the financial advisors who run your plan.
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Thursday, May 23, 2013
How Ben Bernanke Is Destroying Your Retiremen / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Money_Morning
Martin Hutchinson writes:
Uncle Sam has an unfunded pension liability of $800 billion.
Corporate pension funds have an unfunded liability around $400 billion.
State and local pension funds have an unfunded liability in the tony neighborhood of $3 trillion.
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Wednesday, May 22, 2013
The Cold, Hard Facts Behind Funding Your Retirement / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
Many folks are afraid they simply won't be able to retire – or stay retired – when and how they planned. We can talk about retiring later, taking a part-time job, and cutting back on expenses, but those are only partial solutions. Of the seniors who are still working, very few are earning as much as they did at their peak. Their life savings still needs to make up the difference.
I receive a lot of letters from very concerned baby boomers and retirees who are watching their principal erode every year, but they don't know what to do about it. Unfortunately, some have unrealistic expectations.
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Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Benefits Cuts and Higher Taxes for Seniors in Obama Budget / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
Some people claim that our Social Security system isn't broke. Technically, they're right. The Old Age andSurvivors Trust Fund (OASI) currently holds $2.5 trillion in special government Treasuries that can be redeemed at any time – in theory of course.
But here's the catch. What happens when the OASI needs those trillions of dollars to pay out benefits? Essentially, the government has to find the money to pay the face value of those Treasuries. So from that standpoint, Social Security is broke. The Treasury IOUs are not backed by any cash surplus, only by faith that the US government will somehow come up with the cash... probably by indebting itself further or by raising taxes.
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Friday, May 10, 2013
Why Are So Many Seniors Still Working? / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
By Dennis Miller Go into any fast food restaurant or retail store and you’ll find a lot of seniors working for minimum wage. Here’s why.
When personal computers hit the scene, numerous retirement-planning programs quickly became available. You entered your personal financial information, along with yield and inflation projections, and the computer would tell you how long your retirement nest egg would last.
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Monday, April 29, 2013
Obama Turns America’s Retirement Dreams into Nightmares / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Money_Morning
Keith Fitz-Gerald writes: If you think the U.S. government will not - or cannot - seize your money the way the government in Cyprus is doing, check out page 18 of the President's Proposed Fiscal Year 2014 Budget of the U.S. Government.
That's exactly what he intends to do.
Not years from now. Not decades from now.
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Thursday, April 18, 2013
Retirement Nightmare: Underfunded Pensions Want to Chop Your Benefits by 60% / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Money_Morning
David Zeiler writes: Unions, employers and the federal government have finally come up with an answer for the nation's underfunded pension plans, many of which are headed for bankruptcy.
Take the money from the retirees.
The proposal would erase the guarantees created under the 1974 Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and allow underfunded pension plans to reduce monthly benefits for both future and current retirees.
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Monday, April 08, 2013
US Government To Decide How Much Is Enough For Your Retirement / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Jeff_Berwick
Welcome to the new US. Socialism always has the same predictable process. Once the government collectivizes a sector then the politicos and bureaucrats get to work on "improving the system". In a private enterprise, that'd mean offering more to your customers for a cheaper price. In government, it is always the opposite, finding ways to reduce benefits for their "customers".
Thursday, April 04, 2013
Wealth Management Retirement Strategies to Reconsider / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: DailyGainsLetter
John Whitefoot writes: From home repairs, to fixing cars, to crafts, publishing, and decorating—in a do-it-yourself culture, nothing is out of bounds. Thanks to low interest rates and underperforming assets with terrible returns, many who are on the cusp of retirement are looking after their own retirement plans in an effort to boost their retirement income. Meanwhile, those already in retirement are looking for ways to sustain their savings.
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Monday, March 25, 2013
Fed’s Actions Makes for a Retirement / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: InvestmentContrarian
George Leong writes: On the surface, the Federal Reserve’s objective is to make sure America doesn’t fall into ruins. Following an aggressive strategy of monetary easing, the end result is interest rates at nearly zero percent and an endless flow of easy money. As I have already stated many times in these pages, the Federal Reserve has created an artificial economy.
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Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Captaining Your Own Retirement Ship / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
When Kerry Lutz turned off the recorder after interviewing me for the Financial Survival Network a few weeks ago, we started talking about a common challenge we both face: getting an entire generation to wake up and see that we have a real problem.
Most seniors and savers readily admit that interest rates are terrible and don't keep up with inflation, yet – even with the terrible squeeze this puts on their pocketbooks – Kerry and I know of too many people who think their nest egg will manage itself. After working a lifetime to build up their portfolios, many retirees are looking for a "set it and forget it" type of investment that no longer exists.
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Friday, March 01, 2013
American Companies Drowning Under Pension Liabilities / Companies / Pensions & Retirement
By: InvestmentContrarian
Sasha Cekerevac writes: When it comes to long-term investing, many focus solely on revenues and earnings. While clearly these are extremely important fundamentals when conducting a stock analysis, one rarely mentioned but critical variable is pension liabilities.
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Thursday, February 14, 2013
Pensions Catastrophe, Government Tricks Digging a Very Deep Hole / Economics / Pensions & Retirement
By: John_Mauldin
“The government is the prisoner of the bureaucracy. We have 4,021 associations and 6,200 codes. You simply cannot change things. There are 600,000 tax elements. No one really knows who pays what.” – A journalist in Greece
For all the focus on the unfunded liabilities of Social Security and Medicare, there is another unfunded crisis brewing, and this one is in your own back yard. It’s coming to you even if you live outside of the US; it just might take a little longer to get there. I wrote ten years ago that state and local pension funds might be underfunded by as much as $2 trillion. It turns out that I was being overly optimistic. New government research suggests that the figure might be as high as $3 trillion. But what if you take into account that retirees are living longer? An IMF study that we’ll look at in a few minutes does just that. And if we live a lot longer? Oh my. The problems are not universal – some cities and states will do fine, while others are already in deep kimchee – but it’s a big problem and getting worse.
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Thursday, January 31, 2013
FSA Plans to Review UK Retirement Annuity Pricing / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: MoneyFacts
Following the announcement that the Financial Services Authority (FSA) is to conduct a thematic review into annuity pricing, research by Investment Life & Pensions Moneyfacts highlights the financial detriment that consumers could suffer in retirement as a result of their failure to shop around for the best annuity.
The table below highlights the difference between the most competitive annuity and least competitive annuity deals currently available to retirees at a variety of different ages.
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Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Pensions, The Last Remaining Store Of Real Wealth / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Yeah, The Last Remaining Store Of Real Wealth is somewhat tongue in cheek. I'm talking about pensions here, and despite the fact that hundreds of millions of people, especially in the west world, count on the pensions they pay into year after year for decades, to be there for them when they reach a certain age - which gets pushed forward all the time, talk about Receding Horizons! -, I've long since said that for most that is not going to happen. But many still see it that way: The Last Remaining Store Of Real Wealth.
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Wednesday, January 09, 2013
UK Pension Annuity Income Suffers Biggest Fall Since 1998 / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: MoneyFacts
New research by Investment Life and Pensions Moneyfacts has revealed that the average annual income generated by a standard annuity for a 65-year old male fell by 11.5% during 2012. This is the biggest annual fall since 1998, when annuity income fell by an average of 13.7% (see Table 1 below).
The equivalent annuity income for a female dropped by 6.1% in 2012, a fall that was cushioned by the uplift that females received on the switch over to gender neutral pricing from 21 December 2012.
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Saturday, December 08, 2012
U.S. Looming Pensions Crisis: State Budgets Soon to Be Under Siege / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: John_Mauldin
In 2003, I was writing about the unfunded liabilities of state and local pensions. It was part of Bull’s Eye Investing, which came out in 2004. I caught some flak for being so pessimistic about the potential problems. Quoting:
Unless steps are taken soon, it is possible we can see shortfalls approaching $1 trillion–$2 trillion in state-sponsored pension funds within 10 years. A deficit of this size on the state level can truly be called a crisis. A tax increase or other adjustments to fund this will be a large drag on the economy.
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Tuesday, November 20, 2012
How to Save Your Wealth From U.S. Government Retirement Heist / Stock-Markets / Pensions & Retirement
By: Jeff_Berwick
Here at TDV we have the unfortunate role of being the messenger—and you know what happens to the messenger. The monkeys in pants always jump on him, stones in hand, and try to bash his brains out for bringing them a little bit of reality.
In December, 2010, we penned a dispatch called “Americans Retirement Funds at Serious Risk” wherein we concluded by stating: “Keeping retirement funds inside of tax-sheltered accounts, which the US government will soon look to as the next source of funds to try to pay off its mountain of debt and keeping retirement funds in US dollar-based 'assets' is putting your retirement and future at great risk.”
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Sunday, September 30, 2012
Probability Theory and Retirement Portfolios, Jumping into the Suicide Pool / Stock-Markets / Pensions & Retirement
By: John_Mauldin
“By ‘uncertain’ knowledge, let me explain, I do not mean merely to distinguish what is known for certain from what is only probable. The game of roulette is not subject, in this sense, to uncertainty; nor is the prospect of a Victory bond being drawn. Or, again, the expectation of life is only slightly uncertain. Even the weather is only moderately uncertain. The sense in which I am using the term is that in which the prospect of a European war is uncertain, or the price of copper and the rate of interest twenty years hence, or the obsolescence of a new invention, or the position of private wealth owners in the social system in 1970. About these matters there is no scientific basis on which to form any calculable probability whatever.”
Friday, September 07, 2012
'About To Be Retired' Persons Views / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Ian_R_Campbell
In a survey of Canadians now between 50 - 60 years old, said to have an statistical error rate of not more than 3.5%:
-
on average 53% said they planned to work following retirement; and,
-
almost 50% said they had retirement savings of under $100,000.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Retirement Crisis, the Demise of Global Pension Plans / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Raul_I_Meijer
We have been saying for a long time that anyone in the western world who's 10-15 years away from collecting their first pension payments, shouldn't expect to get much, if anything, when the time comes. This is because, obviously, the economy has deteriorated as much as it has. It's also because, in essence, pensions plans are the ultimate Ponzi schemes.
What doesn't help are the central bank and government policies that are in fashion today that are based on pushing interest rates about as low as they can get.
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Sunday, May 06, 2012
Get Rid of Your IRA, Don't put Gold or anything else in it / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Gary_North
One of the categories is "retirement." There is a lot of interest in retirement issues. One of them is what assets should go into an IRA.
I say "None." This is not a popular answer. I add, "especially gold." This is also unpopular.
Over the years, I have published articles on my site explaining these answers. But some subscribers do not use the search engine to locate these articles. Others do not believe me. Still others talk it over with their accountants. Their accountants offer rival views. Then they post a question that reflects their accountants' views.
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Wednesday, May 02, 2012
Forget Retirement... and Retirement Savings / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Jeff_Berwick
You've been sold a bill of goods for the last four to six decades. You've been told that nation-states, democracy and socialism is good. You've been told our monetary system prevents instability. And, while the government and central banks put your unborn children or grandchildren into debt for life they've been telling you that there will be a socialist safety net to protect you and that the "American dream" includes retiring in your 50s or 60s to a wonderful life of golf and lying on the beach.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Seniors Worried about the Debt They Are Passing on to Their Heirs? / Economics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Paul_L_Kasriel
I recently celebrated my 65th birthday, which allowed me to become eligible for Medicare. On May 1, I will begin collecting Social Security benefits. I was curious to see what has been happening to combined federal expenditures on Social Security and Medicare in relation to total federal expenditures excluding those for national defense. My curiosity was satisfied by the data in Chart 1.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Doing the Roth IRA Conversion Arithmetic / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Terry_Coxon
Terry Coxon, Casey Research writes: It's clear to me, even though it may not be clear to you, that unless there is something very unusual about your situation, if you have a traditional IRA, you should pay the tax now and convert it to a Roth IRA. Not just maybe, but definitely. Not just for a small advantage but for a big one. If you don't convert today, you'll ultimately surrender much more to the tax collector. You'll be throwing money away. And you'll keep throwing it away. It's a result neither of us wants.
Friday, April 06, 2012
Public Pension Funds: Tens of Billions at Significant Risk / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: EWI
To meet ambitious investment return targets, some public pension funds must now swing for the fences.
But many are down two strikes already, due to their previous big bets with hedge funds.
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Friday, March 30, 2012
Before Making That IRA Contribution, Make Sure Your Pension Plan Assets are Safe / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Money_Morning
Larry D. Spears writes:
The middle of April is fast approaching and everyone knows what that means - time to get those 2011 income tax returns filled out and filed.
What few people realize is that they also have until Monday, April 16, to open a new individual retirement account (IRA) for 2011 or make your annual contribution to an existing one.
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Monday, February 20, 2012
Flexible Pension Drawdown Choice Widens / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: MoneyFacts
Less than a year after its introduction, flexible drawdown is available on around three quarters of SIPP plans, research by Investment Life & Pensions Moneyfacts has revealed.
When the April 2011 start date for the facility was confirmed, providers wanting to offer the option at the earliest opportunity had just four months in which to prepare, leading to predictions that only the more fleet of foot specialist SIPP providers might be able to prepare in time.
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Monday, November 28, 2011
How to Retire With No Savings / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: DailyWealth
Dr. Steve Sjuggerud writes: "Do you have any savings?" I asked my friend Tony.
"Not really, no," he answered.
Tony is in his 50s. And he didn't sound worried in the least. How is that possible?
Monday, November 21, 2011
Baby Boomer Blindness, Forget Retirement / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Gary_North
"MarketWatch" ran an article on the attitudes of retired Americans ages 55 to 75. The title is accurate: "Retirees are confident, but workers can't retire." But the subtitle points to the problem facing these people: "Retirees' finances recover, but one-in-four workers plan to work until 80."
The article reports on two surveys. The first is a survey of over 1,500 retirees in 2008 and 2011. These people had $100,000 or more of investable assets in 2008. Age range: 55 to 75. Think about this. Some of these people had retired at age 55. This is surely not a normal segment of the population. Second, they had at least $100,000 to invest. Is this sample representative of retired Americans?
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Taxpayers Forget Retirement / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Gary_North
If you are still a taxpayer, you are Atlas. I am Atlas. There will come a time when Atlas will shrug. I have written about this before: When will he shrug? Before I can answer this, I want to discuss another factor, compound economic growth
Saturday, July 02, 2011
Retirement Is Death, Don't Do It, Even If You Can Afford To / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Gary_North
Several years ago, I acquired a Web domain address, www.neversayretire.com. I had concluded that millions of baby boomers would discover at age 65, much to their chagrin, that their plans for a comfortable retirement had been smashed by the reality of low economic growth, low returns from the stock market, their own insufficient savings programs for decades, and inflation. I figured that I might create a Website based on the theme, "never say retire." I have not developed that site, but at least I set up a department on my Website. So, if anyone types the words "never say retire," he is directed to my department.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
The Extinction of Retirement / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Michael_Pento
For the better part of a century the foundations for a semi-comfortable retirement for many Americans have rested on the financial pillars of rising real estate and equity prices, positive real interest rates on savings, the continued solvency of public and private pension plans, and the reliability of national entitlement programs (Social Security, Medicaid). But in the last few years, the economic sands have fundamentally shifted and these pillars are no longer sturdy, some have cracked completely. For many Americans, the traditional idea of a comfortable retirement, filled with golf carts, cruises, and fishing trips, is going the way of the dodo bird.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Seized Pensions & Quantitative Easing / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Adrian_Ash
A government-run pension fund manager – hardly fills you with confidence, does it...?
AS EVERY BRITISH ADULT well knows, the UK government long since forgot to save a penny of his or her lifetime's National Insurance contributions.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, April 06, 2011
Cushion Your Retirement by Investing in IRAs / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Money_Morning
Larry D. Spears writes: If I were to recommend a stock and guarantee a return of 10% to 28% on your investment in a single day, you'd no doubt line up at your broker's door to place your orders.
But then why do so many people fail to make the maximum contribution to their Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs)? After all, in its traditional version, an IRA offers exactly the same return, depending on your personal tax bracket.
Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, March 12, 2011
The Day of Gold-Plated Public Sector Pensions are Numbered / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Arnold_Bock
Public sector employees, the workforce ‘elite’ led by state and municipal workers, are now storming legislative chambers to preserve their special status. Wisconsin is the current case study in what happens when the government, a monopoly service provider, confronts the fact that the taxpayer is tapped out and can’t take it anymore – when there simply isn’t enough money. Those realities are going to result in major adjustments in worker incomes, future pensions and benefits and their overall standard of living. Let me explain.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Pension Lies Lead to Riots / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Barry_M_Ferguson
In truth, almost all pensions are a lie.
The pension that comes to mind for most of us in the US is Social Security. A tax is deducted from our paychecks to fund the pension. By law, when the program takes in more than it pays out (as it did from 1982 thru 2009), it has to loan the excess to the federal government. The federal government is obligated to pay this amount back with interest when the program faces a shortfall. In 2010, it faced a shortfall. It is expected to face a shortfall in 2011. In addition to all its other debt, the federal Government now owes the Social Security Trust Fund (the account to which surpluses are loaned) some $2.5 trillion dollars. Surpluses are projected to return for the next few years but then from 2015 on, the program is expected to face deficits.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Four Steps to a Richer Retirement / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Nilus_Mattive
Take a quick survey of the retirement landscape and things look pretty darn dire.
According to a survey conducted by Wells Fargo last month, the average American has managed to save a meager 7 percent of the amount they’d like to have in their Golden Years.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
UK Annuity Rates Down 2.7% in 2010 Despite Late Rally / / Pensions & Retirement
By: MoneyFacts
The record number of individuals turning 65 this year are likely to face a major challenge when they come to secure their retirement income after research from Investment Life & Pensions Moneyfacts revealed that annuity rates fell for the third consecutive year in 2010.
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Liquidate IRAs and 401Ks or Suffer Grievous Losses / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Mac_Slavo
As government ramps up spending and continues its attempts to stimulate the US economy, Americans are being further burdened with an irreversible debt liability. The fact of the matter is that US government tax revenues, which are roughly $4 trillion per year, are nowhere close to providing the amount of money that government needs for current and future expenditures.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, December 07, 2010
American Retirement Funds at Serious Risk of Being Seized / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Jeb_Handwerger
The news of Hungary effectively seizing private pension fund assets to pay for the debt obligations of the state last week should come as yet another reminder of the urgent need to get tax-sheltered retirement savings away from the clutches of the state before it's too late. Hungary is just the latest country to decide that it's citizens retirement savings are the property of the state.
Monday, October 25, 2010
French Students Instead of Rioting Should Celebrate Pension Reform / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: MISES
François Melese writes: Images of angry French students burning vehicles and demonstrating in the streets fill the world's TV screens. Sadly, several young demonstrators have been seriously injured. French youth may be gathering in the streets, and yet the fight is not over education or job-training policies but about a pension reform that postpones retirement.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
U.S. Government Confiscating Retirement Accounts / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Gary_North
The Social Security System went into red ink mode this year. I predicted last January that this would happen. My video is here.
More money is now flowing out of the Social Security Administration to recipients than is flowing in through FICA taxes and interest payments to the SSA Trust Fund from the U.S. Treasury's general fund.
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, October 07, 2010
The Asset Allocation Model And Pension Value Investing / Stock-Markets / Pensions & Retirement
By: Christopher_Quigley
Academic Background - “In 1986, Gary Brinson L. Randolph Hood, and Gilbert L. Beebower (BHB) published a study about asset allocation of 91 large pension funds measured from 1974 to 1983. They replaced the pension funds' stock, bond, and cash selections with corresponding market indexes. The indexed quarterly returns were found to be higher than pension plan's actual quarterly return. The two quarterly return series' linear correlation was measured at 96.7%, with shared variance of 93.6%. A 1991 follow-up study by Brinson, Singer, and Beebower measured a variance of 91.5%.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Retirement Investors Take Advantage of the Greatest Government Tax Loophole Ever / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: DailyWealth
On December 31, 2010, the government will close an amazing loophole... one that affects 60% of the U.S. population.
In an attempt to collect taxes today to pay for its excesses, the government is promising to never tax our retirement money in the future. Let me explain...
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Retirement Distress as Annuity Rates Hit All Time Lows / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: MoneyFacts
The prospects of securing a comfortable retirement have taken a further blow with news that pension annuity rates have hit an all time low.
Research from Investment Life & Pensions Moneyfacts has revealed that annuity rates have fallen steadily over the summer months following a spate of re-pricing activity amongst providers.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Reader's Question: Will the Gov't Confiscate my 401K and Should I take My Money Out? / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: JD_Rosendahl
I absolutely love getting great money questions. It might be my favorite thing about blogging about money, investments, trends, and strategies. Recently, I wrote a blog: More people tapping 401(k)s . In that blog, I wrote about unfortunate reasons why people are taking premature distributions from their 401K plans. A reader responded to that blog with a very well thought out and pro-active question:Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
The Perils of Tapping a 401(k) / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Nilus_Mattive
Fidelity just released a new report and it’s pretty depressing.
The upshot? A record number of Americans are making hardship withdrawals from their 401(k) retirement plans. Worse yet, the number of U.S. workers borrowing from their plans is also at a 10-year high!
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Gold Falls with Stocks & Euro as Yen Hits 15-Year High / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Adrian_Ash
THE SPOT PRICE of wholesale gold dropped to a 7-session low Tuesday lunchtime in London, as world stock markets fell hard in thin trade and the Japanese Yen reached a new 15-year high vs. the Dollar.
"Monday was about as quiet as it gets," says one London bullion dealer in a note.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
The New Auto IRA Is Just Highway Robbery / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Ron_Holland
First They Destroy Private Healthcare in America – Yes, the socialist Democrats won their first battle to destroy the private healthcare system in the US but the automatic IRA bill now in Congress is their next attack to also control, confiscate and destroy the private retirement system. Ultimately, nationalizing healthcare is designed to create a major new government revenue stream by replacing private health insurance with a nationalized, mandatory, government program and their goal is identical with your retirement plan.
Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Will the Pension Time Bomb Set Off a Crime Explosion? / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Justice_Litle
When state and local budgets fall short, services are cut. That means critical services like police and fire and transport... and with the pension crisis looming, the unkindest cuts of all still lay ahead.
Diane Cunningham of Colorado Springs, Colo., no longer has a flat-screen television. She decided to sell it... so she could buy a shotgun.
Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, August 07, 2010
Pensions Liabilities Problem and China Instability / Economics / Pensions & Retirement
By: John_Mauldin
August Surprise from Obama?
The Problem with Pensions
Whither China?
Sadly, I find myself with more than enough time to compose yet another Thoughts from the Frontline in an airport, as a flight booking error has me at JFK for six hours instead of fishing in Maine. Details for those interested or amused at the end. But it does allow me to offer you a peek into a very sobering report on how badly underfunded public pension are. The situation is worse than you think. Then we will close with a eye-opening report on China from the gracious Simon Hunt, who is allowing me to reprint his latest missive in toto. You really want to read this one. And we start with this rumor from Reuters, just in. Read this and weep. It comes from James Pethokoukis.
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, July 23, 2010
An Easy Solution to a Retirement Inflation Worry / Companies / Pensions & Retirement
By: DailyWealth
Dr. David Eifrig, writes: "I'm worried, Doc... I hear so much talk on television about the government printing money and destroying the dollar."
Like many retirees, my friend Chris is worried about government spending... about taxes... about Social Security... and about inflation destroying his nest egg.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Retirement Planning, Why the "100 Minus Your Age" Rule is Wrong / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: DailyWealth
Tom Dyson writes: The other day, a millionaire asked me to construct a retirement portfolio for her...
Unfortunately, I don't have the right government certifications for this type of work, so I had to refuse the job. But it got me thinking...
Tuesday, July 06, 2010
State Pension Woes Only Worsening … / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Nilus_Mattive
I know some investors right now who are making major mistakes when it comes to retirement planning …
First, they have been consistently underestimating how much money they’ll need down the line. In essence they are pretending that inflation doesn’t exist …
Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Retirement Armageddon: The Video Seminar / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Gary_North
Most people have heard some of the bad news. They have not heard it without the sugar coating. The reality is grim. How grim? Watch the video.
The sad thing is this: those who are most likely to be adversely affected are trapped. Some have retired. Others plan to, on the assumption that their retirement portfolios will sustain them. Yet their portfolios are in sad shape. They will have to sell assets in order to live comfortably.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Social Security and Retirement Planning Dilemmas and Obstacles / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Nilus_Mattive
I’m getting so many reader questions about my parents’ Social Security and retirement, I could write a book about them.
You want to know:
What are my parents planning for their retirement?
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Is Your IRA or 401K a Target of Government Appropriation? / Stock-Markets / Pensions & Retirement
By: Lorimer_Wilson
By: Chris Blasi - Will the laws and rules in place to protect individuals in their attempt to set something aside for retirement be safeguarded by the representatives elected to advocate for them in Washington? Will the principles and moral integrity of the political class keep them from appropriating the trillions of dollars held in 401k's and IRA's? I'm not so sure!
Friday, March 19, 2010
Why Should Your Children Pay for My Retirement? / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Gary_North
For the same reason that my children will pay for yours: because the government has offered them a deal: it will pay for our retirement.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Conquer the Crash, What To Do With Your Pension Plan / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: EWI
Enjoy your 8 free chapters from Prechter's Conquer the Crash -- the book that foresaw what others have missed.
By Editorial Staff
There is no question that Robert Prechter’s Conquer the Crash foresaw and explained nearly every chapter of today's financial crisis, years before it happened. Enjoy your 8 free chapters from the book with this free Club EWI report; here's a quick excerpt from chapter 23, "What To Do With Your Pension Plan." Note especially the last two paragraphs.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
More Pensions and Retirement Disasters / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Nilus_Mattive
I can’t believe the number of frightening retirement stories I’ve seen in just the last week. They suggest that the vast majority of our country’s citizens are completely unprepared for life after work. They point to a governmental backup system that is getting ever more desperate. And they suggest that other traditional sources of retirement income — such as corporate pensions — are in grave danger of imploding.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Prepare for Slim Pension Annuities / Stock-Markets / Pensions & Retirement
By: Fred_Sheehan
Barclays Capital recently published its annual Equity Gilt Study. The paper includes data for asset returns in the United Kingdom back to 1899 and in the United States since 1925.
In the February 12, 2010 edition of the Financial Times, columnist John Authers wrote a summary of Barclays' conclusions. In Authers' words: "Barclays chose to look at how the bubbles of the past 10 years developed. Economic factors do not much help.... Rather, these bubbles were driven by shifts in the demand for equities and other assets - and these, in turn, were driven by demographics." Barclays misses the elephant trumpeting in the middle of the room. It is no wonder the People are still dazed by the world's financial meltdown.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Pension's Retirement Income Has Collapsed By More than 70% / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: MoneyFacts
Personal pension savers are facing an uphill battle in their quest to fund a comfortable retirement, according to the latest survey by Investment Life & Pensions Moneyfacts.
Saturday, February 06, 2010
Retirement Armageddon / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Gary_North
I have just posted a video of my 90-minute seminar: "Retirement Armageddon." It presents the background for a series of nasty surprises.
For those of you who don't have time to watch a 90-minute video, let me summarize its implications.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Thoughts on Obama’s New Retirement Initiatives / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Nilus_Mattive
Last week I told you about some of Washington’s latest ideas on “fixing” Social Security. And the very next night — as part of his first State of the Union address — President Obama referenced some of his own ideas on the broader topic of retirement.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Why the Government Wants to Hijack Your 401(k) / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Money_Morning
Keith Fitz-Gerald writes: It's bad enough that we've been forced to bail out Wall Street. But now the Obama administration is hatching plans to raid our retirement savings, too.
To say that I'm "outraged" doesn't come close to describing the emotions I experience every time I think about the government's latest hare-brained scheme.
Saturday, January 09, 2010
Economic Aspects of the Pension Problem: Part II / Economics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Professor_Emeritus
As It Appears Sixty Years Later
In Two Parts. Part Two: Productivity Revisited - In Part One I discussed the clear and present danger to pension rights: deflation as manifested by the interest rates structure that has been falling for almost thirty years, while most observers still think that the real danger is inflation. In this concluding part I carry out a deeper analysis of the pension problem, looking at the marginal productivity of labor and capital.
Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, January 03, 2010
Economic Aspects Of The Pension Problem, Deflation Threat and Ponzi Pensions / Economics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Professor_Emeritus
As It Appears Sixty Years Later
In Two Parts. Part One: Euthanasia of the Pension Funds. On February 23, 1950, The Commercial and Financial Chronicle published an article from Ludwig von Mises with the above title. In it the author concentrated on the threat of inflation as the greatest danger to pension rights. Sixty years later another danger is looming large on the horizon: the threat of deflation, and a new examination of the pension problem is timely.
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, December 03, 2009
Pension Annuity Interest Rates at Record Lows / Interest-Rates / Pensions & Retirement
By: MoneyFacts
The prospects of securing a comfortable retirement have taken a further blow with news that pension annuity rates have hit an all time low. Research from Investment Life & Pensions Moneyfacts has revealed that, after holding firm during the summer, annuity rates have fallen steadily over the last two months.
Friday, November 06, 2009
The Central Investment Problem of Our Time / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: DailyWealth
Chris Weber writes: A question I received recently goes to the heart of what a lot of people – especially older people – are going through:
Read full article... Read full article...My wife and I are in our mid 70s. We have about 60% of our funds in gold, silver bullion, some gold and silver stocks, and the balance in cash. We need current cash income from US$ with safe dividends – am I dreaming? Can you help?
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Five Major Pension Problems and One Simple Solution / Economics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Mike_Shedlock
Even with this huge rally in stocks and corporate bonds, pension plans are in incredibly poor shape. The Washington Post lists Two Bad Choices Cut Benefits Or Take Greater Risks to Rebuild Assets.
Monday, September 28, 2009
How to Retire With No Savings / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: DailyWealth
Dr. Steve Sjuggerud writes: "Do you have any savings?" I asked my friend Tony this week.
"Not really, no," he answered.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Pension Funds Association Introduces Quality Mark, Stick With Cash ISA's / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Nadeem_Walayat
In an attempt to enliven battered and bruised employee / investor interest in pension products after many have seen their pension pots dessimated by both the stocks bear market and companies going bust. The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) has introduced a new Quality Mark to highlight the supposedly better constructed and presumably 'safer' pension products offered by employers on behalf of its 1200 UK fund providers.
Thursday, September 03, 2009
How IRAs Can Tie Investors' Hands and What To Do About It / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: EWI
Susan C. Walker writes: Editor's Note: The following article discusses Robert Prechter's view of investment vehicles and government-regulated plans. For more analysis from Robert Prechter, download a free 10-page July issue of Prechter's Elliott Wave Theorist.
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Sunday, August 23, 2009
Who Will Inherit Your Money When You Die? / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: LewRockwell
Gary North writes: "Tell me what country I will die in. I will never go there."
Men do not like to think about their inheritance. That's because of the word "die." This is why they delay writing a will. A will is like a road map to the border of the final country. "I will never go there."
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Friday, August 21, 2009
The Best Way to Beat Higher Taxes / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: DailyWealth
Dr. Steve Sjuggerud writes: A massive tax bomb will land on us soon...
You are foolish not to protect yourself from it. Today, I'll show you how to beat it.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Investments and Life Pension Absolute Return Funds Failing to Live up to Expectations / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: MoneyFacts
Absolute return funds may have proved a popular choice for many investors during the recent stock market troubles, but the latest survey from Investment Life & Pensions Moneyfacts has raised concerns whether they have been delivering on their promise to produce positive returns each year.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
The Great Baby-Boomers Economic Depression of 2007-2017 / Economics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Global_Research
Prof Rodrigue Tremblay writes: "Banking Establishments Are More Dangerous Than Standing Armies." Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), 3rd US President
"... a serious depression seems improbable; [we expect] recovery of business next spring, with further improvement in the fall." Harvard Economic Society (HES), November 10, 1929
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Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Buying Annuties for a Steady Income / InvestorEducation / Pensions & Retirement
By: Money_and_Markets
Nilus Mattive writes: Last week I talked about Social Security. And given the problems with that program, along with the toll the bear market has taken on many portfolios, it’s clear why there has been a renewed interest in annuities lately.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Bankrupt Corporations Mean Your Pension is at Risk! / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Money_and_Markets
Nilus Mattive writes: Yesterday, General Motors said it was cutting another 21,000 jobs, getting rid of its Pontiac brand, and begging Washington to take a 50 percent equity stake.
Meanwhile, Chrysler reached an agreement with United Auto Workers negotiators on Sunday but is still struggling to work out deals with Fiat and other investor groups.
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Monday, April 20, 2009
Why Your Company Pension is in Danger! / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: MoneyWeek
Company pensions are in big trouble.
UK company pension funds are now in the red to the tune of over £240bn - the biggest shortfall ever recorded. And here's the irony. It's partly due to QE – quantitative easing, the Bank of England's cash printing press, which is supposed to be bailing Britain out.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Baby Boomers' Future Going Bust / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Mike_Shedlock
The attitudes and values of boomers heading into retirement are changing. They have to.
In the wake of a stock market and home price collapse, most boomers are not prepared for the future. Let's explore that idea with a look at Is the Future Going Down the Drain? Baby Boomers Going Bust .
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
How Stocks Bear Markets Can Boost Your Retirement Investment Planning / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Money_Morning
Martin Hutchinson writes: If you save for retirement through a 401(k) plan, or have large IRA or Keogh Plan assets, you probably hurled your last statement in the bin. If you'd been making contributions consistently over the last decade, your last annual or monthly statement probably showed that the current value of your plan was well below the amount you had actually invested. Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Baby Boomer Pensions The NEXT crisis! (and what to do about it) / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Brian_Bloom
Baby Boomers who will be relying on pensions as a backup support because of losses in the stock and property markets, will find that those organizations which are supposed to pay the pensions don’t have the funds. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/..Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Financial Crisis Halves Retirement Fund Values / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Steve_Selengut
Crash! The 2007 thru 2008 financial crisis halved 401(k), IRA, and Mutual Fund values in a matter of months. For many, retirement dates had to be pushed back; for others, new jobs had to be found. The tragic flaw? No income allocation in the investment program. Market value builds egos; income pays the bills.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, November 24, 2008
A Capitalist's Social Security, 401(k) Retirement Plan Reform Program / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Steve_Selengut
What if there was an easy way to implement a whole new approach to retirement funding, pension planning, and Social Security? Would the politicians be interested? Let's find out.
What if the new plan actually reduced payroll taxes, cut prices, created jobs, increased salaries, raised shareholder dividends, partially funded decreased healthcare costs, and was available to everyone?
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Friday, November 14, 2008
Making 401(k)s And IRAs More Like Personal Pension Plans / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Steve_Selengut
Who's confiscating your 401(k) and IRA? Dateline Raleigh, NC, November 6, 2008: Democratic leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives discuss confiscating our 401(k)s and IRAs, by Carolina Journal Online reporter Karen McMahan. This shocking pronouncement is certainly an attention grabber, which if even partially true, would have an impact on nearly every employed and retired American. The basis for the report is testimony before the House Committee on Education and Labor in early October.
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Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Who's Confiscating Your 401(k) And IRA? / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Steve_Selengut
Dateline Raleigh, NC, November 6, 2008: Democratic leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives discuss confiscating our 401(k)s and IRAs, by Carolina Journal Online reporter Karen McMahan. This shocking pronouncement is certainly an attention grabber, which if even partially true, would have an impact on nearly every employed and retired American. The basis for the report is testimony before the House Committee on Education and Labor in early October.
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Friday, October 24, 2008
How Investing in Precious Metals Will Help Baby Boomers Retire Comfortably Without Fear / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: David_Morgan
Baby boomers, with every year that you get older, do you become more and more afraid of retiring?
I don't blame you at all.
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Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Retirement Income Investing and Your Portfolio / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Steve_Selengut
First, the good news: From June 2007 through September 2008 (i.e., during the credit crisis) Income CEF payouts per share were virtually unchanged. From June 2008 through September 2008, payouts rose slightly--- 29 funds raised their payouts and 17 lowered them. Your portfolio spending money should be higher than it was a year ago.
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Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Retirement Income Investment Planning - Step One / InvestorEducation / Pensions & Retirement
By: Steve_Selengut
Your retirement income investment plan starts now, right now, no matter how old or well heeled you happen to be.Step One is to understand what a retirement plan is, and to identify the three large numbers you need to keep track of while you are developing your stash. With these three totals on your spreadsheet, it's much easier to develop long-range retirement income goals that make personal sense. A retirement plan is an income production plan. Guaranteed retirement income - projected expenses = the gap. No gap, add parents and children to the expense number. There's always a gap.
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Thursday, August 21, 2008
The Secret to Retirement Investment Planning / Stock-Markets / Pensions & Retirement
By: Doug_Wakefield
“When it comes to planning for the future, most people think of retirement. Retirement planning is important because it allows you to do the things that you were unable to do while working—travel, start a business, go back to school, be closer to family, or simply relax. Because retirement is such an important phase in your life, careful planning is a must.” – Planning for the Future: Making the Most of Your Retirement
Most people who've been in the financial planning industry over the last three decades have made statements like the one above to their clients. If you have worked with, or are currently working with, an individual who has prepared a financial plan for you or your family, then your expectations are likely closely aligned with such lines of thinking.
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Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Asset Price Deflation Heralds Big Problems for Baby Boomers / Stock-Markets / Pensions & Retirement
By: Dudley_Baker
Most of my readers and subscribers know that I have lived in Ajijic , Mexico for nine years. This is a 'village' of which several thousand foreigners call home. We are here are many reasons, hopefully #1 is the love of Mexico and the Mexican people, the climate (almost
perfect year round) and what is, at least for now, a safe and welcome place for us foreigners. We have a great lifestyle and can live in a $100,000 home or a million dollar place, most of which is paid for with cash. Hang in there as I am getting to the point of this piece. Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, August 01, 2008
Americans Put Retirements on Hold as Fund Real Valuations Have Collapsed / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Andy_Sutton
Everyone knows the story of the little boy who found that he was able to get into the cookie jar while Mom and Dad were busy doing chores around the house. First he took one cookie and rearranged the remaining morsels around so nobody would notice. Soon enough, however, he had to have another and repeated the process. We all know how this story ends. Eventually, the little guy had eaten so many of the cookies that it is no longer possible to hide the fact that there were but a few left. No amount of shuffling or jumbling could hide it any longer. Sadly, this is rather analogous to the state of retirement savings for many Americans today. Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
How to Profit From the Growing US Pension Fund Crisis / Stock-Markets / Pensions & Retirement
By: Money_Morning
Martin Hutchinson writes: Welcome to the latest offshoot of the subprime-mortgage debacle: A burgeoning U.S. pension-fund crisis. Since the global financial crisis struck last fall, the largest 1,500 U.S. public companies have lost a combined $280 billion from their pension funds. Assuming the stock market doesn't move much from here, a typical U.S. company can expect its pension expense – a direct charge against profits – to increase between 20% and 30% in 2009. Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Your 401(k) Retirement Investments and the IGVSI / InvestorEducation / Pensions & Retirement
By: Steve_Selengut
Smack, right up alongside the head. Your 401(k) investment program deteriorated rapidly as the stock market and the economy weakened. Who would have thought that there was so much risk of loss in those mutual funds, and ETFs? Fortunately, the pain is most often temporary, but the timing of the recovery could alter some participant retirement schedules and benefits--- not to mention the hefty confiscation level retirees can count on from Uncle Sam.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
A Successful Pension Investment Strategy / InvestorEducation / Pensions & Retirement
By: Christopher_Quigley
PropositionsGiven that hyper inflation is here to stay any long term investment strategy must achieve good growth in order to protect future buying power.
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Wednesday, March 26, 2008
The Real Scoop on Annuities - Part One / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Steve_Selengut
Insurance companies have always been big time financial institutions, and they could probably have claimed possession of the largest and safest investment portfolios on the planet. At one time, their role vis-à-vis Wall Street was clearly that of a giant customer for the securities the investment banks brought to market and which the securities firms distributed. Their real estate holdings were religious in size and quality. They were direct lenders to corporations, their owner-policyholders, and to other institutions. They were the Trustees who managed the private employee pension plans of the world. Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Should You Own Precious Metals in a Retirement / Pensions Account? / Commodities / Pensions & Retirement
By: Mike_Clark
In recent years, a growing number of countries have permitted their citizens to establish personal retirement accounts and allow them to choose the investments they may hold, including precious metals. But should an investor include a precious metals component in his or her long-term investment plan? And if so, how does one decide which precious metal investment product to own for retirement purposes?Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Three Million Brits Are Slaving Today For a Better Tomorrow, says Fool.co.uk / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Fool.co.uk
We expect to retire at 59 with a pension pot of £650,000 3 million Brits are slaving today for a better tomorrowAround 3 million gritty Brits are living reduced lifestyles today so they can enjoy a better retirement tomorrow. One in two people in Britain expect to maintain their current lifestyle when they retire, but one in six people are living for today rather than tomorrow.
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Friday, March 23, 2007
Pensions - Retirement Planning Made Easy - Fixed Income Investing / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Roger_Conrad
Fixed-income investing is absolutely essential to protecting and growing your nest-egg - if you know what you are doing.As retirement approaches, your investment horizon shrinks. In other words, the closer you are to retirement, the less chance you want to take that you could lose a sizable portion of your investments. You want to more aggressively protect your assets from the stock market's volatility. Many advisors suggest that people at this point begin increasing the bond portion of their portfolio to 50% or more to lower their overall investment risk.
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Friday, February 18, 2005
£700 billion Pensions hole ! / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: John_York
Talk about a pensions black hole !The Public sector pensions bill is estimated at £700 billion pounds which is £300 billion more than the previous published estimate of £380 billion.
To make matters worse, the TUC are organising a series of events across the UK over plans to raise the retirement age of nurses, teachers and other public workers. Read full article... Read full article...